Teaching reading
Teaching children how to read involves capturing their imagination,
encouraging curiosity and giving meaning and relevance to the reading experience.
Speaking reading and writing are not separate topics to be taught in isolation
but are all connected and should be taught together as a whole language approach
to literacy. (K.Pike, R.Compain, J.Mumper, New Connections, Addison-Wesley Educational
Publishers 1997, page 8). Children who come from a print rich background with
parents who read regularly are more likely to read sooner than children who
have not had this early exposure to print. Teachers need to understand the students
existing knowledge and experiences before engaging them in any reading acts.
Language needs to make sense to children and build on their prior knowledge
otherwise the material won’t be relevant and the students may have difficulties
in responding (Schema theory. Compain, Mumper Pike, Page 25) A variety of texts
may be introduced from fiction and fact books to road signs, product labels,
magazines, news papers. Janiel A. Wagstaff in ’The Reading Teacher’,
Vol 51 Jan 1998 stated that “The more children are able to build on their
personal experiences the more interesting reading becomes.”
Cambourne outlined a set of conditions which provide a foundation for learning
literacy skills in the classroom. These are designed to simulate the conditions
that occurred naturally when children learned to talk.
1. Immersion
2. Demonstration
3. Responsibility.
4. Expectation.
5. Approximation
6. Practice
7. Response.
Please see appendix 1. for further detail.
These conditions are the ground work for teachers from which the following reading
activities can take place.
Modelled reading is essential to show children how to read. The teacher
reads to the students and shows how it is done through demonstrating how to
use a book and sounding out letters and words (phonological) , pointing out
words, sentences and sentence structure (grammatical) and comparing text with
pictures and getting meaning from what is being read (semantic reading). Modelled
reading needs to be fun and informative, big books are a good resource for this
activity.
Guided reading this is where the teacher, parent or assistant reads with
the student in a one to one situation. The student demonstrates their reading
abilities through exploration, problem solving, risk taking, self correction
and comprehension.The assistant helps through support, guidance and prompting
the atmosphere needs to be encouraging and positive.The students phonological,
grammatical and semantic abilities can also be assessed in this situation.
Independent reading. The teacher sets up conditions for students to read
and explore books on their own or in small groups. The student selects the book,
find words and meanings, practices reading and might discuss and record what
they have read.
(The above methods have been gathered from the lecture notes: Teaching Reading
a
K-6 Frame work)
To encourage optimal progress with any early reading materials the teacher needs
to be aware of the difficulty level of the text relative to the students reading
ability.
(See Appendix 2, “Teaching Reading” page 7) A book is said to be at
a childs independent level if 90-95% of the words can be read correctly. Guided
reading books can be read with a 90-94% level of accuracy. Frustration reading
involves text read by a child at 89% or below. Low error rates are positively
linked with growth. A text that is too difficult will undermine a childs confidence.
Assessment is essential to prevent mistakes from being learned to servile a
students progress and to correct the student where necessary ( Beverly Derewianka
“Language Assessment in Primary Classrooms”, page 204) Assessment
is also essential to ensure that the student is reading books at a level suitable
to their ability.
Anecdotal Records are a positive user friendly method of monitoring a
students progress throughout the year. The childs name, date and activity are
recorded and the way the child is responding in the situation is documented.
These records can be taken on a regular basis to monitor progress or may be
taken at times of significant growth. The student is not compared to others,
this is a record of individual growth.
Running record and miscue analysis are two methods of documenting a childs
reading effort. (see appendix 3) As a child reads, each word, pronunciation
and interpretation is recorded. The teacher can then look back over several
of the childs records and see a reading pattern emerge. This allows the teacher
to pin point and improve the students weaker areas. If similar mistakes occur
across the class the teacher can also see where teaching methods needs to improve.
In order for guided reading and individual assessment to take place the teacher
needs to have the rest of the class well organised to continue learning without
individual attention. This requires a fair amount of imagination, structure
and foresight.The teacher needs to encourage self motivation and responsibility
from the start and trust that the students will want to explore and discover
on their own. Having themes, resources and separate work areas available will
enable the teacher to attend to individual students while others continue to
work on their own or in groups.
I will close this essay with a quote from Bill Hayden in “The Great Literacy
Debate”
“True Literacy is not restricted to the soulless mechanics of grammar and
pedantry. True literacy is finding something which is worth saying and saying
it eloquently and strikingly. True literacy and the Socratic spirit of free
enquiry are inseparable.”
All students are potential readers. It is up to the teacher to provide the resources,
inspiration and guidance to enable students to read and become further enlightened
to the world around them.
References
New Connections
An Integrated Approach to Literacy
Kathy Pike, Rita Compain, Jean Mumper.
1997
Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers
United States.
Coping With Chaos
Brian Cambourne & Jan Turbill
Primary English Teaching Association
1987
PO Box 167 Rozelle NSW 2039
Australia
Language Assessment in Primary Class rooms
Edited by
Beverly Derewiaka
University of Wollongong
1994
Harcourt Brace & Company
Australia
The Great Literacy Debate
English in Contemporary Australia
Edited by David Meyers
1992
Australian Scholarly Publishing
4 Madden Grove
Kew Victoria 3101
The Reading Teacher
Volume 51 No. 4
December 1997- Jan. 1998
Building practical knowledge of
letter-sound correspondences:
A beginners Word Wall and Beyond
Janiel M. Wagstaff.
Teaching Reading
A Balanced, Comprehensive Approach to
Teaching Reading in Prekindergarten
Through Grade Three.
California Department of Education
1996
Web Site
http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/teachrd.htm
Appendix 1
Cambournes strategies for teaching literacy
Direct extracts from
Coping With Chaos
Brian Cambourne & Jan Turbill
Primary English Teaching Association
1987
PO Box 167 Rozelle NSW 2039
Australia
Appendix 2
Teaching reading
Information gathered from the internet
A Balanced, Comprehensive Approach to
Teaching Reading in Prekindergarten
Through Grade Three.
California Department of Education
1996
Web Site
http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/teachrd.htm
Appendix 3
Running records and miscue analysis
examples gathered from page 103
New Connections
An integrated approach to literacy
Kathy Pike, Rita Compain, Jean Mumper.
1997
Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers
United States.
and pages 142,143, 204,205
Language Assessment in Primary Class rooms
Edited by
Beverly Derewiaka
University of Wollongong
1994
Harcourt Brace & Company
Australia