The Single Most Important Skill

Some years ago a study came out that showed students who attend religious services on a regular basis tend to do better in school than students who don't.  Before we  conclude that God smiles more kindly on devout students, and without delving into some other probable factors (such as, do families who keep more regular routines tend to nurture higher achievement?), I would like to raise another consideration:  The sermon.  Common to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, a sermon is the part of the service when everyone is asked to reflect on a teaching.  So most students who attend religious services hear, on a regular basis, an invitation to reflect on the deeper meaning of the words before them.   I propose that this habit, more than any particular teaching, is responsible for the boost in achievement.

I have thought about this finding on a regular basis in the many years that I have been in education.  For seventeen years I was a college advisor, first at a private university in Massachusetts, then at a state university in North Carolina.  During that time I coached students through the college transition, teaching them study skills.  Now that I am a resource teacher in a title one middle school, many of the same issues present themselves (only the intensity is often greater).  What, one might ask, might a freshman at a prestigious private university have in common with a learning disabled sixth grader?  The answer is, more than I would have predicted.

From the point of view of development, the college student and the middle schooler are both searching for new identities and ways of defining themselves.   This can cause some fairly spectacular instances of college students crashing and burning, as well as a considerable amount of drama at middle school.  However, what I want to address in this blog is the importance of the skill of making inferences, or, what is more frequently the case, the lack of this skill.  It may not be surprising that a sixth grader, especially one with a learning disability, might lack this skill, but college freshmen are often very literal readers as well.  Subtle differences, unspoken conclusions, irony-- all are frequently lost on a typical 18-year-old.  The 11-year-old facing questions about  reading passages on a state end of grade exam can feel equally lost.  How can we help our students to develop the skill of inference, of reading into things?

All the possible strategies would not fit into one blog post, but here are some suggestions:  Using cartoons with double or hidden meanings (Gary Larson's Far Side cartoons often fit into this category).  Having students speak or write what they think are the "secret thoughts" of a literary character.  Having students act out a scene from a novel or play, using the premise of the story but  their own words.  Making an "equivalency list" of hard to understand expressions and their meanings.  Most of all, we can and should teach a deeper level of reading comprehension through thoughtful, unhurried questioning and discussion.  There's no app for that.