An Interview with Vera about Reading

Q: What motivates you to spend my retirement years writing and speaking about reading?

A: I have a deep compassion for those who can't read in our highly literate society. Some of the parents who bring a child to me have spent a lot of money on extra help but the child still isn't reading. They are desperate. They feel the pain of their child. They also realize how much not being able to read will restrict the income and life choices of the child.

Reading is basic to success in school. Can you imagine the feeling of hopelessness and despair students feel when they can't read the books their friends are reading and when they realize how they have failed to live up to the hopes and expectations of their parents?

Kids who don't read well may say they hate reading. They don't hate reading, they hate themselves for their failure. Everyone wants to be able to read. But they are labeled, separated from their peers for instruction, and made to feel it is their fault even though they don't know what more to do to succeed. They are urged to practice more. But if you can't read, you can't practice reading.

I simply can't imagine not being able to curl up with a good book or to have to ask someone else to read instructions for me.

I have unusual, common-sense insights into reading that I feel compelled to share. That's why I'm spending my retirement in this way.

Q: What advice do you have for the parents you work with?

What I do is to show parents what it is that good readers do that poor readers have missed. Students get the same amount of instruction in school but not all succeed. I show parents that there are only two parts to reading; the print which contains the letters and punctuation / and the experience you bring to the print in order to understand it. Everyone is illiterate in any text to which they are unable to bring prior knowledge. For instance, I can't make sense of an electrician's manual so I can't read it.

The dictionary definition of reading is “making sense of”. I don't believe you are reading unless it makes sense. You are simply ‘sounding out' letters and words which is not reading.

I show parents how to conduct reading practice sessions with their children that are fun, that build positive relationships, and that are successful.

Q: What do you mean by more than phonics?

We need a knowledge of letters and their sounds to read, but at some point we have to go beyond sounding out to making meaning. Our minds can only focus on one thing at a time: sounding out the words - or the meaning of what we are reading. Unfortunately, some people are so hooked on figuring out words that they are unable to focus on meaning.

My special gift is to show how to shift the knowledge of phonics to a subconscious level so the reader can focus on meaning. That's what all good readers do.

Q: What age level is the book for?

Simply Read! is invaluable for parents of pre-school children. When parents use this experience-based approach to reading, they don't have to worry about teaching reading skills. They will automatically build the kind of background that gives their children easy access to reading when they go to school. And they do it while having fun reading books they both enjoy.

However, this approach to reading is equally successful when used with those of any age who have failed to learn to read well. Adolescents and adults have bad habits to break so they are able to change their focus to make meaning and to become readers.

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