All Teachers are Reading Teachers!!!

It is my firm belief that ever teacher is and should be a reading teacher. 

First, it is clear that different disciplines and content areas have different forms of reading. To read successfully in English (say reading a novel) is a very different kind of reading than one should be doing in mathematics, social studies, science, music, art, etc. In short, different contexts/content require different reading skills. 

Second, all teachers need to be aware that decoding (using graphemes and phonemes to sound out and recognize words) is a different thing than reading with fluidity and comprehension. Just because a student can decode a text does not mean that the student can understand that text. This should be clear in one of the first sets of slides below, where I highlight the fallacy in the notion that "reading is reading--period."  

Third, the English Language Arts teacher (and reading coaches) are already tasked with a a lot of responsibilities; as such, they cannot be responsible for helping students become stronger readers in the other subject areas as well. Yes, they should be helping students learn to read and they are already doing that. To lay the burden of teaching a student to read across different content areas on English teachers or reading specialists (whose main job is low-level reading remediation) is to ignore the needs and realities of one's students. 

A Caveat: When I say that every teacher needs to be a reading teacher, I am not suggesting that all teachers need to be reading experts. Rather, I am saying that every content area teacher can--with knowledge and insights--help scaffold reading for their students.  That is what the slides below are all about.