Reading is a complex task which incorporates several elements for teachers to effectively teach students to read. Reading is the process of constructing meaning from text and using the student’s prior knowledge and experience to make sense of the context. A balanced approach to reading is the most effective way to teach students to read as it gives student’s the correct learning opportunities to become engaged and passionate readers.
A balanced approach to reading involves the effective use of both phonics and whole language. The elements of the two are combined into a program aimed at educating students to be proficient and lifelong readers. The use of phonics and whole language stems from the strategies ‘Bottom-Up’ approach and ‘Top-Down’
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When students understand, which letters blend together to make a word, they can practice blending the sounds together. The advantage of this approach will assist students to know that the reading and writing process requires blending together and pulling apart the sounds of the language (Konza, 2014). Students can practice these blending skills by reading short decodable books and this will be beneficial for students to build confidence, fluency, and automaticity with their new skill (Konza, …show more content…
A fun way to encourage phonics learning is through nursery rhymes, songs, poetry with repetitive language and non-fiction books. Students should be encouraged to practice this skill with independent reading.
Fluent readers can recognise words and at the same time comprehend the meaning. They do not need to work on decoding the text so they can focus on the meaning of the text. This is the point that “Learning to Read” becomes “Reading to Learn” (Konza, 2010). Once the student has developed an understanding of phonemic awareness, knowledge of the alphabet and understands the context, they can fluency read a story providing it contains simple language structures (Konza, 2016). Fluency will continue to develop as the students vocabulary expands.
Fluent readers can focus their main attention on what the text means rather than having to concentrate on decoding the words. They can recognise words and understand them at the same time, however, less fluent readers will focus on figuring out the words rather than understanding the meaning of the text. Fluent readers can recognise words automatically and group words quickly to obtain meaning from what they have read. A student who has not developed fluency will read word by word and as they read aloud, this will be slow and choppy (Learning Point Associates,
Practicing Systematic Synthetic Phonics helps to develop early reading in a number of different ways; Ehri (1988) suggested that there were four main ways in which a reader might recognise an unknown w...
Balanced Literacy is an approach for teaching literacy that is widely used in classrooms across the country. It involves several methods of teaching and learning reading and writing, whole class instruction directed by the teacher with independent work in reading, writing, and oral language. By integrating a variety of approaches, a balance is achieved in which students learning to understand text (from a whole language approach) as well as how to read text (from a phonics approach). Effective phonics instruction focuses children's attention on noticing the letter/sound patterns in initial consonants and consonant clusters and in rimes.
Overall, teachers need to take into account all six critical areas of reading when teaching. No matter the subject or time constraints, teachers need to incorporate all areas into the curriculum. Reading is a complex process. If a student does not know to read, a student will never to be able to achieve their best. When using all six areas teachers are using a balanced literacy approach and create greater success for students to succeed in reading and writing.
My previous conceptions and beliefs about reading have been challenged by looking at a different group of learners. Now, I have a more solid theoretical understanding understanding of the importance of reflective reading practices, in which the reader realize that reading is a complex process that is not determined for the fluency and “correctness” of matching the printed word with its expected and “appropriate” sound. I am also more aware of the importance of continuous support for struggling readers in post-secondary
...s in diverse classroom settings” (Dahl & Scharer, 2000, ¶52). Based upon the data set forth in this paper, a system of balanced instruction seems to be the most beneficial route for reading instruction. Students should learn about the relationships between letters and sounds through both traditional instruction and on the spot direction. They should be encouraged to express themselves through writing and educators should give feedback and constructive criticism about their mistakes as well as their creativity. Diane Weaver Dunne (2000) tells us “there is no magic bullet that can teach all children how to read” (¶ 1). As such, educators should individualize instruction to reach all learners, and reading and writing should take place in every area of the curriculum. The problem in this debate lies not in the direct opposition of whole language to phonics but in the misconceptions of both camps.
...nd a sizable vocabulary that contains the words they’re attempting to read. Vocabularies are built with the help of strong phonics skill, which in turn build upon good phonological skills and oral language capabilities.
The history of the use of phonics dates back to the 1700’s. Backs then, children were taught to read through their memorization of the twenty-six-letter alphabet. Since many books hadn’t been written, their primary textbook was the Bible. Although there is no accounts for when whole language originated some believe that it was around the same time as phonics. The whole language reading method was widespread for thirty years, from around 1940 to 1970. From around 1970 to 1990, phonics was popular. Whole Language gained the most recent foothold around 1990. (Stahl 1996) Several times they have gone back and forth. The debate over whole language and phonics has gone on for years. Which way is best in teaching children how to read? The education world has been debating this issue for years and there still are no exact answers. In more recent year’s instruction specialist have argued that some sort of middle ground should be reached because it would give children the benefits of both. (Cromwell 1997) Some form of middle ground needs to be obtained if children’s needs are going to be met.
"Learning to read is like learning to drive a car. You take lessons and learn the mechanics and the rules of the road. After a few weeks you have
Phonics is the basic rules for translating written symbols into sounds. Emergent readers and writers should understand that there is a relationship between letter patterns and sound patterns in English (the alphabetic principle), and eventually develop an awareness of the separate sounds in words. Without the recognition of words, there would be an incomplete foundation for constructing meaning. Phonics, along with other the use of context, word parts, syntax, and automaticity enables a reader to recognize words. Learning the basics- relationships between letters and sounds- enables children to decode words they have never seen before. As this process becomes more automatic, it releases children’s attention to the higher-level activities involved in comprehending the text’s meaning.
As an educator, it is essential that goals include teaching students to be the best possible students that they can. With this, teachers need to pick and choose from differing literacy programs to suit the needs of all students. Providing a combination of approaches is the best from of teaching literacy. Providing students with the benefits from a basal reader and using children’s books is the best way to teach literacy in a classroom. According to Pressley, a balanced literacy program is one that integrates effective skills instruction and a high awareness of holistic reading and writing. By integrating skills instruction and a holistic approach, the students will be provided with the skills and background knowledge that they will need to learn to read. A balanced literacy program in the classroom should involve explicit ...
According to Temple et. Al, there are components for reading. “Reading is the act of getting meaning from a written text.” (Temple & Ogle & Crawford & Freppon, 2005, p.7) There are steps to learn to read; first step is “word recognition.” This activity is that readers recognize letters and words. Next step is “phonemes” which is the smallest sounds in language. Readers who in “phonemic awareness” are able to know how to make sounds with letters. In “comprehension” step, readers are able to understand what they are reading. They can improve reading ability by expanding knowledge of vocabulary. If they can understand words faster than previous time and accurately, they are on “reading fluency” step. The last step, which is “interpretation” or also known as “critical reading”, is a time when they are able to understand author’s thought and mind by reading their words and arguments. National Reading Panel categorized literacy by areas of alphabetic, fluency, comprehension, teacher education and reading instruction, computer technology, and reading instruction. Alphabetic includes
Reading and writing is a key part of everyone’s life. There has been some encouraging levels of reading development in primary school assessments. According to the National Assessment Program Literacy and Numeracy report (2015), 95.5% of students achieve at or above the national minimum standard of reading. It is important to know effective ways to teach reading so children can become active problem solvers to enable them to read for meaning or for fun. Over the years, there has been a big amount of research into the most effective ways to teach reading skills to students. There are some systematically taught key skills and strategies that help achieve these levels of reading. Some of these skills include phonological awareness, phonemic awareness,
This article explores the benefits of teaching phonics to children and how important it is in several areas. Not only does phonics help with reading, but it also improves skills in word identification, fluency and comprehension, silent and oral reading, and spelling. The article goes into detail on how phonics is crucial as a building block of reading and how the benefits of phonics are related. Without phonics and the connection between letters and sounds, reading cannot happen. Letters need to be taught in relation to their sounds with consideration that many letters have different sounds with certain words. The article mentions how meaningful phonics is and claims “Phonics gives meaning to the medium, the print, while the meanings of the words and the syntax give meaning to the message.” Phonics helps students pronounce and understand new words through their knowledge of letter combinations and sounds. This knowledge allows students the opportunity for problem solving and discovering things independently. The overall goal of teaching phonics is to help readers use their prior knowledge to determine new words for
Reading is an essential skill that needs to be addressed when dealing with students with disabilities. Reading is a skill that will be used for a student’s entire life. Therefore, it needs to be an important skill that is learned and used proficiently in order for a student to succeed in the real world. There are many techniques that educators can use to help improve a student’s reading comprehension. One of these skills that needs to be directly and explicitly taught is learning how to read fluently for comprehension. “To comprehend texts, the reader must be a fluent decoder and not a laborious, word-by-word reader” (Kameenui, 252). Comprehension can be difficult for students with learning disabilities because they tend to be the students that are reading below grade level. One strategy is to incorporate the student’s background knowledge into a lesson. This may require a bit of work, but it will help the students relate with the information being pres...
Good reading skills are very important in learning languages. Reading improves spelling because as students learn to sound out letters and words, spelling comes easier. It helps to expand the vocabulary, since the best way to acquire a large vocabulary is to read. Students learn new words as they read and put them in their mind for later use. . They also unconsciously absorb the information about things like how to structure the sentences, how words are used in different contexts, and it gives a better understanding of the word usage and definitions than the cold facts of a dictionary. It improves a person’s vocabulary and knowledge without the person even knowing it. Even if students do not understand every word, they will hear new sounds, words and phrases which they can then try out, copying what they have heard. They can comprehend ideas, follow arguments and detect implications. Reading texts also provide good models for English writing. Krashen (2004) found that reading is extremely important in learning English, since it is the only way to “become a good reader, develop a good writing style, an adequate vocabulary, advanced grammar” and the only way to “become a good speller”.