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Teaching Reading & Developing Competency in Elementary Grades (MY…

- - - - Syntax
        
        Syntax refers to the structure. Students need to be aware of the structure of sentences while they are reading so that they can anticipate how it will be read. While reading, students should look at a sentence and ask themselves "does this look right?". Syntax also includes morphemes, which are root words. With syntactic knowledge, students will understand structure and grammar.
        
        If a child is reading and cannot understand a sentence or a word, the teacher could use the clue "Chunky monkey, break it down", which refers to breaking down a long word into it's root word to understand the meaning, or the sentence into smaller parts. Photo from: Free Clipart Image
      - Phonology
        
        Is the sound system of language. This is essential when children encounter new words and attempt to sound them out. Phonemic awareness includes ideas such as letter- sound relationships. While reading, students need to recognize printed letters and their sounds, in order to read the correct word. Phonemic awareness can be developed within reading, such as Big Books that focus on rhyming.
        
        If a child encounters a word that they do not know while reading, the teacher could present the cue "Use fish lips, sound it out". This allows children to look at the printed graphophonemes to determine which sounds are connected to the print, which will allow them to sound out the word. Photo from: Clipartix
        
        Phonological awareness needs to be taught within semantics. If a child can sound out a word, but doesn't know what it means, then they haven't made any progress in constructing meaning from the text.
      - Pragmatics
        
        Refers to the social context or the situation. Students will read a variety of books and will need to determine differing meaning based on the context. If they read a fairy tale, they may react and read in a silly way. But if students read a book about soldiers, they may read in more seriousness. Children are able to recognize that sentences can have different meaning when placed within different situations. Rich oral language may also allow children to recognize the different meanings behind text, because they have interacted in situations where they talk and act in a different way.
        
        Halliday has 7 functions of language that students may use in the classroom and everyday life. Students use language for a variety of reasons, and each serves a different purpose. The same use of language can be identified in reading and stories. Students may recognize the way language is used by the author or the characters within the content they read. Children do not know the names or distinctions of each function, however they recognize how language is used in a variety of ways and for different purposes. Students may be able to find out the context of the book based on the which language system is being used, just as they do in real life interactions.
        
        Personal: used to express individuality
        
        Heuristic: language is used to find things out
        
        Interactional: language is used to plan and interact
        
        Imaginative: language used to create and explore
        
        Regulatory: language used to control someone
        
        Representational: used to explain and convey messages
        
        Instrumental: Used to communicate preference
      - Semantics
        
        Refers to the meaning expressed. When children read, they must be able to comprehend what they are reading and derive meaning. Students may be engaged in stories where they can relate content to their personal lives, which means that they are constructing meaning based on their funds of knowledge. This is always important to take into consideration because it helps to meet the needs of each student as an individual. Children can also construct meaning based on what they know from experienced oral language. If a child is engaged with rich oral language, they will be exposed to the meaning of different words and a large range of vocabulary. This can be seen in the process of a Read Aloud, where the teacher exposes the students to rich language and comprehension, while modelling reading fluency and what a good reader does.
        
        Semantics includes vocabulary. The most important way to increase vocabulary is through rich oral language, which can be found in a Read Aloud book. Other ways to increase vocabulary is through word consciousness, problem solving, and lastly, words. A rich oral language is not only seen in read aloud books, but also in everyday life when we allow students to be involved in rich conversations and interactions. Students will gain receptive knowledge when they read books, but as I said, reading does not happen in isolation. Students must be given the chance to express vocabulary as well as receive it, in order to develop a deeper understanding of meaning.
        
        If a child is reading and cannot figure out a word, a semantic way to figure it out would to give a clue such as "Tryin Lion, try a word that makes sense", or "Use your eagle eye, look at the picture".
        
        Photo from:Clipartix (eagle) & ClipArt Panda (lion)
    - - I always thought that reading was solely based on a child's ability to look at the letters and say the sounds. I had failed to think about some things a child needs to be taught, such as which direction to read and that changes in tone are important. I know that phonological awareness and letter knowledge are the key predictors to early reading achievement, but I now understand it needs to be apart of a larger system that includes read alouds, shared reading, and shared writing, in order to develop syntactic, semantic, and phonological knowledge.
    - - When I rated the statements from Box 5.1 :Your Perspective on Reading, in Chapter 5 in Constructing Meaning, it turned out that I was most closely aligned with the Interactive and Social Constructivist perspectives.
        
        I agreed with statements such as:
        
        Learners should use both word knowledge and letter sounds to figure out unfamiliar words (Phonemics)
        
        Learners should predict what stories will be about before they begin reading, and revise these predictions using information from the text (Semantics)
        
        Learners should talk about why different people construct different meanings for the same story (Semantics)
        
        Learners need to develop strategies for both comprehension and the identification of words (Semantics and Phonemics)
        
        Learners should relate what they read in stories to what they see and do in their lives outside of school (Semantics)
        
        My perspective on teaching reading incorporates ideas from both the Social Constructivist and Interactive perspectives. From the Social Constructivist perspective, I believe that students should connect the text to themselves in order to create meaning. I think it is important to foster minority reading, where students discover content that the author did not initially intend. I think that aesthetic stories - where readers are able to take in different interpretations, are great for exploring and fostering creativity, in which students construct their own meaning and make the content applicable to who they are as an individual.
        
        From the Interactive perspective, I believe that children should also be expected to comprehend and process information that the author intentionally included. I think this strengthens their critical thinking skills in which they synthesize meaning from the basic units of reading, such as letters and words, to the larger means of the text as a whole.
        
        Overall, I think there needs to be a balance between the two perspectives, because they develop different skills in the child!
- - - - Phonological Awareness (is included in activities such as shared reading and read alouds)
        
        Practice with words, letter, and syllables
        
        Children need the opportunity to practice reading words, recognizing letters, and recognizing proper sentence structure. This may be done to develop the foundation for future reading.
        
        Orange is a Carrot: A poem like this may be chanted in the class many times, so that children know what the words sound like. Using a pocket chart, I could ask students to find words that start with certain letters, such as "b". Following this, I could ask students to pick out certain words such as "is". Then, I could ask the children to count how many words are in the first sentence. This establishes that sentences are made up of words. Following this, I would cut up each sentence into individual words. This activity would help develop the child's syntactic knowledge, because they would need to arrange the sentence to make sense. Since the poem has been chanted many times, they know the way it should sound. This activity allows children to match the printed word to it's sound. When they have created a sentence, we would read it back together so that the connection between print and words is recognized. Photo from: pinterest.com
        
        Developing a child's conscious awareness of sounds within a literacy rich environment. Activities will help develop phonemic awareness by working with sounds at a word, sentence, and syllable level. Phonological activities are intended to be fun. I would include these activities after a shared reading activity, so that students are comfortable with the story, and know it well.
        
        Rosie's Walk : looking at words and creating rhyming words. An example to practice rhyming would be: Ask kids what rhymes with "her" or "around". Another way to develop phonological awareness within the book is to ask the students "Fox starts with f. What other words start with f?" Photo from:
        readandcreate.co.uk
        
        Other phonemic awareness activities would include bringing attention to compound words. A way to introduce compound words could be to have a slip of paper, and the student would need to cut the word in half where they see two distinct words. Attention to syllables is also apart of phonemic awareness and reading. While reading words, students could clap for every syllable they hear. Taking this to a sentence level, the students could clap every syllable they hear in the sentence.
      - Books that support early reading
        
        These may include: Board books, picture books, wordless books, and predictable books.
        
        These kinds of books provide a successful experience for early readers. When children feel competent, they are more likely to engage themselves, feel confident, and take risks which will lead to their success. We want to engage students in all levels of reading so that they can develop into strong readers.
        
        Predictable books are a good tool for beginning guided writing. Students can read a predicable book such as Brown Bear, Brown Bear. Following, the teacher could provide a similar structure in which they add in words such as the colors to create their own book. Photo from: Amazon.com
    - - Read Alouds
        
        Teacher models reading to the students, and allows for stopping points in order for student comprehension questions. Read alouds are great for expanding vocabulary and exposing students to the fluency of reading and the way reading in done with change in tones and intonation. Often these books are above the child's ability to read alone, and serve the purpose of modelling reading in areas across the curriculum. During these books, students focus on the semantics. Students can reflect and connect the book to their own life and expand background knowledge. The books done as read alouds should be accessible to students in a book bin or something similar. This way, students have the choice to practice reading in the same way that the teacher has modeled.
    - - Shared Reading
        
        Shared reading will allow the students to be placed in a successful situation. The text becomes accessible to everyone and there will be many words that the students will know. The reading is shared between the teacher and the students, so that they are able to practice with the teacher. This can place the students within the zone of proximal development, as the teacher helps to guide the students through a story they may otherwise not be successful at. As children are able to follow along through the story, they are getting experience reading. Often times, shared reading is done with a Big Book, where the print is large and highly accessible.
        
        Hairy Bear: This is Big Book that we read in class. It also provides opportunity for phonemic awareness because of the rhyming involved. The book offers a pattern, so children are able to easily follow along. Photo from: www.stories.net.au
      - Guided Reading
        
        Children must already be competent in concepts of print and reading. During guided reading, students are beginning to take a more independent approach as the teacher is only assisting by teaching strategies to help understanding and reading, along with introducing vocabulary. Students read together with the teacher in a group no larger than 5, that are around the same reading level for approximately 20 minutes uninterrupted.
        
        This step allows for learning in the Zone of Proximal Development as the teacher is present for support. Students are not yet at the independent stage, but can learn from their peers and the teacher. This is used as a scaffold in preparation for students to be independent readers.
        
        Teachers offers a fresh text, so that the students can encounter the challenge of something they haven't seen before. As the teacher is present to guide and assist, students will feel more confident. The text is accessible to the students, and they are able to use reading strategies to problem solve within the text and take responsibility.
    - - Independent Reading
        
        Students are competent with the necessary knowledge, skills, and attitudes to read independently! :star: