KEY FINDINGS
> > McGill-Franzen et al. (2016) showcase the research of Rosalie Fink (1995, 1997), who demonstrated that curiosity and a “pursuit of passionate interests” can drive the kind of reading practice that ultimately helps even so-called dyslexics overcome reading challenges. Fink interviewed 60 highly successful adult professionals who attended prestigious universities and became award-winning scientists, professors in medicine, neuroscientists, and lawyers, and yet as children all had been identified as dyslexic. Nevertheless, all became accomplished professionals by immersing themselves in “massive amounts of technical reading” about their topic of interest. In the process, these striving readers developed: • “Deep background knowledge, schema familiarity, and contextual understanding. Familiarity with domain-specific vocabulary, themes, and
typical text structures provided the scaffolds that supported their development of increasingly sophisticated literacy skills” (Fink, 1997; cited in Franzen, 2016).”
> > In a similar fashion, Krashen (2011) promotes “narrow reading”—the practice of delving deeply into a particular topic of interest, and scaffolded by the familiar vocabulary, text structures, and concepts, consuming vast qualities of texts with relative ease. > > Although some children may require more intense reading interventions, focused instruction in English, and/or special education services, all children need and deserve an active reading life fueled by caring teachers (Harvey and Ward, 2017; Beers and Probst, 2017; Howard, 2018; Routman, 2018).
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STRIVING READERS
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