Team Reading

I didn't expect this to work, but it did.

There’s a saying that runners have that the only way to run faster is to run faster.

A similar concept applies with reading. While there is reading science and there are techniques to scaffolding teaching reading, a student who never reads is never going to get better at reading.

Because when the reading is hard, they don’t want to read it. It’s human nature not to want to do hard things.

It’s a cruel circle that only gets harder as the kids get older, the curriculum doesn’t stop, and every content class requires reading comprehension skills (yes, even math).

Schools have reading interventions and reading specialists and small group learning and lots of tech tools and specialized instruction and it all helps. It’s all important.

But at the end of the day, the kid who doesn’t read at all is going to be very limited in how much they build their skills.

Once you get to middle school, peer pressure rears its ugly head and kids are even less likely to try something in front of their peers that they may not be great at doing.

Which brings me to science class.

Scientists have to read. They read lab reports and studies and academic articles and textbooks and data tables and instructions and the list goes on. Some of my kids are strong readers, but most of them are not. And science has the added bonus of throwing in vocabulary that the kids have never seen before (yay for new words!).

I tried a technique this week called team reading. The kids had to read a short article - only three paragraphs - but man those paragraphs were dense. I knew the kids would resist.

So I offered them a choice. I shared that if it were me, I would want to sit in a quiet place and read independently. I hate being read to. I cannot stand audio books (for me; they’re lovely for you if that’s how you enjoy engaging with content). My mind will wander all over everywhere if someone else is reading out loud.

But that’s me.

“That may not be you. You may be a more auditory learner, who does better when you can hear what is written out loud.

So, today, you have choices. You are welcome to read this article on your own, annotating as you go. Or, you may pick one or two partners and sit together and decide together how you will tackle this material.”

I explained that sometimes one kid really likes reading out loud, so they do the reading while the others listen and read along. Or, sometimes each group member takes a turn.

How you do it is up to you.

They immediately sorted themselves into small groups. I had a few individuals but mostly pairs and trios. And boy did they get to work. Even my class with the most kids who will drag their feet when they have to read something got down to business right away. I heard readers with very low reading skills confidently sounding out words and reading out loud to their peers.

Everyone was supportive of one another. All day I watched kids work together collaboratively and cooperatively and get their work done while learning. I also saw kids annotating the text. We practiced this skill earlier in the year but we’re at the halfway point so I didn’t go over that skill again; I let the kids decide how they would access the text. I saw kids underlining new vocabulary, circling main ideas, and following the text along with their pencil as a classmate read.

It was beautiful.