Colloquium on English - Research Institute for Waldorf Education

62
Discussion: Teaching Reading
Our colloquium gave a welcome opportunity to celebrate the publication of Books for the Journey,
by Pam Fenner et al, published by Michaelmas Press. This list of almost 1500 annotated titles was gathered
from the curricula and reading lists of sixteen Waldorf high schools and is a welcome resource for librarians,
students, parents, and teachers.
Rudolf Steiner said very little about how to teach reading in the upper grades. What follows is a
compilation of strategies and concerns expressed during scheduled discussion time.
Most English teachers have degrees in English literature but have never been given direct instruction
in how to teach reading as a skill. We all recognize the need for more careful investigation in how
students learn and how they read. One participant recommended the book Smart Moves by educator and
neurological researcher Carla Hannaford (1995). She recognizes that movement is necessary for learning,
beginning in utero. The warmth of the mother induces movement in the child and as the movement is
repeated the myelin sheath grows and memory is strengthened. Once the child is able to walk upright, the
hands are free to be used. The speech center in the brain “warms up” as the hands move. In turn, the
memory center adjacent to the speech center then “warms up.” Progression occurs from walking to speaking
to thinking. Moving strengthens memory and language while flooding the entire neurological system
with activity. Waldorf English teachers can use eurythmy and drama, and we need to remember that handwriting
is also movement, as is the tracking of the eyes in reading.
There are a variety of reasons to read and each purpose requires somewhat different skills including
various speeds for various tasks. The two largest divisions of purpose might be between reading for information
and reading for enjoyment and insight. We read many things and don’t need to read everything
with the same degree of attention that the best literature requires.
We all recognize the need to start with oral language. The good reader “hears” inside. Reading is
inner hearing as writing is inner seeing. If students cannot inwardly recreate either sight or sound, they
cannot read or write. The inner memory that allows them to do this has been well bolstered in Waldorf
lower school through the richness of the language of the teachers and through recitation. In high school,
language is now softer and more inward. Part of the high school teacher’s task is to put the living language
back into the air. To help our students become good readers, we must create a classroom full of speaking,
with recitation and reading aloud. When they learn to read well, students will love the experience of sinking
into themselves and hearing the voice of the author or the various characters and visualizing characters,
setting, and action. As one participant said, “High school education without pictorial thinking is worse
than intellectualized grade school teaching.” There is certainly a place for illustration in the reading classroom,
but the picture must also be brought into words, otherwise the students are left too dreamy and have
only a generalized idea of what they have read.
Most English teachers have a variety of ways to bring language alive in the classroom, in all four
grades. Small groups for classroom dramatized reading give everyone a chance to be involved. In Grade 9,
for example, with A Tale of Two Cities or Uncle Tom’s Cabin, parts are given out within small groups where
the risk for exposure of uncertain reading is lessened. By reading aloud, students gain confidence in their
ability to read. Another idea is to have each student choose a short excerpt from the assigned novel to read
aloud in class the next day. Each student can practice “finding his or her tongue” at home beforehand.
Everyone was in agreement that the worst way to have students read aloud in the classroom is the
“round robin” approach, especially in a predictable pattern. Recommended is Goodbye Round Robin: 25
Effective Oral Reading Strategies by Michael F. Opitz.
How do we encourage reading for pleasure? As in all our teaching, our best tool is our own enthusiasm.
We begin lighting the fire of young people wanting to read with the spark of our own love of the
book, next we read aloud, letting them hear the language, then we hand them the book and let them