Round Robin Reading and Other Perils of Reading Education

Dr. Frank Serafini

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Research Shows: The quality of the Classroom Teacher not the type of Instructional Program is the primary variable in determining the effectiveness of a comprehensive reading framework.

Research Shows: There has been a shift from Professional Development

which focuses on expanding teachers’ knowledge, theories of reading and teaching abilities, to Training which focuses on the correct application of someone else’s ideas and practices.

The TOP TEN Perils of Reading Education

Perils of Reading Education # 10 Round Robin Reading

For Consideration

Round robin reading focuses on oral performance and decoding accuracy, not comprehension.

Round robin reading may cause anxiety and embarrassment.

Students rarely pay attention when they are not the one reading aloud.

It is about CONTROL, not about effective reading instruction.

It assumes everyone should read the same book, at the same time, and at the same rate.

For A Change

Practicing a poem overnight to read aloud in class is different than round robin reading.

Shared reading and choral reading allow readers to chose their level of involvement.

Audio Books provide wonderful examples of oral proficiency and shared reading experiences.

Perils of Reading Education # 9 “Extension” Activities

For Consideration

Readers should NOT spend 30 minutes responding to 10 minutes of reading.

Most extension activities become an end in themselves and have little to do with what was read.

Where in the world outside of school do these activities ever occur?

Activities often Limit the ways students are allowed to respond to texts (thumbs

For a Change

Consider what you, as a proficient reader, do when you finish reading a book.

Consider the relationship between the activity and the text.

Consider whether the extension activity extend students’ thinking or just their time.

Consider whether readers of all abilities will able to be successful with the activity.

Perils of Reading Education # 8 Three Homogenous Reading Groups

For Consideration

Readers have little chance of ever getting out of the group they are originally put in.

The top group is as likely to be better behaved, as they are better readers, and vica versa.

Students know which group is the most and least successful no matter how we try to hide it.

Assumes a homogeneity that is artificial.

Traditional groupings limit the time students actually get to read.

For a Change

Use multiple grouping patterns (whole, small, pairs, one on one).

Frequently change the make up of groups based on students’ needs.

Try to understand the strengths that all readers bring to the reading process.

Perils of Reading Education # 7 The Picture Walk

For Consideration

Picture walks assume illustrations are only used to help read the words.

Places illustrations in service of written language.

Views text and illustrations as two separate meaning systems, ignoring the interplay between them.

For a Change

Preview a text using all of the available information.

Keep the BEFORE reading stuff to a minimum. Read the book!

Don’t demonstrate that what we do before and after we read is more important than what we do while we read.

Perils of Reading Education # 6 Limited Access to Books

For Consideration

Students in classrooms with libraries do better on most measures of reading assessment.

Browsing is not a privilege, it is what all readers do!

25 students x 100 books = 2500 books for a quality classroom library.

Librarians, like teachers, are public servants, not censors, nor the keepers of the temple for books.

For a Change

Consider housing some of the school’s library collection in classrooms.

Money spent on reading software can buy lots of books.

All students should be issued public library cards by the end of the first week of school.

Access to books is a right, not a privilege.

Perils of Reading Education # 5 The Book Report

For Consideration

Buying “three-for-one” leisure suits is still a leisure suit; 1001 new ways to do a book report is still a book report.

Just because we faked our way through countless book reports does not mean that our students should.

For a Change

Try Book Reviews! They exist in the world outside of school and have an intended audience other than the teacher.

Reader response journals can provide accountability, as well as points for discussion.

Perils of Reading Education # 4 Inauthentic Reading

For Consideration

Working on inauthentic texts is like scrimmaging without ever getting to play in the game!

Holdaway: Dummy Runs

Transfer isn’t guaranteed.

Have you ever curled up next to the fire or on the beach with a good worksheet?

Readers learn to read by reading REAL Texts.

For a Change

Just Say NO !

www.dittosanonymous.com

Perils of Reading Education # 3 Narrow Definitions of Reading

Re-Defining Reading

Reading is the ability to fully participate in the social practice of Generating, Articulating, Negotiating and Revising Viable Interpretations in a Community of Readers.

Perils of Reading Education # 2 Emphasis on Literal Recall

For Consideration

Literal recall is not an effective measure of reading comprehension.

Literal recall is more about memory than thinking.

Literal recall privileges the text over the reader and their thinking.

Literal recall is boring and undemocratic.

For a Change

Ask questions with integrity

Assume texts have multiple main ideas

Listen to students’ responses and invite them to “Tell Me” more.

Why “Max wore a wolfsuit and made mischief of one kind and another” is more important than the color of the suit.

Stop asking questions you know the answers to!

And the # 1 Peril of Reading Education … Standardized Reading Tests

For Consideration

Overemphasis on test reading narrows our vision of accomplished reading.

The tests assume reading is about answering questions.

We all can’t all be above average (except in Lake Wobegon).

Reading is not a race, nor a competition.

For a Change

Teach standardized test passages as a genre.

Separate reading for a test from reading for life.

Don’t beat students up with test anxiety, even if you have it yourself.

Remember, the biggest factors in test performance have little to do with teaching and schooling.

Mindless Reading

Focuses on Searching for the Main Idea

Takes away readers’ responsibilities and purposes

Provides no choice in what is read

Focuses on oral performance

Allows Blind acceptance of predetermined meanings

Mindful Reading

Focuses on the Creation of Insightful Meanings and Interpretations

Allows Openness to New Information:

- Entertaining Ambiguity

- Suspending Closure

Develops Awareness of Multiple Perspectives

Investigates Socially Contested and Negotiated Meanings

E-Mail:

serafini@unlv.nevada.edu

WebSite:

http://serafini.nevada.edu