A skills approach to
literacy, in my opinion (and this is reflected in my Personal Model of Reading
Theory), takes more of a traditional methodology reflected in public education
from the past and current time. Embedded
in this practice is the notion that one must work his or her way from bottom to
top, taking each small part and working up towards the whole. Lost in this style is the student’s ability
and interest to self-select texts based on current practices in schools today,
such as Accelerated Reader. The student
must be deemed ready by the teacher to progress at a reading level, and only
experiences higher level texts during read-alouds or outside of the school
environment.
Conversely, a comprehensive approach to literacy
recognizes meaning as an intricate and most important aspect of reading. Using any type of text, students are
encouraged to find their love and passion for reading without being bogged down
from all the requirements imposed on them by those who value a skills approach. This approach emphasizes a different style in
that sounds and letters come after meaning, and experience with texts and
sounds drive interest. This approach
reminds me of some strategies used in Montessori classrooms.
As the book suggests, how literacy is demonstrated in the
classroom or outside of the classroom facilitates and fosters a child’s
perspective and attitude towards the notion and future practice of
reading. Either approach has the
potential to be effective, but it seems the comprehensive approach (accentuating
schemas, contexts, and their relationships with meaning and phonemes/phonics
combined) may be more valuable in terms of developing passion, comprehension,
and critical thinking strategies.
You touched on a few great points that I wish I had thought of! First, the idea that the comprehensive approach lends itself much more to self-selected reading and to individual experiences makes a lot of sense to me. When teaching 9th Lit small-group, I allow my students to self-select four novels during the year due to both their varying interests and different reading levels. I think your point also implies that this approach is more effective because it allows students to stay engaged in the text and make connections, which of course facilitates comprehension.
ReplyDeleteThe other point your made regarding critical thinking is important, too. This is an area of research that I'm very interested in, and I hadn't thought about the impact of a literacy instruction method on students' critical thinking skills. But I certainly agree with you: Using the comprehensive approach to reading really opens up the possibilities for students as far as both the processes they use while reading (metacognition, making connections, etc.) and their analyses/inferences about the text (which, of course, are critical thinking skills).