Teaching Strategies for Reading

Every man who knows how to read has it in his power to magnify himself, to multiply the ways in which he exists, to make his life full, significant and interesting- Aldous Huxley

Reading simply means attainment of language, sharing of information, communicating and comprehending it the right way. Reading is an individual activity and has to be done on your own for better comprehension. Literacy, in the true sense, is the ability to read and absorb what is read, which forms the backbone of learning, and learning is the way of life. Such is the importance of reading in one's life. With the invasion of technology in our lives, reading today is more of electronic display, such as computers, television, mobile phones or eReaders. But thankfully, it prevails and technology has not completely discarded it. Reading is a habit that has to be imbibed in kids at a tender age for them to like and live by it. Now, if you find reading boring, difficult or simply tough to imbibe in your kids, here are a few teaching strategies to improve reading skills.

Effective Teaching Strategies for Reading

To start with, one must know the language relatively well. Phonics are very important as they help you connect with the sounds of every letter or group of letters, hence, clubbing them together to produce the correct pronunciation of the unknown words. The reading instruction begins with phonics, and kids learn to read simple text even before they complete the phonological knowledge. Composition of sentences, phrases, pronunciation of words, spelling and punctuation follows the phonological study. Prefixes, suffixes, compound words, and other parts of speech come in next. You need not master the language (if done nothing like it) but at least get the basic crux of the language to make reading interesting. The comprehending part is the most tough, because you cannot expect anyone to comprehend certain things in the way you comprehend them. Some people or kids for that matter, read for the heck of it, without proper comprehension. Now, at a very early age, if students are given instructions, understanding it becomes helpful for the students to monitor their comprehension. The last being summarizing, that is, remembering what is read and being able to connect to the main ideas and central plan.

Top-Down Strategy
A top down approach is essentially very basic and for the beginners. In this approach, you are supposed to break down the reading task into sections and sub-sections. These sections and sub-sections should then be given greater focus and concentration. This strategy aims at reducing the entire process to absolutely specific and basic elements. For example, a chapter is cut down into smaller chapters, may be a paragraph or so, and then these smaller chapters are read. A reader can then monitor his comprehension and is able to review content. It makes the reader know where lies the difficulty and when does he actually lose interest, hence making it easy to fix these problems. It also makes them think and search. Reading small portions and identifying with the main idea does not tax them, and kids many find it interesting and would want to involve themselves more in the reading process, thus, encouraging reading.

Visual Representation Strategy
Kids are more fascinated with pictures in a book, therefore, a book with many pictures encourages reading. Most of us must have seen the movie "Baby's Day Out". I know you must be wondering how is it even relevant, but remember the baby identifies with every place he visits in the movie because of the book his nanny reads to him. Research shows that we remember things better in the pictorial form than data form. So, encourage beginners to read books with pictures to keep them interested and glued to a book. Books with Venn-diagrams, storyboards, chain of events or distinction tables, make reading interesting and easy. To begin with, this strategy is good and eventually one can resort to heavy database books to improve vocabulary, fluency, and take up reading as a habit and not compulsion.

Keeping it Incomplete Strategy
This strategy comes in with a lot of personal experience. As a kid, my father read out umpteen number of books to me every night, but he did something which I absolutely hated. He read the story until the climax and put me to sleep not completing it all. Now, this increased my curiosity, so the next evening I completed the story reading it myself. He did it every single day, and the next day I read the end of the story. Unknowingly, I developed a liking for reading, and when I grew a little older, I found myself reading the entire story all by myself and discussing it with my dad. Now, reading has become the way of life. Kids are very curious and visualize when you read things to them. When you end abruptly, they are not happy. They want to know what happens next, and therefore make an effort to find it all by themselves. So, all those mothers or teachers trying to teach kids to read, this strategy works, at least it worked for me.

The teaching strategies for reading mentioned above not only encourage this skill, but will also help readers focus, monitor their comprehension, think actively, express views, and learn effectively. To reduce the reading disabilities and improve reading fluency, joining a reading club is a fantastic idea too. You are bound to finish a book in the stipulated span of time, and get to express your views on a particular book. It is also interesting to get to know about the views of others and their interpretation about the book. Reading definitely increases your fluency in language, makes you more confident, and keeps you well-informed about the happenings. So, keep reading and keep knowing.