Finding Versus Fixing: Self-Monitoring for Readers Who Struggle

This article explains how teachers can understand, notice, and supportively respond to readers who struggle with self-monitoring during text reading. The unique strategic processing demands for readers who struggle support the argument that teaching children to find and notice errors is different than fixing a word, or getting it right. Three critical attributes of teaching for self-monitoring based on the important works of Peter Johnston and Marie Clay are put forth: teacher observation and hypothesizing, noticing and naming, and teaching for strategic activity and agency. Teaching examples provide a frame for critical attributes to guide professional conversations around self-monitoring.