Fake reading and comprehension

Tovani is concerned about the comprehension abilities of adolescent readers. Why does Tovani talk about "fake reading"? How does this relate to the expectations and purposes for reading that she goes on to discuss? What do these have to do with comprehension?

Tovani talks about “fake reading” because she recognizes some children pass through school without learning how to read. Just as she did in school, these children find that “fake reading” can get them through the day. Identifying this strategy, the reader is given instruction on how to help these children. Tovani makes the case that reading comprehension is an essential life skill everyone needs to have upon leaving high school.

According to her, the expectation for reading is that students engage in reading, comprehend what they read, know how to construct meaning from text, and have gained these reading skills in elementary school. As these are the expectations, “fake reading” is the strategy students use so that they appear to have these skills. Tovani presents the idea that the purposes for reading are dependent on the child. In chapter three she details children are reading for a purpose that makes the reading important to them. To illustrate the importance of having a purpose before reading, she presented the kids with a passage from Pichert and Anderson (1977) entitled The House. It is a great passage for illustrating the idea that people reading for different purpose will extrapolate different meaning from the text. Throughout this section, she is telling the students who “fake read” that they can read and just need tools and a purpose.

Expectations and purposes for reading seamlessly transition into reading comprehension. First she busts expectations that students are going to understand what they read. She emphasizes to the students that it is important for them to realize when they don’t understand the text, or when their inner voices are not focused. After acknowledging they are stuck, the children need tools. This addresses the purpose for reading in that the students use the tools so that they can comprehend what is read.

Tovani does a great job describing what happens as one reads. She describes the inner voices, and how the voices impact reading. I love her list of tools for “fixing” confusion: “make a connection between the text and your life, make a prediction, stop and think about what you have already read, ask yourself a question and try to answer it… adjust your reading rate” (p. 51). Tovani makes the case that comprehension doesn’t just happen. There are things happening within the reader that is bringing forth the comprehension.