An End to Pseudo-Reading
By Maryann Manning

What keeps me awake at night isn't that our students are phonemically unaware, or that they don't read fast enough or possess enough phonics knowledge. Instead, my nightmares routinely feature classrooms full of students who can divide words into phonemes, spout phonics rules for all the digraphs, diphthongs, and even the schwa, can call out words on sight word lists with the rapidity of a repeater rifle, and bark out the words on connected texts at the benchmark level on assessments of frequency.

As a reading educator, I become despondent about what is happening to many of our students. Instead of learning to read, some kids are being trained like Pavlovian dogs to parrot the correct responses without devoting time to the meaning behind those responses.

Pseudo-readers
In the real classrooms I visit, there's an ever-growing number of what I call pseudo-readers. How do I know I've met a child who is a pseudo-reader? I begin by asking the child, "Tell me about what you just read?" After what seems like a long, dead silence, the child says, "I didn't know I was supposed to think about it and know what it says." Some students even say, "You know I can't read fast and know what the book is about." Not only do these students believe that reading is about speed and calling the words correctly, they don't know that reading is a meaning making process.

Pseudo-readers use only one cueing system (phonics) and real readers use three systems: graphophonic (letter sound relationships), syntactic (word order) and semantic-meaning.

Revalued practices
So, how can we stop the increase in pseudo-readers who say words but don't understand what they're saying? There are teaching strategies that you've been using that help students know that reading is a knowledge-seeking, focused process, and that it supports the construction of meaning. Not one of the practices I'm advocating is new, but they should be revalued because children know from the beginning that reading is supposed to make sense.

Debbie Miller's Reading with Meaning (Stenhouse, 2002, ISBN: 1-571-10307-4) exemplifies the best practice and helps us question practices that only support the development of decoding words in isolation. Here are some excellent books that will remind you why each of these strategies is so invaluable.

Read aloud
We know that children who are read to at home know that reading is supposed to make sense, but for children who have not benefited from read-alouds, hearing quality children's literature is invaluable. Thinking aloud as you read will help students make connections with that text and future texts because they learn your processes. My favorite sources are Mary Lee Hahn's Reconsidering Read-Aloud (Stenhouse, 2002, ISBN; 1-571-10351-1) and Bobbi Fisher and Emily Fisher Medvic's For Reading Out Loud: Planning and Practice (Heinemann, 2003, ISBN: 0-325-00436-6).

Shared reading
The shared reading strategy is the best example of a practice where students learn about all three cueing systems simultaneously. In learning this strategy, they develop letter-sound relationships and learn prediction strategies so they can use their knowledge of word order while constructing meaning. I recommend Bobbie Fisher and Emily Fisher Medvic's Perspectives on Shared Reading (Heinemann, 2000, ISBN: 0-325-00215-0) and Brenda Parkes' Read It Again! (Stenhouse, 2000, ISBN: 1-571-1034-X).

Guided reading
Guided reading is another strategy you can use with students who have word-to-word correspondence. The recommended strategies help students comprehend the meaning of the text while increasing their phonics generalizations and use of syntax. This strategy can be used for any student beyond the emergent stage who is just learning or who is in need of refinement.

All books about guided reading by Gay Su Pinnell and Irene Fountas are truly excellent and include Guiding Readers and Writers (Grades 3-6): Teaching Comprehension (Heinemnn, 2000, ISBN: 0-325-00310-6).

Independent reading
When students read self-selected children's literature independently, kids will grapple with the content until they construct meaning. As soon as students can read any text independently, they'll find predictable books they can read. The birthing of independent readers is the ultimate reading teaching event. Ellin Keene and Susan Zimmerman's landmark book, Mosaic of Thought: Teaching Comprehension in a Reader's Workshop (Heinemann, l997, ISBN: 0-435-07237-4) is a rich resource. Another book that emphasizes the power of independent reading is Richard L. Allington's What Really Matters for Struggling Readers: Designing Research-Based Programs (Pearson Education, 2000, ISBN: 0-321-06396-1).

Book discussion strategies
Students learn so much from engaging in social interaction with peers about the meaning of texts. Exchanging points of view to the extent of arguing provides a rich learning experience that can take place in almost any literature discussion. I especially like Ralph Peterson and Maryann Eeds' wonderful book Grand Conversations: Literature Groups in Action (Scholastic, l999, ISBN: 0-590-73422-9) and the second edition of Harvey Daniels' Literature Circles (Stenhouse, 2002, ISBN: 1-571-10333-3).

Reading/writing connection
Writing and reading development is simultaneous and the more real writing students do, the better they will read and visa-versa. Meaning is always present when a student writes about real activities, people, animals, beliefs and happenings. When our students engage as writers, they also develop phonemic awareness, phonics knowledge and spelling ability as they communicate meaning.

Two classic books that highlight the connection are Joanne Hindley's In the Company of Children (Stenhouse, l996, ISBN: 1-571-10010-5) and Nancie Atwell's In the Middle (Heinemann, l998, ISBN: 0-867-09374-9).

We can stop adding to the numbers of pseudo-readers in our classrooms if we fill our reading instructional time with strategies that help readers learn that reading is a meaning making process.

Maryann Manning is on the faculty of the School of Education, the University of Alabama at Birmingham.