Reading Process

Question: What is the reading process?

Answer/Quote: “The first thing that children acquire in learning how to read is sometimes called ‘access to word.’ They learn that the words of their language can be represented in print and that they can understand words in print in much the same way that they understand words in speech. The last thing that children acquire might be called ‘access to scholarship’—the ability to think and reason in response to print without deliberate consciousness of words. Between the initial accomplishment and the ultimate accomplishment of any reader lies a rather long transition period, roughly the time between fourth grade and adulthood. The success of this transition depends in large part on how well schools are able to nurture reading as a process of thinking and learning.” P. 508.

Comment: I believe that this quote summarizes succinctly the reading process. RayS.

Title: Journal of Reading: A Themed Issue on Thinking and Learning Across the Curriculum.” Guest Editor; Thomas H. Estes. Journal of Reading (April 1991), pp. 509-509.