Reading Comprehension - An Educational Failure

Despite and in spite of all the electronics in our world, one still has to read and one has to comprehend what has been read. Today's readers must be versatile, effective, and be able to read many types of material for many different purposes. It doesn't matter if it's an iPhone, iPad, PC, e-book, or printed material, comprehension is essential. Modern teachers at all levels of the educational ladder must be aware of the need to adjust learning material to a wide range of instructional purposes to ensure reading comprehension. There are six major categories of comprehension ability.

1. Reading for factual information
2. Reading to organize
3. Reading to evaluate
4. Reading to interpret
5. Reading for appreciation
6. Reading to skim.

It should be noted that rarely is one of these comprehensive reading skills used in its pure form. Does a child need a wealth of experiences emphasizing each of these six comprehensive abilities? The immediate answer is no. As the child moves through the educational system, the materials he or she reads become more and more complex. Situations become remote, dealing with concepts and locale outside of his or her first-hand experience. Ideas become debatable as organization expands in scope. The reader's purpose becomes more highly specialized and increases in number. Comprehension skills become more specialized as the reader's need to differentiate more sharply comes into play. Coming back to the question about the wealth of experience emphasizing the six comprehensive abilities a child needs, the long-term answer is an emphatic yes!

Educators at all levels must provide for the continued development of reading skills, especially that of comprehension and its six components. Children are not taught reading. They are taught how to read. How to read becomes important in today's testing crazed educational systems. Interpretation of what questions mean, what they are asking for often determines the success or failure of standardized examinations. If a child is having difficulty in reading, the teacher should create material that that student can read. This does place an additional burden on the teacher, but the end reward will be well worth the effort. If the student doesn't have good comprehensive skills he or she is condemned to failure. After all, an important role of the school is to promote success rather than failure.

Dr. Wilson, a critic of contemporary education, is the author of DUH! The American Educational Disaster. With forty years of experience as an educator, he writes and speaks with authority.



 By Norman W. Wilson, Ph.D


Article Source:  Reading Comprehension - An Educational Failure

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