Oral Reading VS Silent Reading

Last year, I taught a reading group consisting of about 17 "approaching" first graders. The label approaching was derived from the fact that they did not meet benchmark scores on the fall DIBELS assessment which is a series of assessments that came out of the University of Oregon (Go Ducks!). My students began the year reading between 0 and 3 correct words per minute (the end of the year benchmark for first graders is 40 correct words per minute).

I will preface by saying that, I do think I did a good job teaching this group. By May, every student had increased his or her Oral Reading Fluency score (which is very important for the data loving literacy specialists at my school who track their progress on a weekly basis). I think the highest score achieved from my group was 56 correct words per minute and 5 or 6 students made benchmark by the end of the year. All of my students were identified in the lowest 20% of the grade level, which meant that they received Title I services for additional reading support and interventions. The students were skill grouped at my school, based on their initial scores, which is why my entire class was in the same range. I know that my class was successful and I was successful in the approach I took to teach them, however I do question some of the structures that I used, especially in light of some of my recent reading.

Readers and Writers with a Difference: A Holistic Approach to Teaching Struggling Readers and Writers. By Lynn K. Rhodes & Curt Dudley-Marling. Take a look here at amazon.com.

I am taking an online course right now called Teaching Reading to Students with Special Needs. Rather than focusing on direct instruction, our text offers a more holistic approach to literacy, asserting that in order to become better readers and writers, students (especially students who are struggling) need to actually READ and WRITE for the majority of their time rather than practice discrete skills and read words in isolation. I spent a lot of time last year focusing on decoding skills and teaching sound spelling combinations because these are necessary skills for reading accuracy that lead to increased reading fluency. This text/class have given me a new outlook on what is best for the types of students I taught last year.

One issue the book addresses is reading orally in a "round robin" fashion versus reading silently. The book definitely supports the benefits of having students read silently and I will sheepishly admit that I did a lot of round robin oral reading with my group. Sometimes I want to hit the bottom of my palm to my forehead ala Homer Simpson while uttering a loud "DOH," but I recognize that part of being a strong teacher is continuously learning, re-evaluating, and figuring out what works best, so I try not to be too hard on myself.

What I learned is:

• Round robin reading does not allow participants as much time to read--Some students process little text unless it is their turn to read. (I had a group full of wigglers who had a hard time paying attention--what did they actually gain from round robin reading?)
• The entire group may read a story, but each individual may only read a page or two--Consider that it may be the only page or two he or she reads all day.
• Round robin does not lend itself to the development of effective, efficient, and independent reading strategies--Aren't these exactly what we want to develop?
• Round robin reading typically focuses on correct pronunciation which can interfere with comprehension.

This information made me reconsider what my reading block should look like. Working within an adopted program, I did not have a ton of flexibility and I could not really conduct a reader's workshop type reading block, however, in the future I would want to think long and hard about procedures being used. For the immediate future, I get to see how two really great teachers do it with third graders at FIS in Germany!

One question I always had was, if students are reading silently, how can I ensure that they are indeed reading? The text offered a great list of conference questions that can be asked to investigate what skills are being employed by students as they read to themselves.

1. What would you like to tell me about what you've read?
2. Do you have any confusions about what you've read?
3. What have you been wondering about as you read this?
4. How did you decide to read this?
5. What kinds of things have you been wrestling with as you read this? How have you solved the problem(s)?
6. If you had a chance to talk with this author, what would you talk with him/her about?
7. What do you plan to read next? Why?
8. Does this make you think of anything else you've read? (text to text connection)
9. Why do you suppose the author gave this book this title?
10. What parts of this book have you especially liked? Disliked?
11. Do you like this more or less than the last thing you read? Why?
12. Is there anybody else in our class who you think would enjoy reading this? Why?
13. Did you skip any parts of what you have read? What? Why?
14. What is the main thing the author is saying to you?
15. Why do you suppose the author began the way he/she did?
16. Would you like to be one of the people in this? Who? Why?
17. What other texts by this author have you read? Are the other texts similar in any way to this one?

All of these questions may not apply to all grade levels, but they can be altered to fit whatever age group that you teach. I love to read professional development materials that challenge the way I think or teach. It always feels good to know that I am improving my critical thinking skills as well as my teaching skills.