This past week, we have read about the difference in Independent and Dependent readers. This was a new concept for me, and I began to really think about what it means to be an independent and dependent reader. I am an independent reader. This means, no matter how slowly I read, I am able to work through a reading without any outside help. I can use context clues, prior information, and examples from the text to better my understanding and help to familiarize myself with the information that I did not know. But many readers are not independent. They need someone to sit with them to help them work through words, to help them understand wording or ideas they are not familiar with, and to help them move fast enough through the reading. One large issue with dependent readers is that the student cannot read fast enough to understand the information in the text. If the reader is concentrating solely on getting through the text, they are not focusing on what they need to take from the text. This may require the teacher, para, peer or parent to need to read the text aloud to the student and have them take notes. This way they can focus more on the information given and not trying to get through the text as fast as their peers. I remember being told to read an article in class. I would read as fast as I could because I was a slow reader. When I noticed students around me finishing up their article I would skim through the reading and pretend that I had finished. I would have been an independent reader who needed more time. But a dependent reader would have not only needed more time but also needed someone to sit with them to help them understand what they are reading.

So, is a dependent reader also a student with special needs? I do not believe this. A dependent reader has every capacity to become an independent reader. With time and help, a dependent reader can easily become independent. While some students may struggle with dyslexia or other reading disorders, not all dependent readers have a learning disability. In fact, I would bet that most dependent readers struggle most as slow readers. I have always been a slow reader. This has been a struggle for me since I was young. It took time, but after a while, I learned how to read at a faster pace to understand the text. The issue with dependent readers is not that they need extra help, it is that they need the practice. Students need to learn to struggle through their reading. They need to learn how to build on the blocks they are given, not the blocks that someone has built. No athlete can become a great athlete without struggle and pain. Likewise, no reader can become a great reader without addressing their struggles, dealing with them and learning how to overcome them. It has taken me 21 years to develop myself as a reader. And I am still struggling through books. But each book I finish is an amazing personal accomplishment and those are the baby steps that turn a dependent reader into an independent reader.