When I envision a reader, I see a student who effortlessly attacks text and uses their cognitive skills to focus on the meaning. So why do we see students struggling with reading a grade level text? I see teachers work hard on phonics and morphology lessons but I’ve seen it in isolation while observing classrooms. Students practice decoding words, sentences but receive little guidance as they read grade level text or even decodable texts. I’ve heard teachers say students can do it during phonics lessons but they struggle on weekly assessments. Their test low scores show a struggle with reading accurately and fast enough to comprehend. So the question remains, how do we get readers to go from learning isolated skills to reading effortlessly?

Practice. The key is truly practice. As educators we are teaching students phonics skills, morphology skills, vocabulary, background knowledge and the list goes on. However, if we don’t allow students opportunities to apply their knowledge (practice), then how does that benefit them in becoming a better reader? As teachers, we need to be purposeful in how we allow students to practice – the number of opportunities, the types of corrective feedback, gradual release – it all plays a role in creating an independent reader. 

Here’s a fun analogy. I have this adorable three year old Rhodesian Ridgeback named Leander who so happens to turn three years old today. I’ve trained him to be a running companion over the last couple of years. Did he start out effortlessly running 15 miles with me?! Absolutely not! We started small – learning the commands for running, working to create a team and slowly increasing mileage. We practiced short easy runs in local parks to introduce different stimuli. We went to trails and worked on off leash behaviors. You get the picture, right?! It took both of us hours upon hours to build up the skills needed to run as a team and then the stamina for him to run long distance. Constant and consistent practice.