Reading Process System & Strategies

 I find it incredibly interesting to read about the “reading process system” that is discussed in Johnson and Keier’s Catching Readers Before They Fall. It seems fairly straightforward when reading about the thinking strategies, such as Maintaining Fluency, Inferring, Self-Monitoring, Visualizing, Questioning, etc. However, when all of these strategies are working together harmoniously in the accomplished reader’s head, it is easy to forget that emerging readers are still struggling to make some of these connections. While analyzing the reading process system I was reminded of the systems and strategies I learned about last semester that children use to do mathematics. As an adult, I take many of these strategies for granted when I perform mathematical calculations in my head and this seems very similar to the reading strategies that I take for granted when I’m reading a text. Knowing this has allowed me to slow down and take inventory of the reading strategies that I put to use every time I open a book or turn on the computer or go to a restaurant. Being aware of the strategies I implement when reading can only help me, as a future educator, assist students from emerging readers to accomplished booklovers.

Another great reason to explore the reading process system is to aid what Johnson and Keier refer to as the “struggling reader”. These readers might struggle with letters, sounds, or vocabulary, which makes it even more important to embed this kind of teaching in an environment where students are learning about a multitude of reading strategies. Johnson and Keier tell us that every reader uses the same reading process; however, it is up to the educator to create an individual track for each student that takes advantage of their reading process skills and addresses their difficulties along the way. This idea of individualizing a reading program for each student is driven by Vygotsky’s concept of the Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). This concept refers to the “zone” in which studies are not too easy or too difficult for students. They can work through exercises with assistance and fruitfully struggle to gain knowledge.

Last semester we spoke briefly about this concept of ZPD in a mathematics course. As students benefit from working in their ZPD while progressing their knowledge of mathematics, so do they benefit from reading and writing in their ZPD. Johnson and Keier write that educators too often let children trudge through exercises that are too difficult or instruct students on simple exercises that are merely busy work. As a future educator, I see the struggle of finding where that particular ZPD is for each student, but it is undoubtedly a struggle that needs to be had.