Reader Personalities

Which one are you?

Thank you so much for the love on this year’s plan. Sometimes I have ideas that make perfect sense in my head, but feel a little suspect when I share them. So hearing that this might support your reading journey genuinely makes me happy. But like clockwork, my inner critic joined the chat. Since posting the plan, I’ve been sitting with the question-

What’s the best way to have an impact?

The original plan started to feel very akin to “sign up for my course to become a better reader” IG ad. For my own peace of mind, I had to do a gut check because this plan isn’t about reading more or faster. I’m not an expert in reading literacy or comprehension. You aren’t signing up to read Substacks focused on all the things you should do better.

What I am is an avid reader, just like most of you. I just so happen to also like to contextualize learning. I don’t want the next few months to be interpreted as if I am a teacher, or, more importantly, your teacher. Rather, let’s imagine I’m a tour guide, and we’re on a virtual journey together, being curious, honest, and open to the messiness of reading differently.

Okay, with that out of the way, I started to realize, as you shared your reading journeys, that we are engaging with the text from different reading standpoints. And if that’s the case, then I had some huge gaps in the plan right out the gate.

Womp womp.

That’s like me saying, " Let’s go somewhere,” and we don’t have all the supplies. It is here that the inner critic was helpful. How can we learn from each other when we have different starting points? I don’t have a good answer other than I’ll do my best to remind us all to be gentle and embrace curiousity however that looks for you.

Reading fundamentals (January-March) originally focused on annotation and comprehension. But as I was re-reviewing my plan, I realized pretty quickly that I was missing a crucial component. Reading has 3 main components: decoding, comprehension, and fluency. So, before we get to comprehension, I should have probably started with decoding. Remember, learning is messy, so before we dive any deeper into comprehension, let’s rewind the movie a bit and talk about decoding, because it quite literally is foundational to reading¹.

Decoding is the process of accessing meaning in text, allowing readers to figure out unfamiliar words and build fluency, shifting the focus from individual sounds to the overall message.

Think about decoding as a puzzle. If I’m not familiar with a word, phrase, or idiom, I often stop because, for some reason, it feels important to understand what stumped me to be able to contextualize the rest of the text. I don’t feel like that takes away from my reading ability. I’m keenly aware that it’s just part of comprehension to help me build context. That planted another seed about our starting points and how we each approach text.

This reminded me of a Buzzfeed about a reading personality quiz. Ding ding, the missing link. I did a little digging and found that there was a 19th-century poet, Samuel Taylor Coleridge², who clocked 4 reading types that describe how meaning moves through us while reading. They are -

• The Hourglass - passes through unchanged,

• The Sponge - absorbs and returns slightly dirtier,

• The Jelly-Bag - retains dregs, lets purity pass, and

• The Diamondminer - filters for pure gems.

Coleridge observed habits of the mind; how we process what we read, what we retain, and what kind of meaning we make. Super fascinating, right (at least to me). This idea of how we read would be later enhanced by Luke & Freebody³ into the four roles of the reader-

• Code breaker – decoding the conventions of a text by understanding the relationship between spoken sounds and written symbols, the grammar of texts, and their structural conventions.

• Text user – understanding the purposes of different text their cultural and social functions, including knowing that different texts have different purposes, which shape the way texts are structured and formed.

• Text participant – comprehending texts, making meaning by drawing on their own experiences and knowledge, and their knowledge of similar texts.

• Text analyst – understanding how texts position readers, knowing that texts are not ideologically neutral but represent someone’s views, knowing that texts empower or disempower certain groups, and that information and language influence reader perceptions.

These roles are based on the 4-resources model⁴. Combining these two ideas about who we are when we read is how I would like to think about the journey we are going on. Understanding your tendencies as a reader and your roles while reading can make the experience less frustrating and more intentional. I don’t believe these are fixed types or roles. They’re modes we move in and out of depending on the text, the season, and the book. Can you be a Jelly-bag while also having the tools of a text analyst? I think so!

Here’s how I think things shake out when you merge these two approaches.

• Hourglass: a reader who lets information flow in and out almost unchanged. The text might not stick because the focus is on reading the words on the page, which inhibits meaningful retention or transformation.

  • Reading tendency: reads quickly and often passively; struggles to summarize or recall key ideas; consumes more text than they process; remembers impressions more than details.

  • Role tendency → text user - word recognition.

  • Preference: Structured how‑to; clear scaffolding of ideas to support retention.

• Sponge: a reader who absorbs everything in the text, facts, emotions, and details, but is left with unorganized or unanalyzed impressions from what is read.

  • Reading profile: remembers a lot of information; can relay text verbatim and may not interpret the text any further; can become overwhelmed by details;

    may adopt the author’s voice or viewpoint without evaluating it.

  • Role tendency → code breaker- organize information for what it is; the focus is on the information itself.

  • Preference: Books with frameworks, summaries, diagrams; helps filter and synthesize information.

• Jelly-bag: a reader who unintentionally allows the valuable meanings of text to pass through while holding onto trivial or sensational details.

  • Reading tendency: focuses on minor details rather than main ideas; recalls information they find to be important; might miss themes, arguments, or author intent; can be distracted by emotional or unexpected elements.

  • Role tendency → text participant- side quests.

  • Preference: Books with strong themes or arguments; makes the big idea unavoidable.

• Diamondminer: a reader who sifts through text and is able to discard what’s unnecessary and retain the most meaningful insight.

  • Reading tendency: extracts lessons and themes; can filter out irrelevance and

    makes connections; reads purposefully.

  • Role tendency → text analyst - evaluating/criticizing, participant, and user, almost like a detective.

  • Preference: Dense works, systems thinking, nonfiction; rewards deep analysis and discernment.

I’m not here to tell you which one is right or which one you should be. But hopefully it gives you some direction if you tend to lean one way or the other. I certainly don’t think there’s one right way to approach reading. However, if one of the reading types resonates with you more or you would like to explore another type, here are a few considerations. And as I mentioned before can be fluid.

If you’re curious, I think I can be a bit of a Sponge and Diamondminer with text participant and analyst tendencies. Knowing this about me gives context to why I might get taken out of a text if I don’t understand something while I’m reading. Not understanding doesn't mean stopping for me; it means looking closer to decode what I don’t understand. As we venture into reading comprehension, identifying with a reading type or role might help you think about what you might want to change.

So let me leave you with a few questions:

1. Who am I as a reader today?

2. Where in my reading do I feel most confident? Where do I feel tension or friction? (signals an area of potential growth)

3. What reading role resonates with me? Why?

4. Which reading role would I like to use more?

Happy Reading!

1. https://www.readabilitytutor.com/decoding-in-reading/

2. https://thereadwellpodcast.com/blog/the-four-types-of-readers/

3. https://bongoau.wordpress.com/2015/07/15/english-the-four-roles-of-the-reader/#:~:text=Code%20breaker%20%E2%80%93%20decoding%20the%20conventions,be%20focused%20on%20in%20future.

4. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C10&q=literacies+programs+%2B+luke+%26+freebody&btnG=