Radio Commentary
Getting meaning out of what we read is one of the secrets for success at any age, but most particularly for young people in school.
Experts always cite reading as the skill students most need for classroom success. Studies show that having a lot of reading materials around while children are growing up helps them in more ways than we may ever know.
Being surrounded by words helps make children comfortable with language.
Submerging children in a culture of words helps them learn that words have meaning.
Words are the building blocks for thinking and learning all through a lifetime.
But just learning to read is not enough to ensure school success.
It’s important to be able to sound out different letter combinations, but children must also learn to find the meaning in different combinations of words.
Reading out loud helps focus on pronunciation and word recognition. The next step is understanding what those words signify, and learning how to put them together in combinations to get meaning across.
Only then can students put what they read to its best use. Reading for meaning is always the goal.
