Mitchell Messina
Cape Town - In South Africa, the standard of reading of learners in Grades 4 to 6 (Intermediate Phase) is cause for great concern.
The 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) provided overwhelming evidence that these learners struggle to understand what they read.
It showed that 78% of Grade 4 learners do not have basic reading skills by the end of their school year.
A lack of reading comprehension puts them at a disadvantage and has dire consequences for their progression in school and their academic development.
We need interventions that can address the reading comprehension crisis in our schools and improve the literacy skills of our learners.
Such interventions would also have to focus on the role of Intermediate Phase teachers and what they can do differently to improve learners’ reading comprehension.
Overall, the Intermediate Phase will have to be restructured to promote the teaching of reading comprehension.
In my recent doctoral study at Stellenbosch University, I offered two approaches that could be helpful in this regard – Choice Theory and Reciprocal Teaching.
Choice Theory explains behaviour as a choice made by an individual based on their attempt to get what they want and is, therefore, not determined or controlled by external circumstances.
In other words, the power lies within each person to determine how they will respond to the demands of the social and physical environment.
Reciprocal Teaching is an instructional strategy for teaching metacognitive skills (the ability to think about and manage your own thinking) to help struggling learners improve their reading comprehension.
It happens when the teacher and learners engage in a dialogue about what the learners are reading, taking turns in leading the conversation.
Ultimately, the learners assume control and act as teachers to their peers.
The teachers who participated in my study indicated that Choice Theory offered them an explanation about, and insight into, their own and the learners’ behaviour and what motivates behaviour.
It helped them to build positive relationships with learners and create classrooms conducive to effective learning.
It also enabled them to become aware of the basic needs of their learners.
They realised that structuring a classroom to meet their learners’ basic needs enabled them to promote the teaching of reading comprehension.
Once the classroom had been divided into co-operative learning groups that started to work on their own, the learners interacted with each other to complete the task of reading for comprehension by using the four strategies.
The teachers became facilitators, and the responsibility of learning was passed from teacher to learner.
What these findings show is that we must move away from the external control-dominated environment in our schools where many teachers still determine what learners should learn, when they should learn it and how they should learn it.
Going forward, we should consider offering Choice Theory training to teachers as this can help them to gain insight into their own and their learners’ behaviour and what motivates behaviour.
We should also have more focused professional development and training for teachers to address the misconception of reading comprehension as just reading aloud and reading comprehension testing.
Teachers must be empowered to change their perception of teaching reading comprehension.
This will enable our learners to move from Learn to Read in the Foundation Phase to Read to Learn in the Intermediate Phase. It will also help us to address the reading comprehension crisis in our schools and give our learners a fighting chance.
Dr Messina is an education consultant from the Western Cape. This article is based on his recent doctorate in Curriculum Studies at Stellenbosch University.
Cape Times