Chapter 2: How Smart Readers Think

Reading is arguably the most important skill that someone can develop throughout their learning and growth process. “Reading is more than decoding” text to discover answers, but it is a process to comprehend, understand, and evaluate a text (Daniels and Zemelman, 2014, p. 28). In the reading process, there are many steps that a smart reader should utilize to best comprehend a text. For example, a smart reader should develop questions, visualize and hypothesize, and evaluate the text. Even though these seem like relatively simple tasks to perform while reading, many students could struggle with their own process. These struggles could result directly from not having sufficient prior knowledge on a specific subject connected to a reading. For example, I can recall moments in my school career where I was given a reading where I was only tasked with finding answers to questions by progressing through the text. I did not have sufficient prior knowledge on the subject, and I was not fully comprehending what I was reading. I believe that many students and even teachers would agree that this happens regularly in schools. We become more focused on fulfilling the Common Core Standards that we forget that it is important to explicitly comprehend the readings.

Chapter two, How Smart Readers Think, brought some questions to mind. First, why do students struggle with readings on certain subjects? Many students may be only focused on searching for answers to potential questions without focusing on their constructive processes. For example, a student may be visualizing while reading, but he or she may not be inferring or making predictions. However, their main struggles could stem from lack or prior knowledge on a subject. This leads to another question, how, as a teacher, can I assist students in their own reading processes? First and foremost, I know that it is imperative to provide students with sufficient prior knowledge on a subject that they are unfamiliar with. In addition, I believe that it is important to engage students in what they are reading by introducing questions and inferences they could make while they are reading. I believe this is important rather than having a student read on his or her own. Overall, reading is more than just skimming through text, but it is a constructive process with different steps.

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