Literacy Matters - Vol 21 - Winter 2021

each student’s responses to the questions. They conducted the interviews during the first session with the student. If any student did not respond to a question, the teacher recorded “don’t know” and did not probe; neither did the clinic teacher ask the student to elaborate on any of their responses. Results Selective highlighting (Van Manen, 1997) was used to identify similarities and commonalities to each of the responses and then themes were identified. The frequency of responses in each theme was converted to percentages. Table 2 includes the results to each of the questions, the number of students who responded to each question, the themes of responses, and percentages of responses for each theme. Analysis Even though this study was limited in the number of subjects involved, the responses may shed light on how these readers perceive reading and may provide insight into what may be happening in classrooms. Forty-one percent (41%) of the responses to what is reading clustered around the view that reading is simply saying the words on a page . Even though the goal of reading is to make sense of ideas in the text, only 29% of the responses referred to reading as reading for ideas. A lesser percentage (18%) referenced reading as a fun activity. In terms of teaching someone to read , 58% of the responses referenced teaching them to sound out. The termphonics was not used, however, there appeared to be an established view that reading involves the decoding of symbols. Eighteen (18%) percent of the responses identified repetition of words and 14% of the responses referred to asking the reader questions as a means of teaching reading. A few responses referred to having the student read out loud (5%) or using pictures to help one learn to read (5%). Upon further analysis of the responses, there Survey Questions What is reading? What would you do to teach someone to read? Who is the best reader you know? What makes that person the best reader? How did you learn to read? What did your teacher do to help you learn to read? If you are reading by yourself, and you come to a word you do not know, what do you do? Why? What do you do if that doesn’t help? Why? What do you think the teacher should do when a person is reading aloud and says a word that is not the same as in the story? Is it important for the teacher to teach the new words before you read the story? Why or why not? Table 1

was no difference noted between the younger students (K-2) responses and the intermediate students (3-5) to this question.

When asked to identify who is the best reader they know, 50% of the responses specifically mentioned a parent, either a mother or father. It is noteworthy that parents serve as role models when it pertains to reading. Educators have stressed the importance of parents in their child’s education, especially in young readers. Forty- one percent (41%) of the responses to their view of a good reader included a reference to other students in their class, and the reason given was that the students can read fast. Even though scholarly research in reading identified reading fluency as a critical and essential reading competency for full proficiency in reading (Rasinski, Reutzel, Chard, & Linan-Thompson, 2011), some striving readers may have a misunderstanding that reading fast is a sign of good reading without the reference to fluency as the road to comprehension. Interestingly, very few of the students (9%) mentioned self as a good reader. When responding to the question of howyou learned to read , 48% of the responses referenced getting help fromparents, and 30% referenced their teachers. Twenty-two percent (22%) of the responses cited sounding out the words. Interestingly, these particular students were influencedmore by their parents than teachers when it pertains to the process of learning to read. Once again, the role of the parent is critical and appears to be especially important with these striving readers. When asked what your teacher did to help you learn to read , 100% of the responses referenced sounding out the words. Again, these readers focus on the sound-symbol correspondences as the sole method for learning to read. These striving readers have internalized this decoding skill as a method to learn to read. Similarly, in response towhat happens when reading yourself and you come to an unknownword what do you do, 38% of responses indicated the readers sound out words. Skipping the word and asking my parents were cited equally at 21%. Finally asking the teacher was stated 16% of the time and 4% referenced using a dictionary. When asked what do you think the teachers should dowhen a person is reading aloudmakes amiscue, forty-four percent (44%) of the responses indicated the teacher should tell them the word, and 31% stated the teacher should ask them to reread it. Thirteen percent (13%) stated having the teacher correct them and then tell them the word. There was nomention of using context or other means of word analysis as alternatives. 100% viewed pre-teachingwords (vocabulary) as important. These striving readers perceived that this strategy provides an opportunity to identify words and places the newwords in context. Implications When making decisions regarding reading instruction it is important to reflect on teaching practices, build upon students’ strengths and support their areas for improvement in reading, but also consider their perceptions of reading.

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