Issues & Problems
An issue that many teachers face today is that students are being taught how to read, and what elements of reading are important, by a multitude of different people.
Parents and other relatives help them at home, different teachers favour different strategies, peers tell them what is the ‘right way’ and what is not. This connection to reading in many different settings should be promoted and celebrated, yet can pose some difficulties when teaching and learning reading comprehension. Occasionally, the well-meaning listener gives reading instruction that actually obstructs the reader’s comprehension understanding. For example, students reading aloud are often made to stop and sound out the many words they are unfamiliar with. Although obviously helpful to their learning to know and pronounce the word, they may understand the idea behind the sentence or paragraph if left to read it through, inferring the meaning of the unknown word from the surrounding words and context. The student is interrupted so often to check their word pronunciation that the text loses meaning. Possibly the result would be further hesitant reading as the student second-guesses each word. “Such an overemphasis upon accuracy will result in poorer comprehension…since hesitant readers will be less able to process enough information to understand what they are reading,” (Furniss & Graves, 1980, p. 9). This ‘hesitant’ reader will likely turn into a ‘passive’ reader who continuously fails to take in information provided by the text (Konza, 2011).
Another issue that teachers may face when implementing a new structure is student resistance to the scheme. We have observed students being opposed to various structures, and for various reasons. Many claim they are bored, the activities are too easy or conversely too hard, the tasks are repetitive or their behaviour issues take up much of the session. This is where organisation and preparedness are of utmost importance. Groups do not necessarily need to be ability based. There are plenty of programs that allow students of different levels to work in a group on a similar task. This allows teachers to group based on behaviour and social interactions rather than ability. Do not hesitate to shuffle groups if you feel that it is necessary. Sometimes groups do not work out, and changing them around will help them more than leaving them to flail for the sake of fulfilling an ideal template. By knowing your students well you will be able to differentiate and change activities to suit their needs and capture their interests.
Parents and other relatives help them at home, different teachers favour different strategies, peers tell them what is the ‘right way’ and what is not. This connection to reading in many different settings should be promoted and celebrated, yet can pose some difficulties when teaching and learning reading comprehension. Occasionally, the well-meaning listener gives reading instruction that actually obstructs the reader’s comprehension understanding. For example, students reading aloud are often made to stop and sound out the many words they are unfamiliar with. Although obviously helpful to their learning to know and pronounce the word, they may understand the idea behind the sentence or paragraph if left to read it through, inferring the meaning of the unknown word from the surrounding words and context. The student is interrupted so often to check their word pronunciation that the text loses meaning. Possibly the result would be further hesitant reading as the student second-guesses each word. “Such an overemphasis upon accuracy will result in poorer comprehension…since hesitant readers will be less able to process enough information to understand what they are reading,” (Furniss & Graves, 1980, p. 9). This ‘hesitant’ reader will likely turn into a ‘passive’ reader who continuously fails to take in information provided by the text (Konza, 2011).
Another issue that teachers may face when implementing a new structure is student resistance to the scheme. We have observed students being opposed to various structures, and for various reasons. Many claim they are bored, the activities are too easy or conversely too hard, the tasks are repetitive or their behaviour issues take up much of the session. This is where organisation and preparedness are of utmost importance. Groups do not necessarily need to be ability based. There are plenty of programs that allow students of different levels to work in a group on a similar task. This allows teachers to group based on behaviour and social interactions rather than ability. Do not hesitate to shuffle groups if you feel that it is necessary. Sometimes groups do not work out, and changing them around will help them more than leaving them to flail for the sake of fulfilling an ideal template. By knowing your students well you will be able to differentiate and change activities to suit their needs and capture their interests.
Here are some things you can do:
- Know your students and their individual learning needs/capabilities
- Develop personalized learning/reading goals with individual students
- Adapting a consistent class language when talking about reading and writing
- Keep parents informed on the strategies you are implementing in the classroom so they can adapt these and use at home
- Develop a wide range of reading and comprehension activities for students to partake in- to keep learning exciting!
- Monitor and assess student progress and share this feedback with students and parents on a regular basis