Comprehension is key

Teaching children how to read is a daunting task. Getting them to be able to recognize letters, know all of their sounds, what they create when they fit together and what those words mean as a whole is a lot to do. It's no wonder many children have a hard time learning how to read. The largest and most important part about learning how to read, however, is comprehension. Sure, if you can read the sounds and words that the letters make that's great, but if you do not understand what the writer is trying to say in their writing there really is no point in being able to read. Comprehending the messages in writing and books is one of the most influential parts of teaching how to read. There are a number of different strategies that can be implemented when teaching children how to read and using these strategies is key in ensuring comprehension in new readers. One of the most beneficial ideas to instill in children when they get lost and stop comprehending is asking them to try to remember when they stopped following the story or where they stopped comprehending. Getting children to realize when they are comprehending is important because later on they will be able to self correct when their mind starts to drift away from what they are reading.

Leveled Reading!

Many teachers rely on leveled books to correctly teach their students how to read and to keep them on the right track toward becoming a proficient reader. Although there are many good aspects of leveled books, there are also many negative traits as well. The original thought process behind the leveled books is to make reading easier for students and to make sure that the reading is at their particular level. However, reading only leveled books can hinder students' reading capabilities by not allowing them to try to read books that may be a bit harder than their teacher thinks would fit their reading level. This prevents children from being able to learn from their mistakes when trying to read more difficult books. Children can gain a lot from attempting to read books above their reading level. Also, placing children in a particular reading level can be a very subjective process because levels are not always the same for each child. Children have different needs in different areas and placing them all in the same group does not help each student individually to succeed.

Sounding it out or not?

I have always thought that if I did not know how to say a word that I should sound it out to find out what it is. According to some teachers, sounding words out is not a good idea. Some say that if a beginning reader sounds a word out they are only making the sounds of each letter individually instead of seeing the word as a whole. This will then hinder their reading because the child will not be able to figure out how the word is really supposed to be pronounced. During my field experience last week, the kindergarten teacher spent a majority of the day talking about "stretching out" the words that the children did not know. While I was observing the children reading individually, I noticed that many of them were trying to read books that were above their reading level and they spent a lot of time stretching out the words they did not know. Although this was helpful some of the time in decoding the words, I noticed that they would sound the word out letter by letter and although they made the noises of each letter they often did not put all of the sounds together to figure out the full word. They would simply move on through the book sounding out letter noises, but not reading the full words or comprehend anything that was happening in the story. I think that for beginning readers, sounding or stretching words out is not the best practice, but for more advanced readers, it can be a good tool to use.

Phonemic Awareness Is Not the Only Important Part of Literacy

Although phonemic awareness is extremely important in learning how to read and write and is also the most prevalent predictor of success in these areas, it is not the only thing to focus on when trying to help children in literacy. Teachers need to remember that children need a variety of different teaching practices and activities to help them learn literacy in the classroom. They also need concrete experiences to connect their learning to. Doing activities such as connecting literacy to writing words in shaving cream, rewriting well known songs and stories, drawing pictures along with writing and reading with older/younger paired reading buddies will help them to create memorable experiences. This way, the students will have an experience to connect their learning with and later on when they have to apply it to something new, they will be able to remember these activities and also remember the concepts that they were practicing during them.

Literacy Dig at Kroger

This week I performed a part of a literacy dig at a grocery store in town. I attended Kroger at noon on a Sunday and took some videos of the types of things that would be found there that would be beneficial for students to learn about. I was actually able to find a lot of interesting things that I could apply to classroom learning and lots of great vocabulary words to use. I spent a lot of time video taping the fruits and vegetables section and I think that spending time talking about the words organic and processed would be great ideas for classroom plans in the future. I also spent a lot of time video taping the meats and deli sections because there were a lot of different types of foods there and many new eye catching foods for children to learn about and try. I think that attending a grocery store as a part of a literacy dig would be a great idea for any elementary classroom because it is something that children do on a regular basis with their parents and giving them the opportunity to look at things from a different perspective will really help students to create a strong third space connection between home and school.

Silent Literacy

            Many people believe that literacy only includes writing and reading with letters and words, however, literacy involves much more than that. Literacy is a means of expression and getting a message across to someone else. This can be done through reading and writing but also through drawing, singing, sculpture, painting and any other type of art medium. I think that art is definitely a part of literacy and literacy is also art. Art is a way for people to express themselves and get a message across to other people and that is exactly why people read, write and speak as well.

            Telling stories and expressing thoughts through art can be a great way to begin conversation and communication between children and teachers who do not speak the same language. Children can use this type of literacy to communicate and help in their journey of learning a new language. When children and teachers are able to communicate in this way it opens up a whole new world of story telling and expression. Children are sometimes able to tap into a part of their creativity that has a more difficult time coming through in writing or speaking. Art is a way of communicating literacy in a new and exciting way.

Supporting Writing Through Read-Aloud/Story Writing

     Many adults may think that teaching young children how to write does not have a large connection with reading and speaking, but they are all truly intertwined. When trying to support young writers, reading aloud to them is one of the best ways to help develop their skills. Giving children the opportunity to listen to a story being read aloud has a number of positives. They are able to really think about the story and discuss their opinions and ideas about it with the rest of the classroom. Teachers can incorporate a number of different types of discussions to stem off of read alouds as well. Story time can turn into meaningful talks about authors and illustrators, connections between different story lines, and life lessons that can accompany a story in a book. These types of skills will help children to become better writers because they will be able to think more critically about the types of stories that they are writing and to create a distinction between different levels and types of books/stories as well.
     Story writing is another activity that really allows children to get out of their writing comfort zone and create something new and original while also working on their literacy skills. There are many components to writing a good story and going through the process of creating a quality story in the classroom can assist children in critically looking at their own writing in the future. Helping children to create a strong story structure that includes solid characters and plot development will teach them to look for this in the stories that they read and give them the tools they need in order to critique someone elses story. Teaching children the various parts of stories such as setting, problems and solutions create more independent students and higher level writers. Giving students the task of describing all of the components of their stories is extremely helping in skill practice of literacy as well. It broadens their vocabulary and strengthens their imagination.