How NOT to Teach Reading: Ask a Friend

I Guess Not!

Part Eight of a 12-part video series showing the flaws of common word reading strategies taught in schools– Moral: Do not teach struggling readers to guess!

Ask a Friend – Helpful Kangaroo

Asking a friend for help it really isn’t a reading strategy. Young and struggling readers do need the instructional support of adults and peers as they gain greater independence as readers, but this is really more of a strategy to help the teacher than to help the student.  If there is a large gap between the text difficulty level and the reader’s skill the reader will naturally need help in reading the text. But asking the struggling reader to reach out for help each time they come to an unfamiliar word is not only impractical, but also unlikely to build the reader’s confidence or skill.

We want readers to feel empowered while they are trying to read an unknown word. We want to support a growth mindset, i.e.) “working hard to apply what I have learned is the best way to succeed.” A child is given tools to read and spell with greater accuracy and insight from day one when s/he is taught to read through a Structured Literacy approach.