Have you ever taught anyone to read before? Teaching reading is like magic, but often a lot of hard work and determination needs to be tossed into the mix.
Getting Out of the Comfort Zone
The first person I ever taught to read was almost 18 years old. At the time, I was teaching High School English at Crystal Creek Regional Boy’s Camp, a juvenile detention facility in Northern California. Nestled in the forest overlooking a bubbling creek, my classroom might have looked like summer camp from the outside, but that’s not what the attendees thought. These young men had been convicted of crimes. Living full-time at this work camp, away from friends and family, was their punishment.
“Robert* can you please come up to the whiteboard and try this?” I asked my oldest and most reluctant student. The rest of the class was already working on whiteboards hung on the walls around the classroom.
Wearing a bright orange button-down shirt and blue genes, Robert sauntered up to the board like he didn’t have a concern in the world. He swung his arms like sausages and looked around the room nonchalantly to be sure at least one of his peers was watching his performance.
I ignored the drama and handed him a card with a consonant – vowel – consonant, word. “Write the word on the board and mark the vowel with an X,” I instructed.
Suddenly embarrassed, he locked eyes with me like an angry German Shepherd. “This is stupid!” he spat. “This work is for babies!”
“This is the same method they use in prison,” I assured him. That truth earned me a little credibility, at least with the other students.
“I’m not going to do it,” he argued and sat back down to watch.
All along the whiteboard other students turned back to their work. The show was over. They looked down at the cards in their hands and copied words onto the board. They marked the vowel, read the word, and went on to the next card.
Last Chance to Teach Reading
Robert acted like the “tough guy” but I knew he was posturing in front of the others because he was frustrated and embarrassed that he was almost 18 years old and could not read. I decided to keep him for a few minutes after class so that the other boys would not see him work through the problem. It was my last chance because he would be released in a few days on his birthday.
“Just give it a try.” I encouraged. “This might be the last time I see you before you go home. What’s the vowel say?”
He gave me the Spanish version of the vowel “a”.
“In English, we say “/æ/”.
He nodded.
“Now sound out the consonants with that vowel there in the middle.”
He did. And suddenly he was reading! He had never made the connection that in English, vowels make a different sound than in Spanish. A small smile crept over his face.
I wrote more words on the board. He marked the vowel and read the words one after another. It was magic!
Other Struggles in Teaching Reading
The other students in that class could read, but barely. After Robert left the camp, I organized them into three old-fashioned reading groups. I sat with one group, my instructional aide took another, and the special ed teacher came in once a week to proctor a third. The three of us rotated between the groups so students could benefit from each of our expertise.
The reading specialist purchased brand new, shiny non-fiction books with old-fashioned, blacklined worksheets. We moved our desks into small reading circles of three or four kids, and we read aloud together. Then we struggled through the worksheets! There was frustration. There were behavior problems. It was some of the most difficult work I have ever done. But I had decided that they would read, and as my husband can attest, I can be stubborn at times. Besides, what else were they going to do while locked up in a juvenile detention facility? I had a captive audience.
We kept with it. Sometimes we inched along at a snail’s pace. At first, the single-page worksheets took us an entire week to get through. But day after day we suffered together and student reading levels went up. Confidence grew and the boys gradually became faster with those dreaded worksheets. Everyone learned and improved. Preschool and Kindergarten readers became real readers! In fact, I had some boys increase their reading by 5 grade levels!
Teaching Younger Children to Read
It’s that same feeling with young children. You teach them the sounds of the letters. You drill and practice and sometimes it feels like you are hitting your head against a brick wall. Then one day, it clicks, and suddenly they are reading. And it’s magic!
We all learn at different rates. With one of my sons, it took three years of phonics before he could put the letters together and really read. He was motivated by science, so I checked every easy-reader science text from the library that I could find. Once it clicked with him, he never stopped. He is probably a better reader today, than I am.
Lessons I Learned about Teaching Reading:
- You don’t need to be a reading specialist to teach reading, but you should obtain a good curriculum and follow it. Why? Because the expert in reading wrote the curriculum and it will have all of the directions and methodologies.
- Attend training whenever possible. You may not begin as an expert, but if you have a challenged reader, you may become one in the end. Be proud, add it to your skill set, and help others.
- Do what feels right for your child in your situation. If it’s more fun to use a whiteboard than paper, use the whiteboard. If your child likes to cuddle, teach reading on the couch.
- Consistency is key. Work at it every day, even when it is most challenging. Never, never, never give up! If you can only handle 10 minutes, then do the 10 minutes rather than give in. Habits formed now will blossom later.
- Know when to take a break and come back to it later as I did with Robert.
- Be stubborn. Be determined. Struggle with them. Find what motivates them. And watch for the magic!
* Names have been changed
