The GED has a 4 point score for scoring essays. The bulk of the pretest essays that we score fall in the 1.5 to 2.5 range. I'd never even thought of scoring an essay a 4 until I read Tyrell's.

Teaching Reading

by Tyrell Plumb

2/11/04

If I were to teach anything, it would definitely be how to read. The ability to read is vital to being successful and has many other benefits.

The first thing to teach would be a solid understanding of the alphabet. Not just knowing the letters and what order they're in, but the things that seem to make reading so challenging for some. Examples include when an 'S' is pronounced as a 'Z', how a supposedly 'silent E' changes the mechanics of the word it's in, and common letter pairing such as 'ch', 'th', and 'qu'. This is the basis for any good reader.

The next step, combining sounds of different letters into words, is often taken for granted. Yes, people do it every day TALKING, but doing it from a bunch of symbols written on paper can be hard to get without good help and practice. To an accomplished reader it might be best understood by smashing your head onto a keyboard and deleting all the numbers; hard to read, isn't it?

After a basic understanding of this was made, then I'd begin to work on syllables. From what I've seen, many otherwise good readers can have trouble with large, complex, or otherwise cumbersome words they have either never seen written before, don't know, or both. A good understanding of syllables can help even the newest reader though an otherwise unmanageable text.

The final lesson would be how to use punctuation. Punctuation, while not technically required to read, is nonetheless very important. Punctuation gives us a way to better understand what we read. Knowing why a period is on the page, to pause after a comma, and how question marks and exclamation points change the very feel of something you read; definitely makes reading easier and more enjoyable.

With all that said, simply making reading as fun as possible will help the most, coupled with regular practice. The best readers are the ones who have been shown that reading can be fun.