NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun, 30 – “To learn to read is to light a fire; every syllable that is spelled out is a spark.” – Victor Hugo.
I occasionally meet two categories of mothers whose children are in class four and beyond.
The first category of mothers are those whose children have learned how to read and they are happy. The second category of mothers is those whose children seem to be having difficulties reading.
Both categories of mothers know the educational value of reading ability. The ability to read a text, understand it, and make inferences from it is very important.
It is the essential skill required for academic success, especially when a child transitions to class four or in CBC language, grade four.
In the first three years of primary education, a child is learning to read. The ability to read is attained when a child is able to understand what he or she is reading. That is what reading comprehension is all about.
That is the primary function of schooling as the first three years is to teach children how to read.
In the fourth class or grade going forward, the child reads or is expected to read to learn. If by grade four or five, the child is still learning to read, it makes reading to learn more difficult.
“In turn, developing reading fluency will be difficult, resulting in poor comprehension, limited learning, and little enjoyment, G. Reid Lyon, an American, argues in an article, Why Reading Is Not a Natural Process.
A child who gets into grade four with ‘poor comprehension and limited learning’ finds schooling frightening.
In the first place, the curriculum shifts to more complex ideas, or concepts from grade four onwards. In the second place, most information relevant to the curriculum and the whole universe of education is derived from written sources: textbooks, books, notes, and online sites when ICT is integrated into learning.
Frankly speaking, children who have not mastered reading proficiency suffer.
They struggle to understand the curriculum content. The amount and rigour of reading progressively increase as they move up the grade levels aggravating the children’s learning experience. Needless to say, they don’t enjoy reading or learning altogether. Performance progressively declines as they progress upwards.
This creates anxiety in parents and mothers in particular.
It is the reason why difficulties children experience in reading that causes a lot of anxiety to mothers. The well-educated and modestly educated mothers alike are distressed when their children face difficulties in reading—be it in grades four, five, or onwards.
The fears are founded. Inability to understand texts means that the children cannot understand the ideas, concepts, and feelings contained in the texts. Without addressing the problem, the child with reading difficulties falls far behind academically.
Hence the frantic efforts the loving and caring mothers make to find solutions to the problem before it is too late.
Truth be told, reading is a complex skill that is taught early. The teaching in grades one, two, and three are expected to be deliberate, systematic, contextual, and incremental. The milestones from zero knowledge of the written word —sequential steps in learning to read—to read a whole word, sentences, and paragraphs.
Education systems have determined reading levels for learners—right from grade or class in the 1st year to the 12th year of Early Learning and Basic Education. Educational authorities recommend specific books for each grade or bands of grades for use as instructional materials they call grade levels. The right kind of literature must be introduced at the right time to build a child’s reading abilities.
In lay language, reading levels are a detailed way to pair children’s reading ability with books they can successfully read and understand. They are an effective way to measure a child’s reading progress.
If a child is primarily reading books at or just above their determined reading level, they are more likely to find reading enjoyable. But if they don’t read at all or read books below their determined reading level, they invariably find reading punitive.
The reason I find the satisfaction of mothers whose children are able to read grade-level materials delusive. The ability to read is not an end. It is the opening gun for opening one’s mental horizons through extensive reading of compelling fiction and nonfiction works.
Ability to read means the child has the ability to learn. Mothers and fathers should—in addition to the approved reading matter—buy additional books for the children to read. They should also read to the children almost every evening before they sleep.
American educator E.D. Hirsch, Jr. has argued that many children struggle to comprehend (text) because they lack the vocabulary to be fluent readers.
“… Their vocabulary deficit comes from a knowledge deficit; they haven’t been taught enough about science, history, geography, and the arts to recognize common words when they sound them out,” Hirsch, Jr ads.
The mothers whose children have acquired reading fluency should be enabled to read as many quality texts—factional and nonfiction—as possible. The wide reading helps them to broaden their minds. They acquire general knowledge, skills and competencies, and literacy and numeracy skills, critical to more advanced educational programmes at the same or higher levels apart from laying the foundation for lifelong learning.
Mothers whose children have not fully learned how to read can be assisted. The no child left behind policy does not mean that the child cannot be left behind even though he is attending school on a regular basis.
Reading is an acquired skill. The child who is having butterflies reading texts from grade four onwards can be assisted to bridge the learning deficit. In grade four, he is not completely zero in reading skill. It means he cannot read texts at the grade he ought to be.
Remedial lessons in learning to read can be arranged for the child. You don’t abandon such children. That is what volunteer workers under the auspices of the G-United program President Kenyatta launched in 2014 did in the primary schools they worked for a year.
With a week’s training by the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development (KICD) the fresh university graduate students were able to dramatically improve the reading capabilities of class three learners who were falling behind because of their reading difficulties.
The dramatic impact I saw these volunteer workers had on reading skills convinced me that, yes! Children with reading difficulties at whatever level in elementary schools can be helped.
Parents can also read to them back home. We have more engaging and exciting reading materials that match the interests and abilities of the child. Provide the books and create time for the child. He is likely to enjoy reading the books, and I am sure, the child will in due course, two or three months have a eureka, and finally be able to read with fluency, accuracy, and comprehension.
The writer is a Communications Officer at the Ministry of Education.
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