Personal Model of Reading Theory

             Imagine opening up a book, but understanding none of the words on the page.  If that is how we all start out, how do children learn to read?  My previous education courses have discussed in length the numerous theories on how children learn to read such as the bottom-up theory of literacy development, the top-down theory of literacy development, the whole language model of literacy development, just to name a few.  From these discussions and my own experience as a third grade teacher for three years, I have formulated my own personal model of reading theory that children learn to read by being fluent, comprehending what they read, and making connections to what they read. 

Fluency is how fast and how well a reader can decode.  While being able to recognize letters and blend them together to make high-frequency site words are necessary skills, the reader also has to be able to understand what the word means and in what context it is being used.  For example, this past school year, one of my co-workers had a student in her class that was reading over the 120 words per minute rate which used to be the ending requirement for third grade.  However, questioning the student afterward revealed that she did not comprehend a single word that she had read.  Fluency by itself is not reading.

            Comprehension is another key faucet of reading.  If the reader does not understand what he/she is reading, he/she is not reading.  This year I had a student who could have opened up the textbook for this class and read it fluently, but without understanding the text, he would just have been making noise.  Being able to grasp what the author is saying to you is critical for reading.

            Lastly, the ability to make connections is an important aspect of reading.  This scaffolding helps the reader interpret their own value from the text.  One of the books that I always read to my students is Andrew Clements’ A Week in the Woods.  Three years in and I am still being surprised by the connections that they make – things that sometimes I did not see or expect.  Making connections makes reading more personal and interesting to the reader.

            Like there are numerous theories on how children learn to read, there are numerous approaches to effective reading instruction.  In the past, teachers would read aloud the weekly story from the basal reader and then throughout the week pull three different guided reading groups (below, on, and advanced) to work on various skills.  Now, the movement is toward the balanced approach to literacy  In the balanced approach to literacy, students start out with a high level of support from the teacher through modeled reading and gradually move down to a low level of support from the teacher through independent reading.  While this type of reading instruction is still very new to me, from what I have seen it seems to be a step in the right direction.  Perhaps we will find out how children learn to read.