What is reading?

Today I asked this question to students in the cafeteria and here is what they said:

“Leer es ver las letras” (Margot, first grade)

“I look at the picture, say the words, turn the page, look at the picture, say the words, turn the page” (Ayla, first grade)

“To read is to go like this:  ssss—ooo—-llll” (Celia, kindergarten)

“Leemos para subir el nivel para leer libros con chapters.” (Betsy, third grade)

“When you read you try your best. You do it to learn.” (Julian, first grade)

Kids’ responses to the question “what is reading?” show a wide range of theories. When I have posed this question to teachers, I notice a similar pattern.  The demands in our practice haven’t allowed us to take a close look at literacy and develop a common (and deep!) understanding.  I argue that this work is a precursor to effective teaching for biliteracy!

In this blog, I will be reflecting on aspects of reading and writing pertinent to biliteracy development. To choose topics, I thought about trends I notice in my collaboration with teachers and students as a literacy coach.  Three broad areas initially struck me. The first relates to teaching language and literacy simultaneously. A common goal we all share is to help our students become better readers and writers; this work is complicated when students are learning how to read and write in a language they’re also learning to speak! The second area relates to teaching for transfer. We teachers want to embrace a multilingual perspective, and more and more, we’re looking at data in two languages. Knowing what to do with this data is something we’re still getting good at. Finally, there seems to be common issues that teachers raise about struggling readers.  I will attempt to explore these recurrent questions (“My student is leaving off the endings of words in his reading!”) and share insights from my experiences.

Here are some topics I plan to explore in future blog posts:

I’ll end this introductory post with some key points about literacy I propose we agree to as our foundation:

•  Reading Comprehension is the end goal of all literacy instruction. It is complex and it requires teaching for strategic behavior (Teaching for Biliteracy, Chapter 7).
•  Writing instruction calls for teachers to take on a multilingual perspective. Writing, reading, and speaking are reciprocal behaviors. (Teaching for Biliteracy, Chapter 8).
•  The teacher is the most critical factor in student learning. The reader’s success will depend upon the teacher’s knowledge of literacy development, and their ability to reflect on the behaviors of the individual child. (Marie Clay).

We teachers are more empowered together than alone.   I look forward to learning with the Teaching for Biliteracy community!