Get the Most Out of Reading

Question 1

What is the most important skill for students to learn?

Answer 1

It is reading!

Question 2

What are the four skill sets for reading?

Answer 2

1. Decoding, the process of deciphering written text to identify the spoken words it represents.
2. Fluency, the ability to read automically at high speed.
3. Vocabulary, the student’s base of word knowledge.
4. Comprehension, how much of what is written is understood.

Question 3

What are some of the most effective ways to have students read out loud in class?

Answer 3

1. Keep the identity of the next reader a mystery.
2. Vary the lengths of the readings, but keep them short.
3. Reduce the transition time between readers.
4. Use bridging, where the teacher reads in between students.
5. As the teacher, read all but the last phrase or word and let the students all finish it together, out loud.
6. Tell students to hold their place if you interrupt the reading.

Question 4

How should teachers correct reading errors?

Answer 4

1. Address decoding errors even when the student knows the rule.
2. Repeat the part that they read incorrectly.
3. Repeat the word read incorrectly and punch the correction.
4. Name the sound a letter makes, like “Long A” etc.

Question 5

What are “Multiple Takes” in teaching vocabulary?

Answer 5

Students need to hear words multiple times to enter it into their functioning memory. Cycle through words regularly: daily, weekly, monthly.

Question 6

What does it mean to compare, combine, and contrast when learning vocabulary?

Answer 6

Ask students to distinguish between or compare two different words.
Ask students to describe how and whether they could combine words. “Can a tyrant ever be humble?”
Ask students to apply and discuss a change to a similar word, like mimick and imitate.

Question 7

What does it mean to “upgrade” vocabulary?

Answer 7

Ask students to use richer and more specific words. Use humid instead of hot and damp. Go from the generic, like “big” to “humongous”.

Question 8

How can teachers get students to stress the syntax?

Answer 8

Ask them to change the word’s part of speech. Stride as verb, stride as noun.
Ask students to change the tense of a word.

Question 9

What does it mean to “get back to roots?”

Answer 9

Ask students to identify the roots of words, like “ped” in “pedestrian.”

Question 10

What does “picture this” mean?

Answer 10

Ask students to act out a word, like “stagger” or “swagger.”

Question 11

What are two great ways to encourage fluency?

Answer 11

1. Read with spunk, vigor, rhetoric, and drama.
2. Have students do the same.