Reading - Just the Basics
 

The Basics of Reading

English is the richest language with the largest vocabulary-over 1,000,000 words-on earth. Yet the average adult has a vocabulary of only 40,000-50,000 words. Imagine what we're missing! Teaching reading is an important part of every classroom.

As you go through this web-based training, you will be using a very important skill - the skill of reading to learn. This seemingly simple task of reading is anything but simple. Your eyes fall on a word and a complex set of processes - physical, neurological, and cognitive - are set in motion, enabling you to convert the printed word into meaning. This process begins when the nerve impulses from your eyes stimulate an area near the back of your brain that allows you to see the light and dark areas on a page that define each letter.

Then, another region of your brain allows you to convert the letters you see into sounds and those sounds into language. Finally, another part of your brain converts the jumble of words in a sentence into something meaningful that you can interpret. And that's really only the beginning. However, you don't really need to understand the physical/neurological processes involved in order to help your students become better readers.

Think for a moment about how you learned to read. What did the teacher do to help you learn this important skill?

When you entered school, reading became your primary way of learning. That's why reading is such a fundamental skill required in today's world for success. However, it's a skill that takes years to fully develop. For some, those years can be extremely frustrating. Since reading requires so many different types of tasks, it can be difficult to determine why a person does not read well.

So how do you get students to read well? Although this brief web-based training cannot teach you everything you need to know to be a reading expert, let's look at some of the basics and some resources for you to explore.
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Developed by Florida Human Resources Development, Inc. (FHRD), this website is authorized by the Michigan Department of Career Development and funded through a grant under Section 222(a)(2) State Leadership Activities of the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, Title II of the Workforce Investment Act of 1998, amended.