Literacy Matters - Vol 21 - Winter 2021

What is Reading? Perceptions fromStriving Readers

by Priscilla Manarino-Leggett, Ph.D., Professor Department of Early Childhood, Elementary, Middle Grades, Reading and Special Education

ABSTRACT—This study explored the views of striving readers to determine their perceptions of what reading is, how they learned to read, how they would teach someone to read, who they think is a good reader, and what does and should a teacher do to help with reading? The subjects in this study were 24 elementary students enrolled in a University Reading Clinic. To explore their views, each clinic teacher interviewed their assigned student. The survey instrument contained eight open-ended questions. Selective highlighting (VanManen, 1997) was used to analyze responses to each survey question for similarities and themes were identified. The frequency of responses in each theme was converted to percentages. One of the major themes uncovered was that the striving readers in this study overwhelmingly perceived reading as sounding out words. Similarly, their view on how to teach reading was also teaching one how to sound out words. The subjects offered few suggestions of any other to decode unknown words. The students viewed parents to be more of an influential factor in learning to read than teachers. Their view of who is a good reader is also a parent. The results also revealed that the subjects perceive a good reader as one who has is the ability to read fast. The researcher provides implications for literacy teachers and parents. What Is Reading? Perceptions from Striving Readers Few students in the United States read at a desirable reading level; approximately two-thirds of students in our country have reading proficiencies below grade level (Allington, 2011). Data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress Report Card (NAEP, 2019) showed that average reading scores for students at both grades 4 and 8 were lower in 2019 as compared to 2017. All students need effective reading instruction, but at-risk and striving readers need more expert reading instruction and high-success reading experiences (Allington, 2011, 2012; Krashen, 2004). The National Reading Panel (2000) issued a report based on a meta-analysis of research on effective reading instruction and recommended that the best approach to reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. At the very early stages of reading, certain skills are imperative for young children. Specifically, students with stronger letter knowledge and phonemic awareness at school entry make greater progress in learning how to read. Studies showed that when young children are taught these skills, they make more progress in learning to read than children who do not receive systematic and explicit instruction (Kilpatrick, 2015). Most educators agree that children need to crack the code, that is, to learn how letters represent sounds and how to use this knowledge to read and spell words. However, according to Shanahan (2020), the science of reading is more than just phonics, it includes all the research-based methods and instructional approaches to help with reading proficiency.

Perceptions, motivation, and self-concept also influence children’s reading success and performance. Studies revealed that perception of oneself as a reader is related to reading motivation, performance, and enjoyment (Chapman, Tunmer, & Prochnow, 1995; Conlon, Zimmer-Gembeck, Creed & Tucker, 2006; Smith, Smith, Gilmore & Jameson, 2012). Wigfield and Eccles (2000) reported that learners’motivation is determined by how much they value the goal and whether they believe they can achieve the goal. Likewise, a study by Clark, Osborne and Akerman (2008) showed that reading proficiency is closely linked to reading perceptions, attitudes, and social influence. Purpose of Study The overall purpose of this study was to examine striving readers’ perceptions of reading; specifically; how striving readers describe: (a) what reading is, (b) how they learned to read, (c) how they would teach someone to read, (d) who in their view is a good reader, and (5) what a teacher needs to do to help one read. Perception in this study refers to the process of understanding how one feels about and views the act of reading. In this paper striving readers refer to readers who are having difficulties with the reading process (Harvey &Ward, 2017). Method Subjects in this study were 24 elementary school students,13 female and 11 male, enrolled in a University Reading Clinic. These included: 1 kindergartener, 3 first- grade, 4 second-grade, 4 third-grade, 8 fourth-grade, and 4 fifth-grade students. The classroom teachers identified the students as having difficulty with some aspect of reading and recommended them for the clinic services. The students’ parents completed an application, permitting assessment and remediation. The students came from two elementary schools designated as Title I schools and the parents transported the students to the campus for assessment and instruction. This qualitative study used 8 open-ended questions designed by the researcher. The survey questions contained specific questions, rather than abstract questions, hoping to yield more productive responses (Boroko & Einsehart, 1986; Henk & Melnick, 1998). Unlike the Reader Self-Perception Scale (Henk & Melnick, 1995) which uses a Likert scale to assess a reader’s self-efficacy, the eight questions were designed to examine and provide insight into the students’ perceptions on what reading is, how they learned to read, who is a good reader, how they would teach someone to read, and what a teacher should do to help (see Table 1).

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The clinic teachers, enrolled in our Master of Reading Education program, interviewed their assigned student and recorded

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