10 Principles for Assisting Reading. 6b Scaffolding

In the last two blogs we discussed the scaffolding required for two types of miscues that are typically made during guided reading.

The third situation is rather simple, it does not require any intervention. When the reader makes an error and the meaning is not lost then do not respond. This type of miscue is common to most good readers and is an indication that the reader is reading actually processing for meaning. It stands to reason that when a reader makes an error that has almost the same meaning as the targeted word then the reader has understood the message conveyed by the author. Meaning is the most important consideration because the purpose of reading is to understand. By ignoring this type of miscue reading risk-taking and fluency will be encouraged. This is not normally a problem because as the reader becomes more confident this type of miscue will diminish, but not completely. Competent readers make this type of miscue more often that we realise. Normally competent readers monitor their reading by asking themselves, "Does this make sense? or "Does this sound right?" If the answer to these two questions is yes the reader will continue the reading without any loss of meaning.

If the reading is interrupted the reading guide may be in danger of giving a wrong message. The reader should be sampling the text and touching the fewest bases so that working memory can be used effectively without being overloaded. On the other hand, if too much emphasis is placed on exactness the danger is that reading will slow down, risk-taking will be stifled, meaning will be lost, and working memory will not function efficiently.