Casablanca, Aug. 17 -- For as long as I can remember, I have been trained to adopt a read-and-answer approach to reading texts. Students also, and since primary school, have developed this unhelpful attitude towards reading comprehension.

As a teacher, I found that I was trapped in the read-and-answer approach, and students could effortlessly predict the lesson: read and answer. I had never noticed the barrenness of this approach. It is a trap.

I have come to realize that asking students to read the text, explain paragraphs, and answer the comprehension questions is not teaching reading. In a reading lesson, students need to learn comprehension skills .

Reading is not only about decoding symbols, it consists of several levels with diff...