A reading reflection of Reading Isn’t Optional by Jeanne Schopf 

by: Kerrie Husband-McGregor and Melissa Rubin, NEALS Board Members

Honestly, I was excited to find a book that was angled toward secondary education reading, as it is an area that remains weak with attention and expertise. But, instead, I found myself nodding along much of the time as I read chapter to chapter. 

Why is it challenging to find good reading resources for adolescents? It’s like building a house; it’s easier to design from the beginning than to tear down poor infrastructure and rebuild with rules that have not changed since the Orton-Gillingham approach started in the 1930’s. In fact, the science of reading started evolving a hundred years before that: in the 1830’s, yet often elementary schools still avoid phonics and vary with scaffolding skills, fostering differences that can turn into learning differences, especially for those diagnosed with dyslexia. 

Reading challenged students do not outgrow reading differences, they continue to need all teachers to be reading teachers beyond third grade, which is the natural transition from learning to read to reading to learn. Beyond middle-school, reading skills are like executive function skills, they need to be orally processed and modeled so the students learn how to practice the skills and apply them to higher level learning and critical thinking. 

Since I started working as a learning specialist, after years of teaching high school English that inspired my master’s degree as a reading specialist in 2003, I realized that students were reading less and less connected text. I needed more instruction to teach them skills not included in a secondary education English teacher degree. I was also hungry for more tricks than a master’s degree as a reading specialist provided. So, I began building a tool belt with OG, Wilson, V/V, PhonoGraphix, and whatever other reading programs surfaced in my world as I expanded my knowledge and built a toolbelt to successfully teach dyslexic learners and help them close gaps.

This book echoed my sentiments: 

• the need for administrative focus on teaching secondary educators the importance of addressing critical thinking in their lessons by providing time in class for reading and meaning making. 

• Helping faculty understand that comprehension is just as important in math as it is in history is key

• all educators need to teach comprehension and introduce vocabulary. 

• Graphic organizers should be used in every subject to help students understand morphology and make connections that matter.

In chapter 7, “Construction of Meaning: Building Text Understanding Layer by Layer”, Mitchell Brookins helps the reader understand that just because the student can read the words does NOT mean they understand them or are making connections/meaning in their mind as they are reading. Thinking critically is something teachers need to teach and model OVER and OVER. For those that do not have a toolbelt of tricks for teaching metacognition or how to annotate in their secondary education curriculum, this chapter brings clarity to the need to use them. It also reassures the importance of the work that reading specialists do in secondary education.  

Teaching word meaning is so important to every subject area and Jeanne Schopf talks at length about this in Chapter 9: “Word-Rich Classrooms: Practices for Intentional Vocabulary Instruction”. Here, Schopf makes it evident that teachers should never assume, and that listing a definition does not teach the meaning of the word. Students need more. Many do not know how to use context clues, so using them together in class models the skill. Vocabulary fosters increased comprehension. Exercising the words, beyond reading them or introducing them once or twice, is also explained in this chapter. Many content curriculum teachers would benefit from her vocabulary activities in figure 9.5, where she lays out five days of vocabulary activities. 

Chapter 11 talks about “POWERful WRITING INSTRUCTION FOR SECONDARY STUDENTS”. Here, Dr. Leslie Laud discusses how content teachers need to develop awareness that good readers must be present for writing to occur. Good readers are good writers. Poor readers can’t write. They will likely lean into AI. Again, the lesson of not assuming and, instead, teaching students to develop and exercise these skills, moving from a chapter or lesson of reading, and then leaning into writing. 

The chapter that has the most new information for me was chapter 13: Foundational Skills for Adolescent Newcomer English Learners. After 31 years of serving adolescents and children as a reading and learning specialist, I am taking a Sheltered English Immersion (SEI) course. I am excited about learning more and appreciated how table 13.1, on page 350-351, outlines the scope and sequence of learning sounds symbols, blending, and reading for non-native English speakers. I also enjoyed how they incorporated images with words. I use visualization much in the reading instruction that I do and look forward to learning more about applying my English teaching and reading specialist skills into SEI work. 

Overall, the book was not deeply enlightening for experienced reading specialists, but is a good resource for secondary administration and core subjects areas. 

Melissa Rubin echoed many of my feelings: I too participated in the Reading Isn’t Optional book group this summer. While I LOVED the focus on reading for older students, I was disappointed not to walk away with more takeaways. I felt validated that much of what was suggested in the book I already do, but I was hoping for more. In my mind, the authors were just preaching to the choir. I think the book would be much more effective a read for administrators, and content teachers who do not already appreciate the nuances of reading and how critical reading is to academic success, regardless of the subject matter. 

That being said, I did appreciate the padlet (https://padlet.com/TRL_Chapters/the-reading-league-chapter-network-summer-book-study-reading-9taojdo1ifoj9tyl) that was provided as part of the book study. In fact, rather than just reading the book, I would recommend focusing one’s energy on working through the different aspects of the padlet, which highlights key quotes, includes the recordings of the authors discussing the concepts presented in their chapters, and provides other references and resources to supplement the book. I encourage you all to check out the padlet.