- Wednesday 26 April 2023
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The 2023 Reading Panel Report, released in February, conveyed the news no educator wants to hear: the reading crisis in South Africa is getting worse.
The figures in the report are disheartening, to say the least. In summary, if the results of the Western Cape Systemic Tests of 2021 are used as a benchmark for the whole country, it can be presumed that 82% of the Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning. That is a four percent increase from the 2016 results—a significant change in the wrong direction.
Covid Backlash
Sure, COVID-19 played a massive part in these learning losses. It is estimated that the 2020 school closures, rotational attendance, and days off for specific grades, amounted to a staggering 54% loss of learning time over two years.
Covid undeniably made things worse, but our reading crisis was around long before the pandemic.
What is Happening in Lower Performing Schools?
Research conducted by Lisa Zimmerman examines Grade 4 reading comprehension lessons from six case study schools. These schools all took part in the 2006 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and each had a different class average achievement profile, which ranged from low to high.
It was found that low achieving schools tended to provide texts that were below the required standard for Grade 4 level. It makes sense for an educator to feel compelled to provide their learners with texts they can master, but texts that are below a learner’s reading level do not lend themselves to higher order cognitive challenges—nor do the learners find them interesting. There has to be more opportunity for reading comprehension growth and development in all classrooms.
There was a vast difference in the classroom reading comprehension pedagogies between the higher performing schools and the lower performing schools. The top classrooms actively engaged with the texts through various pre-reading, mid-reading, and post-reading discussions and activities—ensuring multiple reading strategies were incorporated in each of the lessons. The lower performing classrooms missed out on valuable teaching opportunities, as the educator simply read through the text while the learners passively followed. There were no opportunities to relate the text to the learners’ own experiences, make inferences, or even discuss any challenging vocabulary. Teaching reading comprehension is an active and engaging process; however, it seems it is not treated as such in lower performing schools.
These findings are supported by Peter Rule, Associate Professor at the Centre for Higher and Adult Education at Stellenbosch University, in his article about the reading crisis in South Africa. He finds that the emphasis on teaching reading in many South African schools falls on pronunciation, fluency, and accuracy. Reading comprehension unfortunately falls by the wayside. Learners are taught to read aloud, but not to understand or question what they are reading. When interviewed, the educators stated that they each teach and assess reading in the same way that they were once taught and assessed by their educators while they were learning to read.
Intermediate Phase Teachers Should Rise to the Occasion
If 82% of our Grade 4 learners are drastically behind in their reading, perhaps the onus rests on intermediate phase teachers to step up and get these learners back on track. However, intermediate and senior phase teachers are not trained in teaching reading—or, at least, I wasn’t. When confronted with Grade 7 learners who couldn’t read—let alone read with comprehension—I did not have the faintest idea how to deal with it.
This begs the question: are teaching colleges and universities adequately preparing educators to deal with the reading crisis?
Are Tertiary Institutions Investing Enough Time in Reading Pedagogies?
A 2015 report by JET Education Services, an independent non-profit organisation that works to improve education, found that the coverage of reading pedagogies in universities is lacking, to say the least. According to the report, little to no attention is given to reading pedagogies in the sampled institutions. It also seems that the institutions are not investing enough time into preparing educators for the challenges that many learners experience during the transition from learning in their home language to learning in English from Grade 4 onwards. Surely this would be at the forefront of all tertiary education institutions in South Africa? One can only hope that things have taken a turn for the better in the eight years since the report was published. It is concerning, however, that South Africa has been underperforming in PIRLS since 2006, and equipping new educators with the necessary skills to address the problem still wasn’t a priority in 2015, when this report was published.
What Are Our Responsibilities As Educators to Support Our Learners in Reaching Reading Goals?
Reading comprehension is the ability to read a text, process it and understand its meaning. Good comprehension skills are imperative if reading is to have a purpose. The ability to read aloud is a wonderful skill to have, but what is the point if the reader doesn’t understand what it is they’re reading? We need to cultivate a generation of scholars and individuals who can form opinions, be critical and evaluate information of their own accord. Reading does not only provide you with information; it also promotes empathy and understanding of others’ point of view—including people from outside of your likeminded circle of family and friends—which is a necessity in the cultural melting pot which is South Africa.
The poverty and unemployment rates in this country will not subside if our schooling system produces illiterate learners. Researchers estimate that only between two and five percent of children—mainly those with developmental disorders or neurological problems—will never be able to read. The remaining 95% should be able to read reasonably well with the right kind of instruction. So, if only 18% of our learners can read reasonably well, it leads us to question the kind of reading instruction that is currently happening in our schools.
Your responsibility towards the learners in your classroom is to ensure that you are providing the most effective kind of reading instruction.
Steps You Can Take to More Effectively Teach Reading Comprehension in Your Classroom
1. Utilise the teaching time at your disposal.
The Department of Basic Education (DBE) adjusted the time allocation for languages and mathematics in the Foundation Phase for 2023–2024. It is recommended that an extra 30 minutes of group-guided reading is added to the daily timetable. This extra time will be extremely valuable if utilised properly.
2. Choose your texts wisely.
It can be a challenge to find suitable reading texts for a diverse classroom. Your learners will not grow if you do not challenge them; texts need to be developmentally appropriate as well as interesting. The more learners that can relate to the content, the more likely they will be to engage in and enjoy the experience.
3. Engage in pre-reading activities.
Pre-reading activities include making predictions based on the headings and visual images, identifying challenging vocabulary beforehand, and discussing the structure and purpose of the text.
4. Allow your learners to have time to reflect while reading.
Encourage learners to visualise mental images of the text by relying on prior knowledge and experiences. Discuss what things in the text would look, feel, smell, and taste like. Encourage them to make connections to their personal experiences, other texts, and current events. Create opportunities for them to question the text—critical thinking should be welcomed and encouraged.
5. Provide a variety of post-reading activities.
Reading comprehension does not have to take the form of a comprehension test, but if it does, it is important to include a variety of questions. By addressing different comprehension strategies when setting these questions, the educator can determine where the general comprehension weaknesses are in the class. Questions should not only be literal (found in the text), but also inferential (reading between the lines). Learners should practice recalling the main points and separating these from supporting details.
6. Use various reading strategies.
The educator should not read the whole text whilst the learners follow along in their books. Think of interesting ways to incorporate different reading strategies when introducing new texts. Learners can group-read the new vocabulary, listen to a paragraph read by the educator, discuss the images in pairs, and read a paragraph or two by themselves. The educator can incorporate skimming and scanning in their pre-reading and mid-reading activities.
7. Read up on The Simple View of Reading.
Researchers have finally figured out the best way to teach children how to read. And, for once, it seems that everyone agrees. The Simple View of Reading is a piece of research by Tunmer and Gough that concludes that you can achieve good reading comprehension skills by acquiring two separate, but interlinked, skills: decoding and language comprehension. In short, you need to be able to decipher the letters on the page, know what they mean and know how to use them in language. If your learners are not achieving good results in reading comprehension, they either need support with decoding, or they need support in language comprehension.
It is now more vital than ever that every educator critically evaluate their approach to teaching reading, including reading comprehension. You are either providing the right instruction, or you are not. As educators, it is vital we are always open to learning, growing and adapting—our learners deserve it.
If you are seeking effective comprehension resources to support your learners’ education, we have a range of reading comprehension products that can develop these skills.
Renera,
Educator and Trainer
