Assignment #3

There is a lot to bear in mind when teaching reading and writing. The teacher must understand that this is an awesome responsibility. Reading and writing are both multi-faceted subjects, ones that children will be using every single day for the rest of their lives. It comes to no surprise, therefore, that when teaching these important subjects, a teacher must look out for understanding and mastery in all the following areas.

The first one is print awareness. This is the first thing that students learn when beginning to read. This is the knowledge that the markings on the page mean something, that they are organized in a specific manner (i.e. in a paragraph, list etc.), that the spaces in between indicate separate words, and that it is read from left to right. All these are the basics that students need to know before beginning to read. Knowing the sounds and shapes of the letters is a strong indicator of print awareness.

The second category is sounds of speech. Students need to be able to distinguish between the different sounds that make up letters, words, and sentences. Students need to be able to know the difference between similar sounding words (i.e. grow and glow) or else their comprehension will suffer. Having students play around with rhymes and words beginning with the same letters will help them build these skills.

Next is phonemic awareness. This is the ability to combine different sounds to make a word (t/r/e/e- tree). Phonemic awareness is a predecessor to other skills such as phonics. Students need to be able to understand that when they speak they are combining different letters to make words. This is especially important for students who may have trouble with reading and writing since it’s the basic building block for other skills.

Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between letters and sounds in the written word. When students learn that there is a relationship between letters and that they are not lumped together without reason, they will be able to distinguish and recognize specific patterns which will help them read and write. When students have the basic knowledge and phonics skills they will be able to sound out and read even unfamiliar words based on what they know about letters.

When students read with fluency it means that they are reading a text fluently, without stopping or stumbling, with the correct expressions, tenses, stresses, and accurately. Fluent readers can quickly make the connection between word recognition and comprehension. They can read the words without breaking between them and thus they’re reading is not choppy. Since they don’t need to decode every word, they can read and concentrate on comprehension.

Vocabulary is a skill that we develop even as adults but much more so as children. This is the acquisition of new words and meanings. Beginning readers must here the words be said orally to them in order to understand. Over time, students build their vocabularies and learn to recognize written words as words that they know. Teachers should encourage their students to develop a richer vocabulary by learning a word a day or having a word wall. If students know more words they will inevitable be able to read and write much better.

Spelling is based on the understanding that every word is made up of different letters which represent a sound. This skill may come easier to some then others but it can be taught. When students learn to read, and write more they learn to see patterns in words which helps them spell. They learn to notice the vowels and consonants, the syllables, the tense, prefixes and suffixes and so on.

The last category is comprehension. All the above categories play a minimal role if the ultimate isn’t achieved and that is comprehension, the abilty to understand the text. Students that can read fluently but have no comprehension of what they are reading have not mastered the text at all! Strong readers are constantly making sense of what they are reading based on the pictures, the tense, the vocabulary and other techniques.