Good Readers Habits Of Good Students

Dr. Maxwell Maltz believed that it would take 21 days to create a habit and integrate new behavior. Maybe, in an application to reading, it takes 21 books to form strong habits of a good reader. Teachers are given a gift of 36 weeks each year to help students with developing these habits. That is plenty, if we approach each book as an opportunity to introduce a new comprehension strategy, carry it over to the next book, while integrating a new one. Often, we take for granted the mental processes we have developed over a life time and expecting our students to already have these habits (that is without much experience!) once they start decoding words of the text well enough. No doubt, there are students with higher developmental skills and strong literacy support at home, who can exhibit good readers’ habits without even knowing they are doing it. But even these students will benefit from the information we are

One of them is that students become shameful and self-conscious by a certain age, of being caught talking to themselves out loud for the fear of being labeled “crazy”. Here, teacher must explain that conversation with yourself is an ongoing and intelligent process, the one students must encourage, especially while reading. The way it is done is mostly readers’ choice and can be out loud or inside. During these important conversations good readers summarize the meaning of the content, determine the main ideas, draw inferences, and ask questions, which can be answered immediately or as the book unfolds. It is important to stress to the students that reading process is very individual, and to make it personal a good reader must be honest with himself. If there is something that is not clear, could be new vocabulary words for example, the good reader will stop and research the meaning of the word or use rereading strategy to look for clues before moving on with the