"Decoding does not mean Reading."

Hi everyone,

An issue that I have with many teachers is that when they hear a student decode well, they believe that a student knows how to read. 

This is far from the truth, yes decoding is essential but if there is little to no comprehension, it is not reading.  A student needs to be able to understand what he/she is reading and be able to discuss the text and write about what they read.To read entails taking in the sense or interpret of what is decoded. 

I have listened to students read with excellent fluency, expression and were first –rate decoder but unfortunately did not understand what they read. I have also had the experience of having new immigrant students with no English knowledge read beautifully as if they were professional radio announcers in their native language and have no comprehension of what they read. This is because Spanish is considered a "transparent language." On another occasion I had students reading at a 2^nd grade level in English decode a leveled text at their appropriate level, nevertheless, these students did not know the meaning of the text they read. 

My point with these two examples is that decoding does not mean reading with comprehension. However, some teachers focus on teaching  fluency and they believe that the student has learned once he/she decodes. Reading entails comprehension of the material. Interpreting, evaluating and using information from written text, is really the predominant purpose of learning to read.