by Denise Eldon

Created on: July 08, 2009

Learning to Read

Reading is a solitary activity. The readers must suspend the here and now and enter another world. That is why learning to read is difficult for some young children because they are more interested in the present and what's going on around them. Because entry into the readers' world is through words and images, they must first learn the new language. It is a daunting task with strict rules. Lewis Carroll's describes a similar situation in his book Alice Through the Looking Glass - Alice steps through the mirror and everything is backwards. She must learn to run down the hill in order to go up the hill. The child who is willing to learn to read must also master sitting quietly and being alone. Not all children are prepared to do this and even some adults find it difficult and, therefore, rarely read.

I don't remember the struggle in learning to read but I do remember my motivation. My grandmother loved reading to us. It was her self appointed task. The stories were wonderful - animals that could talk, giants, and children whose lives were far more interesting than my own. I wanted more than what she provided so I had to learn to read for myself. Many children who learn to read easily are looking for an escape from their dull worlds and become lost in their books and lose track of time.

When I first began teaching reading, my classroom already had a banner above the door, "First we Learn to Read and then we Read to Learn." How true. It's like learning to drive. Once we have the skill, we can go anywhere. Good readers do it all the time. We read cereal boxes (which are not nearly as entertaining as they use to be), billboards, cell phone directions, signs on the subway, newspaper articles over other people's shoulders, instruction manuals, and anything we can get our eyes on. In contrast, non -readers ask readers to translate the world for them. What does that sign say? What bottle is the laundry soap? Where do I sign this form? To them reading is a chore; an unpleasant and not always necessary process.

With the introduction of computers in homes, teachers thought that reading would be in decline. Instead, reading activity just changed. We are now effective 'skimmers'. Looking for the answer to a question? Google and we find eleven articles. Skim the first paragraph to see if it contains the information we need. No? Hyperlink to the next article. Students quickly learn that if they look at the questions at the

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