The Discipline of Reading, A Guide to Developing Reading as a Skill by Maryann M. Scheufele M.A.

Discipline begins with desire; like any activity that parents can wish for their children to enjoy the experience of excelling in, the development of techniques to practice skillfully come from enduring required discipline. I am convinced that the discipline of learning to read begins with desire, and the first most basic help a parent can give to a student is to help them find a what is interesting to them when developing reading skills. Through desire the endurance will achieve positive results. The result of practicing the basic disciplines of  learning to read, like the disciplines of sports or music or dance. encompass training that develops self control, orderliness, efficiency, and character.  I encourage everyone to have more respect for the set of rules that accompany learning to read as a discipline. When the desire exists towards reading, I would like you to know about five additional techniques that may be taught.  Technique is the procedure, or the sequence of steps previously logically established as proven to reach the accomplishment of a particular task. Why follow procedure? The discipline as stated involves orderliness, self control, efficiency, and character development. I would also like you to know about the five best disciplines to practice to develop the skill of reading. I hope that you will desire to learn to become a skilled reader, and to recognize a skilled reader. The combination of desire, five techniques,  and five skill practices are your guide to developing reading as a skill.  Read on.

Once upon a time when boys and girls read in school, they were required to sit at a desk, upright in a chair, faced towards the pages of a book.  A modern day movement to change the disciplines learned in school allowed the reading position – with it’s good posture - to become lazy; pillows, floors, rocking chairs, moving carts, drawn shades, holding books any which way, laying down, standing up, were techniques introduced with alternate methods of learning to read, alternate subjects, and alternate languages.  All the while, learning to read the English Language through basic techniques like the concept that each letter of the alphabet had a sound which represents it, faded but did not ever go away. So no matter what the method, a basic is a fundamental, essential from which to build.

Long ago, as an elementary school student , my place to read was a delightful find – the public library. A friend told me that I could go to the library to read assuring me that the librarian would welcome me.  My friend was right – it was true – I was welcome there. The silent environment of the public library children’s reading section was a distinct contrast to the active home which I was accustomed to. After the librarian showed me where the tables were located and the bookshelves containing youth reader books, I felt very privileged.  I remember reading, to my heart’s delight, a Pipi Longstocking story. I sat in a chair positioned with my back straight looking at the pages of the book which was placed directly in front of me laying flat on the table. When I finished reading the book, I was not exactly feeling a sense of accomplishment, rather I felt a bit disappointed that the story came to an end.  Consequently, I went back to the bookshelf and found another Pipi Longstocking story to read.  After that, every afternoon I could, I went back to that public library to read.  I read every Pipi Longstocking book on those bookshelves.  Then the kind librarian helped me find an interest in biographies. I read book after book on the public library bookshelves in the category of biographies.  I always sat at the same table, in the same chair, in the same position with my back up straight, my head tilted at a slight angle reading the pages of my book laying flat on the table, eyes moving left to right across the pages, under the ceiling lights of the public library and next to a large sunlit window. I had learned the discipline of reading because I had been taught. The example of my library reading experience is practice of basic five techniques plus desire. The first section of A Guide to Developing Reading as a Skill, shows the five basic techniques that have been proven to accomplish the task:

I.  TECHNIQUE

A.  Have the desire to read ( offer rewards, hot fudge banana split sundaes…)(or just find an interesting subject…)(or challenge…)

B.  Techniques ( the mechanics)

1. a chair at a table, or a desk, or other chair or pillow, either way comfortable enough to remain in the position.

2. position the body upright, head held erect and back straight

3.  position the book directly in front of body within eyes correct distance for reading and placed stationary

4.  lighting, overhead or over the shoulder – shining on the pages of the book

5.  frequency, a time of repeating the discipline

It was a little less that twenty years ago when my child came home from first grade complaining because he wanted to sit at a desk instead of on the floor in his classroom when reading.  I made sure his teacher heard about his request. It made all the difference in the world to us.  You can make sure that your child’s teacher hear the requests of your child also. I still to this day have been asked by children in elementary school classrooms if they could please sit at a desk when reading! Some things are just basic. Basics repeat. Even if a pillow in a corner is where your reading skilled child would rather sit while reading, a parents’ observation could be to notie the book position – is it in a certain fixed position and at a distance from the eyes enabling skilled reading.  No matter how often reading is practiced or how creative a seating arrangement, the English Language reading skill requires left to right eye movement. Additionally, the motion of the eyes needs to be stayed enough to follow to the next line. The distance of the page to the eyes is best settled when the eyes can rest comfortably on the page. Reading is a discipline. As with any learned discipline, techniques are repeated and practice develops the skill. The skill of reading is developed when the eyes move carefully across the lines of a page with ease. The techniques of positioning the body and the page applied enables developing the skill. Adhering to the basic techniques help develop skill and as the skill level improves, add to the techniques basically. For example, a skilled reader may attempt standing erect, placing a page stationary in front of them, and reading to an audience. Following is the second section of A Guide to Developing Reading as a Skill:

II.  DISCIPLINE

1.  develop the skill of  focusability

a) quiet the mind

b)  calm environment – calmly eliminate distraction – the reader’s decision

2.  develop the skill of left to right eye movement

a)  pages filled with words are read left to right

b)  left to right eye movement is different then the eye movement required to play electronic games

3.   develop the skill to sit still, likewise to hold a page still

4.  develop the skill to think a complete thought

a) a sentence

b) a paragraph

5.  develop the skill to look at a page

a) know the topic sentences of paragraphs

b) know the concluding sentences of paragraphs

c) recognize the big words on the pages

d) interpret your personal evaluation of a page ie: a possible interest

The skilled action of moving the eyes from the left to the right across the page and staying the motion of the eyes to pick up the next line is necessary in order to read the English Language.  This skill is not developed when a child is rocking in a rocking chair, moving back and forth, or wondering what their friend next to them is doing.  Disciplined reading is also never successfully faked when the observer knows what to look for. Observe The Discipline of Reading as though A Guide to Developing Reading as a Skill were the rules of a game. Students either have the ability to practice the basics or they don’t. Oftentimes,  a child who got left behind in school was a child who got away with faking their ability to read.

By the way, remember the discipline of reading starts with a desire to read.  Adrian’s Mayflower Adventure was taken from a familiar story yet told in a totally unique way which makes it very interesting to teachers and students of all ages. Check it out.Anza Books

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