Reading comprehension
Aided by reading, writing in same genre

 

Many people think teaching reading good writing will improve students' writing. Like so many popular beliefs, that one contains just enough truth to be dangerous.

It is true that good writers are usually good readers, but reading good writing — even reading with good comprehension — may not turn people into good writers.

Training someone to understand an engineering document is not likely to make that person a good sonneteer, is it? Nor is reading Jane Austen likely to boost Caitlin's ability to write biology lab reports.

It is just as reasonable to think that the ability to write well improves a person's reading ability as to think reading well makes people write well.

Actually, for reading and writing to have reciprocal benefits, a person must read and write material written in the same genre.

If we want to see students' total literacy skills improve, we need to teach students to read, write, and study material in a single literary genre, supplementing and reinforcing that instruction as we teach other aspects of our curriculum.

NB: I am not talking about exposing students to good reading or good writing. I'm talking about teaching both reading and writing.

Expository reading is required

In English language arts courses, we tend to concentrate on reading imaginative literature. We may overlook the fact that all our students must read and write expository prose, not imaginative literature.

Everything from the chapter introductions in their algebra book to social studies discussion questions are expository prose. In those authentic reading situations, students display their reading skill by using the information in some way.

Expository reading is valuable

Because expository nonfiction is so vital to our students' academic and workplace success, it should be the primary focus of middle- and high school reading comprehension activities.

You and I may not find that factual material particularly interesting, but the ordinary kids in our classes value it more highly than the creative literature we enjoy.

We shouldn’t throw out the novels and poetry because students don’t value them. Nor should we skip teaching students how to read that material.

However, if we are not teaching reading comprehension using the expository text material we assign as reading in our English language arts classes, we’re setting our students — and ourselves — up for failure.