Reading Proficiency

Question: How can teachers help students develop greater reading proficiency?

Answer/Quote: “Students who reported discussing their reading had higher average reading achievement. Across the three grades (fourth, eighth, and twelfth grades) , 51 to 64 percent of the students said they were asked by their teachers to talk about what they read on a weekly basis or more often.” P. 11.

 Comment: To me, this finding is thought-provoking. Somehow I don’t think of this activity as highly structured in which teachers are looking for right answers to their questions. Rather, I sense it is an exploration of meaning, a real discussion, whether in response to assigned reading or reading done by individual students chosen by themselves. RayS.

Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) data. Report: Reading In and Out of School examines a variety of factors that affect how well students read, based on findings from the 1988 and 1990 assessments.

Title: “New Report on Reading In and Out of School.” English Journal (November 1992), p. 11.