Notwithstanding Betty Edwards and her links between comprehension and visual skills, what are the characteristics of a good reader versus that of a less able reader? The list is long and strategies that need to be mastered in order to become an adult reader are complex. As educators, we need to incorporate these strategies into our reading tasks where ever possible.

Whenever a teacher addresses these basic skills they are countering reading avoidance strategies adopted by our students. Student engagement increases dramatically because students, often reluctantly, find they are using their skills. If students are asked to scan a single paragraph and then to find the names mentioned in the text then they are more likely to spend time locating those names. If the teacher uses a prompt that encourages the students to find four different names in a text then the student is more likely to reread the text. With teacher monitoring and encouragement the student will employ that comprehension skill rather than 'give up'. When I'm pacing the room, students who are stuck will often say, "Sir, what's the answer?" To which, I tell them to reread the text, to find it themselves.

My aim with a junior class is to take a leaf out of Julia Westera’s book and to apply a program of reciprocal teaching for each of the Year 9 classes. For each student, I want to embed the idea that they can, in this particular lesson, improve their comprehension skills. We know improving comprehension is a long process. Assessing comprehension is complex and I am unable, on a daily basis, to give scientific feedback in the manner of an asTTle or PAT test but I am able to give feedback on the successful use of comprehension strategies. With this in mind, we start, if possible, with the results of the PAT test and with a based line task. Feedback is given, summaries are graded and progress is monitored over the weeks. This is to show students that if they consistently use reading strategies their comprehension will improve.

The first step is to talk about reading skills. With 9RDy I discuss, what are reading skills. What do we do when we read a text? The students reply, you use your eyes, you look at the words. I prompt them, what strategies must we use in order to understand what we’re reading. With most Year 9 classes there seems to be little awareness of the skills they must use when reading a text. I prompt again, asking what we do when we don’t understand a word. This time a few students will respond and mention an aspect or two of word attack skills. I know students have all the skills on the meta sheet above and I explain that today, we are going to work to strengthen these skills. I do not say this but the comprehension skills are there, they are weak and need to be strengthened. Trust me and we’ll make them work.