Reading: What Else Matters Besides Strategies and Skills?

Abstract

What are the "must haves" of a successful school reading program?Accomplished teachers help their students when they attend to both cognitive and affective aspects of reading development.H ow can we best foster our students' reading development and achievement? What are the hallmarks of successful readers? Consider a group of thirdgrade students. Test results describe them as strategic and skillful readers. Their reading comprehension and vocabulary scores, undergirded by phonemic awareness, phonics, and fluency, are above average. Yet their reading comprises more than strategy and skill. Much more explains their ongoing development as readers.These successful readers are metacognitive. They plan their reading in relation to specific goals, and they monitor and evaluate their reading as it progresses. These readers are motivated and engaged. They look forward to reading, in school and out. The readers' epistemic beliefs are developing-they know that authors write for different purposes, that texts can be biased, and that not everything in print is necessarily "true." Finally, these successful readers have high self-efficacy-they expect to be challenged by different texts and tasks, and they expect to meet those challenges. All four of these factors are implicated in students' accomplished reading, and they should be a focus in reading classrooms.We have three goals for this article. First, we describe the current context in which students' reading development is often equated with growth in cognitive strategies and skills. Second, we examine the role of four powerful, "other" factors: metacognition, engagement and motivation, epistemic beliefs, and selfefficacy, as they interact with strategy and skill, in students' reading development. Third, we describe how our increasing understanding of these four factors, and our teaching in relation to them, can contribute to students' reading success. Cognitive Strategy and Skill and the Conceptualization of Successful ReadingDifferent factors influence students' reading development. In many classrooms, curriculum and instruction are biased toward strategy and skill. We believe that this cognitive monopoly in reading instruction has several causes-and that understanding these causes can contribute to positive change in the status quo. A first cause is federal education policy that influences reading instruction and that narrows the conceptualization of reading and students' reading development.

Using Advances in Cognitive Science to Improve Students Study Skills and Reading Comprehension

“…Collectively, these and other sources advocate that what it means to be profi cient is evolving with simultaneous advances in technology and how people communicate and interact (Leu, Kinzer, Coiro, Castek, & Henry, 2013 ). 1 For example, researchers and educators are arguing for an expanded construct of reading and associated skills (Affl erbach, Cho, Kim, Carassas, & Doyle, 2013 ;Alexander, 2012 ;Coiro, 2009 ;Deane, Sabatini, & O'Reilly, 2012 ;Goldman, Lawless, Pellegrino, Braasch, & Gomez, 2011 ;Leu et al, 2013 ). A fresh view of the construct argues that reading in the twenty-fi rst century is selective and purpose driven (van den Broek, Lorch, Linderholm, & Gustafson, 2001 ).…”

Linking Instruction and Student Achievement. A research design for a new generation of classroom studies

“…Gambrell and colleagues (2011) rank "building a whole class context that emphasizes community and collaboration" as one of ten evidence-based practices that contribute to comprehensive literacy instruction, while a review by Graham et al (2016) emphasizes that creating a supportive writing environment is crucial for teaching writing. Studies have also found that an engaging classroom environment can motivate students to read strategically, thus impacting their reading comprehension (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas, & Doyle, 2013). Franke, Kazemi, and Beatty (2007) underscore the role of supportive climate for probing students' understanding and asking for explanations in mathematics.…”

La mejora de la comprensión lectora a través de modelos interactivos de lectura

“…El interés de los profesionales en relación con la motivación hacia la lectura, así como su implicación en el aprendizaje, sigue siendo un tema de interés actualmente. Investigadores y educadores consideran que saber leer es sólo una parte de la batalla, los lectores tienen que estar motivados para que su comprensión sea exitosa (Afflerbach, Cho, Kim, Crassas y Doyle, 2013;Conradi, Jang y McKenna, 2014). Es más la motivación es responsable de muchas de las diferencias individuales que se producen en la comprensión de los textos (Tapia, 2005).…”

“…Muchas investigaciones han relacionado algunas funciones ejecutivas con las dificultades en la lectura, principalmente la memoria de trabajo Carretti et al, 2009;García-Madruga y Fernández, 2008;Gómez Veiga et al, 2013), la atención (Oakhill y Cain, 2007) y la inhibición (Cain, 2006;Kendeou et al, 2014). Del mismo modo se ha puesto de manifiesto que dentro de este proceso de comprensión debemos tener en cuenta un aspecto clave: la motivación con la que el alumno se enfrenta a esta actividad (Afflerbach et al, 2013;Allington, 2014;Anderson y Pearson, 1984;Clark y DeZoysa, 2011;Conradi et al, 2014;Garan y DeVoogd, 2008;Garner, 1987;Krashen, 2006;Mezzalira y Boruchovitch, 2014;Pressley et al, 1987;Stutz et al, 2016).…”

“…Estas diferencias confirman una mayor motivación a la hora de leer en los alumnos cuyo nivel de comprensión es medio-alto. Estos resultados concuerdan con los de Afflerbach et al (2013) y Conradi et al (2014 cuando en sus investigaciones comprueban que los lectores tienen que estar motivados para que la comprensión sea exitosa. Los alumnos con un nivel de comprensión medio-bajo van a tener que enfrentarse a mayores dificultades en la lectura que los alumnos cuyo nivel es medio-alto, por lo que estarán más expuestos a fracasos en su comprensión, lo que influirá en su autoconcepto lector.…”