Students score poorly on reading tests for many reasons, but I’d like to discuss the one I like to call “drifting.” It’s when a student has no problem reading any of the words in a passage, but their mind “drifts,” making it difficult for them to pay attention to the entire article or story. They understood all of the words, so with no hesitation, they check all of the multiple-choice answers that were planted for readers just like them, and they are amazed when they don’t score so well.
Drifting is the equivalent of watching a movie while doing a
crossword puzzle, but many students can’t help it. The mental muscle required
to stay focused is weak, mainly through lack of use. But like learning to stand
on one leg, you can only get better at it by doing it. (For the drifter who’s
reading this, I’m not talking about reading; I’m talking about focusing.) You can only get better at focusing when
reading by focusing when reading.
Many of these same drifters find it difficult to enjoy
movies with too many characters and/or plotlines such as Lord of the Rings or
Star Wars. And there’s no help for drifters when watching a film where the
surprise ending requires attention to detail throughout. As the credits roll,
drifters may say things like “Why are they burning the sled?” or “So was he Keyser Soze?”
Drifting also rears its ugly head in conversations. Here,
drifters can’t really listen as well as they should because they’re too busy
thinking about what they want to say as soon as the speaker takes a breath. We’ve
heard of it before. It’s a common thing, right? Of course it is. (About as
common as someone not liking Star Wars.)
Interesting enough, drifting while reading happens most with people who can read words well. (People who can’t
are too busy paying attention to the words.) Many drifters are college
graduates who fall into an “intelligence trap,” believing that reading well
(understanding each word on the page) is also reading carefully. (Well,
carefully enough anyway.) Some may have this intelligence-trap condition so badly that
they stop learning new things altogether. Either they read very little, or they
are content to read one discipline or genre. Of course, this doesn’t affect the
intellect’s ability to share what he or she “knows.” Much like a person who has
never read Harry Potter can tell you why they aren’t good books,
or like a person who only attends church for an hour or so every Sunday has no qualms
debating a Buddhist scholar.
Not surprisingly, many students will do poorly on tests when there are
heightened emotions involved, particularly the stressful kinds. I call this "emotional drifting." Many students
attend school while abuse waits at home. Some students are already parents. Many
may not have a real home. Many know that the teacher hates them, so they hate
the teacher more. I can only imagine the emotions some students try to keep in
check as we hand them a number two pencil. Emotions bite when you have to read
and think. They really do. How can a student’s mind not drift when matters that
are more urgent are renting space in his head? There is little surprise when
such students score poorly on tests.
Of course, adults do this emotional
drifting as well. In some instances, it's even socially acceptable. (Just think of the conversations we tend to have during every election year.) To avoid emotional
drifting, it takes a conscious effort from someone who knows how emotions
hinder the thought process, but like everything else, we get better at doing
this by doing this.
To improve literacy skills, I’ll end this with three
suggestions that may not make much sense to drifters who either didn’t read this
well or skipped to the final lines of this posting: 1. Decide right now that
you will forever practice standing on one leg. 2. Resist becoming intelligent.
3. Remember that emotions trump total comprehension most of the time.
