{"id":18969,"date":"2018-09-20T14:55:08","date_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18969"},"modified":"2018-09-20T14:55:08","modified_gmt":"2018-09-20T21:55:08","slug":"learning-to-read","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/learning-to-read\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Read"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>My six-year-old is learning to read and it\u2019s fascinating. I don\u2019t remember my own literacy journey, so it\u2019s interesting to figure out how to shape someone else\u2019s. It seems like Eli came out of the womb understanding and utilizing the power of communication. In fact, he started talking at 10 months, was using complete sentences that included words like \u201cactually\u201d and \u201cliterally\u201d used in correct contexts by 12 months, and now, at six, will regale just about anyone who has an ear to hear with his takes about first grade and his best friend \u201cElle\u201d. While he\u2019s been quick to speak, helping him understand the power of the written word has been a challenge.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I grew up as a reader. I remember hours upon hours devouring my favorite books. I prided myself, and still do, on just how fast I can read. But as progressed on my journey through undergrad and then a Masters, I realized rather quickly there is a difference between reading quickly and retaining much. In their work on how to read a book, Adler and Van Doren aptly state, \u201c\u2026Given the same thing to read, one person reads it better than another, first by reading it more actively, and second, by performing each of the acts more skillfully\u201d [1]<\/a>. I have found over the course the of the last three weeks, that I drastically need to increase my active reading skills.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

As I progressed through the book, I found myself matching the intensity of the reading levels to the situation around my kitchen table. Adler could have been sitting in my home with my son as he described the first level of reading, or Elementary reading. I have watched over the few weeks since starting first grade, as Eli has been moving through the process of discovering words on a page. \u201cAt one moment in the course of his development, the child, when faced with a series of symbols on a page, finds them quite meaningless. Not much later \u2013 perhaps only two or three weeks later \u2013 he has discovered meaning in them\u2026\u201d [2]<\/a>. He goes on to state, \u201cThis discovery of meaning in symbols may be the most astounding intellectual feat that any human being ever performs \u2013 and most humans perform it before they are seven years old!\u201d [3]<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In later chapters, I was reminded of my own literary insights through graduate school. I remember sitting in my first quarter of graduate school at Fuller and a professor named Charles Van Engen explaining to a group of eager seminarians the power of skimming a book. In fact, as I read these words, it could have been Adler, not Van Engen reciting them, \u201cSkimming, or pre-reading is first first sublevel of inspectional reading. Your main aim is to discover whether the book requires more careful reading. Secondly, skimming can tell you lots of other things about the book, even if you decide not to read it again with more care.\u201d [4]<\/a> That professor taught me much about how to survive graduate school. But having been out of it for nearly seven years, I find my reading skills to be quite rusty.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I found later chapters of this book to be very helpful and insightful as I consider the ample amounts of reading in front of me. I anticipate returning to this book often as I start this program. The tools of learning how to do analytical reading have already been dog-eared in my book. Learning what a book is about, interpreting it\u2019s contents, and criticizing a book a communication of knowledge[5]<\/a> are practical tools I can turn to when the reading feels overwhelming. I have been reminded of the power of active reading, and that activity is truly what makes a reader great.[6]<\/a> As I sat and read to my son tonight at bedtime, I reminded him that reading takes time and practice. It does for me too.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you are reading in order to become a better reader, you cannot read just any book or article. You will not improve as a reader if all you read are books that are well within your capacity. You must tackle books that are beyond you, or, as we have said, books that are over your head. Only books of that sort will make you stretch your mind. And unless you stretch you will not learn\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I think the next three weeks will stretch my son as a reader as much as the next three years will stretch me. I\u2019m excited that he and I get to learn and re-learn to read together.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Adler, Mortimer Jerome, and Charles Lincoln Van Doren. How to Read a Book.<\/em> Touchstone hardcover edition. ed. 9New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014) 6.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Ibid, 24.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Ibid, 25.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid, 32.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid, 161-162.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Ibid, 328.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Ibid, 329-330.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

My six-year-old is learning to read and it\u2019s fascinating. I don\u2019t remember my own literacy journey, so it\u2019s interesting to figure out how to shape someone else\u2019s. It seems like Eli came out of the womb understanding and utilizing the power of communication. In fact, he started talking at 10 months, was using complete sentences […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[660,68,881,1352,405],"class_list":["post-18969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-adler","tag-books","tag-how-to-read-a-book","tag-kids","tag-reading","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/121"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18969"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18974,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18969\/revisions\/18974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}