Module 2: Reading Reflection

On page 41 of Weaver's Reading Process and Practice book, Robert Harper and Gary Kilgar are quoted saying:

"The major folklore of reading instruction relates to the "theory" that reading is considered an exact process. In other words, the reader is expected to read everything exactly as it is printed on the page in order to understand the message of the author.  In general the consuming public, legislatures, courts and too many educators hold to this theory.  It is like the theory of the world being flat during the time of Columbus."

~Robert Harper and Gary Kilgar

I do not believe the reading "theory"  that explains reading as an exact process and therefore I agree that the theory of reading being an exact process is folklore.  Reading is much more than reciting words precisely as they are printed on a page.  Reading is understanding how letters, words, and sentences fit together to give the reader the underlying message or meaning of the passage.  Reading requires the use of grapho/phonemic awareness, context, schema, and syntax in order to create meaning of the passage or text.

In Reading Process and Practice, Weaver explains on page 69 that as children learn to read, many good readers will "progress from merely trying to supply a sensible word to trying to get the exact word, using graphic cues and letter-sound knowledge" (Weaver, 2002). Using background knowledge along with graphing systems and letter relationships the child may show understanding, not through the reading of the text out loud, but through the retelling or comprehension portion of the assessment.  She gives the example of a child saying "bird" for canary as the child reads a passage.  The child may not be able to precisely say the word canary but through the child's background knowledge and context of the sentence, the child might attempt the word canary either in the reading or retelling.

For example,on pages 54-57 in Weaver's book, Reading Process and Practice, she discusses context within reading, which includes the grammar of sentences and the meaning of words within sentences or paragraphs. She discusses how more proficient readers will typically miscue on sight words because as proficient readers read, they naturally predict what will come next based on the grammar and the context of the sentence.  Those miscues won't change the overall meaning of the sentence.  On page 55, she displays an example of first graders making miscues that do not effect the meaning of the sentences they have read. 

On pages 74-77 in reading Process and Practice, Weaver discusses the implications for understanding dialect misuces.  This section was particularly interesting to me because I have seen this with many of my students. She discusses that if students are reading a passage and translate it into their own dialect patterns, they are not making miscues, but actually creating and understanding the deeper structure of the passage or sentence.  She says the reader "simply expresses it in an alternative oral form" (Weaver, 2002).  That truly exhibits that reading is not an exact process, as stated in the Harper and Kilgar's quote.  The children that translate the text into their own dialect are truly thinking deeply about the text as long as the meaning is preserved.

The true purpose of reading is to gain and create meaning.  Just because a student can precisely read words on a page does not mean they are reading.  They must use phonemic awareness, syntax, schema, and context in order to truly read.  Believing that reading is considered an exact process is the wrong way to view reading.  The above examples prove that reading is not an exact process and takes many different processes in order to comprehend.