The Reading Process

Aesthetic reading is reading that is pleasing to a person's senses and it is usually the most appealing type of reading because it is purely enjoyable. Efferent reading is reading that allows a person to acquire information, or to read for the purpose of understanding the story rather than to become a part of the story while reading. Obviously, a purely aesthetic stance when reading is most appealing, however most of the time there is a balance between the two. I love to read aesthetically, but I have not in quite a while because I am so busy reading the books assigned to me in class and even at my job (I have to read about sporting goods and take tests on what I read!) Needless to say, I miss reading for fun and cannot remember the last time I was really able to throw myself into a book and understand the feelings and thoughts of the characters.

There are five stages of the reading process. 1) Pre-reading involves simply becoming informed of the background of the book and creating a purpose for the reading. An example of this would be to read a little bit about evolution before reading an argument against the theory of evolution and for the theory of creationism. 2) Actually reading the text comes next. This can be done through a buddy system, independently, through shared reading, guided reading from perhaps the teacher, or by listening to someone read it aloud. It is important to read any diagrams, charts, or illustrations as well since they too contribute to the text. 3) After reading is responding. A person can respond in reading logs, or through discussion with either classmates and/or the teacher of the classroom. The discussions can be guided or unguided, probably depending on the type of learners in the classroom. 4) Following the response, a person should explore. This involves pondering the text more deeply, participating in mini lessons, and learning any vocabulary words that weren’t familiar before. 5) And finally, once a student has learned something from the text he should apply it to new experiences. He can create a project based on it, connect it with related books, or simply use what he learned in every day situations.

It is important when developing a capable reader to develop his fluency skills, his vocabulary database, his word identification skills, and his reading comprehension. To improve fluency skills, a teacher should have the students read at their reading level, rather than below it or too far above it. Teachers should also introduce key vocabulary words before reading to build a background, and after once she sees ones that were difficult. Word walls also work great to develop vocabulary. Furthermore, for comprehension, discussions and writing and creating projects are wonderful ways to make sure the student comprehends what he is reading.

There really are no rules to reading as long as one takes in the information. A person can take the information in and not gain anything from it, but that wouldn’t have any benefit to the reader and would end up as a waste of time. A good teacher is able to bridge the gap between aesthetic and efferent reading in a way that both provides students with the knowledge they need, but also allows them to enjoy the process of reading it.