Ethan Pierce: Helping Students Build Their Reading Skills
Ethan: Thanks for having me, Spiffy! By the time they reach high school, students are expected to have switched from learning to read to reading to learn. Reading shifts from ‘free choice’ books to standardized curriculum organized around stories like Romeo and Juliet. For the millions of students who are behind in reading, grade-level texts are not only arduous, but inaccessible. Research shows that if a reader understands less than 98% of the vocabulary in the text, their reading comprehension plummets. Just like you can’t go from running a mile directly to running a marathon, students need to build up their reading skills with progressively harder texts in order to build vocabulary and confidence.
