Preface
Reading Strategies: Focus on Comprehension applies
sociopsycholinguistic concepts to specific reading strategy lessons within a
whole language curriculum. It documents how reading lessons are a part of a
school reading curriculum that is part of reading in the larger world. This
book is written for classroom and resource teachers and those planning to
teach who want to keep reading embedded in a whole language context rather
than focused on isolated skills. It is particularly well suited to the
development of whole language reading programs that make use of a wide range
of trade books and authentic reading experiences. It is appropriate for use
in graduate and undergraduate courses in reading assessment, informed and
authentic assessment, special education, miscue analysis, reading
comprehension, and reading instruction.
The
concepts behind Reading Strategies: Focus on Comprehension started to
develop in 1973. It is being revised to take into consideration recent
understandings about the reading process, the writing process, authentic
assessment, and the development of whole language. We want to reflect the
greater focus on authentic reading experiences as well as take into account
authentic assessment that is evident in whole language classrooms today.
Reading researchers and theorists have been developing models of the reading
process based on insights from linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and
the social nature of learning throughout the twentieth century. These
models are intended to help answer the questions: How do people read? How
do people learn to read? What text features and instructional features
affect reading and learning to read? What are the human factors concerned
with social, political, linguistic, and pedagogical issues that affect
reading and learning to read? What is the nature of literacy in our culture
and how does this impact reading and learning to read? Teachers are
constructing their knowledge about reading from stimulating dialogue taking
place in the field and by actively participating in the debates. Teachers
are asking, “How can I take all this new knowledge and put it to use in my
classroom? How can I use my knowledge to observe students reading and
understand what I hear and see? We are joining the conversation by
addressing many of these questions in this book.
Our
research, supported by others, has led us to believe that the reader’s focus
must always be on constructing meaning, using his or her knowledge in
transaction with the published text (K. Goodman 1994; Rosenblatt 1978). The
reader’s proficiency in constructing meaning occurs as a natural consequence
of using written language for real (authentic) purposes. Teachers who
understand the importance of how readers become proficient organize a
literate environment for students so that the natural reading process is
nurtured. Reading instruction in school settings is greatly affected by
views of literacy held by members of society at large. It is, therefore,
necessary to use the latest knowledge about reading, reading instruction,
and the social community to plan and develop reading programs and
instruction in schools.
Reading Strategies: Focus on Comprehension has two parts. Part 1
“Reading and the Reading Curriculum,” places the reading process within a
language framework in a sociocultural context. It includes our general
rationale and theoretical perspective about the reading process and reading
instruction. We explore the process of reading as it relates to the other
language processes of listening, speaking, and writing. Language, art,
music, dance, and math are among the many alternate sign systems that
communicate meaning. The different perspectives which we take as we make
use of alternate sign systems in exploring our world become systematized
into alternate domains of knowledge (i.e., social studies, biology,
humanities). We use knowledge about language, learning, teaching, and
curriculum to develop a rationale for a reading curriculum in the
sociocultural context of the classroom. We explain why a whole language
comprehension-centered transactional reading program is the most effective
way to teach and relate such a program to a whole language view of
curriculum.
Part II, “Reading Strategy Lessons,” specifies instructional experiences
that enable readers to become secure in their quest for meaning. The
specific strategy lessons grow out of our theoretical framework using a
nesting metaphor that places reading instruction in the context of all the
curricular experiences in the classroom and places literacy in the learners’
world inside and outside of school. The three chapters in Part II are
organized by focusing on the language cueing systems: semantic / pragmatic,
syntactic, and graphophonic. The reading strategies of sampling, inferring,
predicting, confirming, and integrating meaning are highlighted within each
language system.
The
text for each reading strategy lesson and the procedures for each literacy
event are an organized classroom procedure through which individual, group,
or class lessons can be presented. In addition, each organized experience
explains why the lessons and events are important, describes the students
whom the lesson and events will benefit, and provides additional
understandings about the relationship of these procedures to
sociopsycholinguistic views of language, learning, teaching, and
curriculum. In this way we show that each lesson grows out of knowledge and
theory.
Reading Strategies: Focus on Comprehension is appropriate for teachers
with varying degrees of experience and expertise in the teaching of
reading. Therefore, this book may be read in a variety of ways.
For
example, preservice and inservice teachers who are new to a
comprehension-centered whole language view of the reading process may want
to read the first three chapters and the general information that precede
the strategy lessons and then select one or more students to work with who
will benefit from the lessons. The specific rationale and strategy lesson
is most helpful when the teacher is ready to present the lesson to
students. After working with some students, the teacher will find it
beneficial to read additional information about the reading process,
strategy lessons, and miscue analysis listed in the references.
For
those familiar with a whole language view of reading, it may be most helpful
to review Chapters 1 and 2 and read Chapter 3. Then, the experienced
teachers may select students with similar reading profiles, find the
strategy lessons written for those students, and plan to research the
effectiveness of the strategy lessons with students. Prior to presenting
the lessons, these teachers may read the rationale and lesson plan for the
appropriate strategies, making appropriate adjustments to their specific
situations.
Who We Are
Individually
and collectively, we have had considerable experience teaching children,
adolescents, and adults in elementary and secondary schools and in teacher
education programs in colleges and universities. Our teaching experiences
have been enriched by our research and involvement with teachers in
curriculum planning and professional development. In association with Ken
Goodman, we have been involved in miscue analysis research projects, taping
the reading of hundreds of readers of various ages and proficiencies and
analyzing the miscues in order to learn about the reading process. Our
research also involves studying early literacy miscues, their personal views
of reading, and the effect of these views on their reading. We also are
actively involved with teachers / researchers studying literacy learning in
their classrooms.
We
are always relating research and theory with practice. We believe that what
is happening in whole language classrooms influences research as much as
research has influenced the development of whole language. We are
interested in the experiences and knowledge that support teachers of
reading, as well as the experiences and materials needed to support students
as they learn to read. Through our work with teachers, we have developed
instructional procedures that focus on helping readers develop their
strengths. All of our teaching and research experience has led us to view
the reader’s search for meaning as the primary focus of reading. When
reading instruction supports readers’ construction of meaning, the natural
desire to make sense is legitimatized and readers’ energies are expanded
productively. The reward for such effort is comprehension: the readers’
understanding of the published text. Because we are aware of the social
nature of reading, we always think about reading in the broader
sociocultural context of the classroom and the community.
We
believe that within the school the teacher plays the most significant role
in helping students learn to read. No published reading materials or
programs can teach students to read; these are only tools. In the hands of
a master artist, good tools can be used to produce a great work of art. In
the hands of an insecure or weak artist, not even superior tools are very
helpful. Teachers are like artists as they construct classrooms that are
innovative and conducive to learning. Artists bring to their work knowledge
of perspective, color, line, form, space, and theme, as well as techniques
implemented with a variety of tools. Outstanding teachers bring to reading
instruction a strong knowledge base of language, learning, and teaching, and
they know the cultural background and experiential differences of their
students.
Reading Strategies: Focus on Comprehension is organized to provide
support for this background knowledge and, at the same time, offer
suggestions for the selection and construction of reading materials.
Teachers are decision makers. It is not our intention to tell teachers what
to do. Rather, this book is an invitation to consider the information;
to demonstrate the relationship between theoretical belief, language,
knowledge, and practice; and to provide examples of lessons to serve as
guidelines or demonstrations for teachers to use in constructing their
curriculum. This is meant to serve as a guide so that teachers can use
their professional judgment and adapt lessons to meet the needs of the
readers in classrooms and school settings. It is often helpful to write
lessons with other teachers. It is essential that teachers, adapt, modify,
and personalize these lessons based on their unique personalities, their
knowledge, and their theoretical views.
This work has been modified and developed through the help of many
colleagues who have reviewed and critiqued our work throughout the years.
We appreciate the benefit of their experience and thoughtful opinions. We
are especially grateful to Nancy Browning, Marilyn Carpenter, Debra
Jacobson, Ann Marek, Prisca Martens, Marilyn Richardson, Marie Ruiz, Monica
Taylor, Mary Weiss, and Kathryn Whitmore and to the authors of the strategy
lessons for students: Valerie Gelfat, Debra Goodman, Charlotte Hazelwood,
Barry Sherman, and Irlene Sherman.
Above all, we owe a great debt to the students and their teachers with whom
we have worked over the years to research and critique the strategy lessons,
the literacy events, and the curriculum we propose.
Yetta M.
Goodman
University of Arizona
Education 504
Tucson, AZ 85721
Dorothy J.
Watson
University of Missouri
216 Townsend Hall
Columbia, MO 65211
Carolyn L.
Burke
Indiana University
Reading Department
Bloomington, IN 47401
