Module 3: Mock Memo from a reading specialist

Erica, a fifth grader, reads grade level passages at a rate of 177 words correct per minute, or 30% faster than grade level norms. When asked to retell what she has read, Erica struggles and is able to give little to no information from about the text. Many other children in Erica's class also read well above grade level expectations for fluency rate (or automaticity), but the teacher laments that they struggle with comprehension and using appropriate expression and intonation while they read. What is going on here? What advice can you offer the teacher? Write a memo to the teacher from the viewpoint of the school's Reading Specialist. Give the teacher and explanation for the phenomenon and offer her advice on dealing with the situation. Please keep the memo to no more than 400 words. Post it to your blog and name the posting "Module 3: Mock Memo from a Reading Specialist."

Dear Fifth grad teacher,

After hearing what you have noticed with Erica and her classmates and their struggle with comprehension and expression I can see that although the students are reading the words fluently they are not reading for meaning. Reading is not just identifying words, it is understanding what is being read. Reading is a whole process, a sociopsycholinguistic process. This meaning that we do not only read to identify words, but we use context, our schemas, meaning of words, and letter-sound relationships to have full understanding of what is being read.

Your students are at the age now when reading is not necessarily identifying words quickly or correctly, it is about becoming an effective and efficient reader. I would suggest working on digging deeper into their reading. Ask higher order thinking questions before and after they read. For example, prior to reading, give your students questions to answer independently as they read that guides their reading through the text. Start with the basics, such as, recall questions and work your way up to more difficult questions. After they have finished reading independently, meet back as group review the guided reading questions and discuss more open ended questions that may challenge your students to infer and analyze what was read.  After your students have practiced several reading discussions using inference and analysis, add comparison or evaluating questions to build on their comprehension. I would suggest this be completed during guided reading time, so you will be able to have more one-on-one focus with each student. As the students improve try completing higher order thinking questions as a large group or small group discussions amongst their peers. Try these strategies with readers theater and group read alouds to work on your students expression! Don’t forget to model, model, model good reading and expression!

I would also suggest allowing your students to read with sticky notes. As they read instruct them to look for important information and jot that information on a sticky note and place it on a piece of paper complete with the page number (be sure to keep the sticky notes in order). This way they are actively looking for important information and their reading is becoming more of process than just identifying words quickly and moving on. As they are recording information on the sticky notes and putting it in order on separate sheet of paper they are creating a timeline or retell of the story. If later on they forget something they can easily look back at their sticky notes to recall information read. As your students become more comfortable with comprehension change the sticky notes to reading journals or logs. They will write a brief paragraph about what they read after each reading.  

Hope this helps!