The title of this blog post seems very dark, but I promise you it is not. This summer I was rereading a professional book by Cris Tovani called I Read It, but I Don't Get It.
This is how I would have described myself as a reader in high school and college, I read things but I really did not get what I was reading. Things would quickly change for me with a few books that I read that taught me the things that good readers do when they read.
In Tovani's book she talks about the voices we hear inside our head when we read. I love this idea of the different voices we might hear when we read. I had never been told as a student that I should have multiple voices interacting with the text as I read. The main voice we hear is the words of the text...our voice reading the book. This voice is important but I do not think it gets you to comprehend the text. It is those other voices that say things like, "What does this remind me of?" "What is going to happen next?" "Why is the character acting this way?" or any of the other questions that good readers are constantly thinking while we read.
I keep trying to talk to the class about the different things that our happening inside my head when I read. I think too often students just believe they have to say the words of the text and they are reading. I call this television reading. All the students have to do is sit back and watch. Real reading is different, real reading is more like playing video games. The player is required to think and interact with the game. Hit the "A button" to jump, the "B button" slide, and the "Z button" to crouch.
I hope that as you see our students reading you can ask them what they are hearing inside their head. Are they thinking? What are they thinking? Did they start to think about getting a snow day and they need to go back to reread a section they missed? You could also share what goes on in your head as you read.
Hope you all had a great weekend.
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