Share (1999) convincingly describes how decoding skills are supported by vocabulary, syntactic and semantic understandings. Speece and Cooper (2002) report a connection between early semantic skills and reading comprehension in their study of the connection between oral language and early reading. Decoding is vital because it is the basis on which all other reading instruction builds. If children are unable to decode words their reading will lack fluency, their vocabulary will be restricted, and their reading comprehension will suffer. Explicit, systematic and multi-sensory phonics instruction produces effective decoding skills.
Phonological and Phonemic Awareness Instruction are both important skills that have an important role in early literacy development. Children need to learn and understand both to become good readers. Phonemic awareness is words that are spoken and are composed by individual sounds. Phonological awareness is the awareness of the sound structure. Alphabet instruction is when young children practice the alphabet and they make discoveries.
Phonic instruction involves teaching the relationship between sounds and the letters used to represent them. Phonological awareness is the conscious awareness of distinct speech sounds in language. When Children develop literacy skills they are able to use symbols to represent the sound of their spoken language in writing.
Reading skills include skills acquired through reading, such as comprehension, fluency and independence. Overall, these skills give students the ability to turn words on a page into a clear meaning. Maynor ( 2016 ) Swanson (2001) indicated that research shows that children learn about reading before they enter school. In fact, they learn in the best manner-through observation.
Asking questions while reading helps students do not loose the track of the story line and better understand the story’s meaning. It develops child’s ability to think critically while they are reading the text. For the most of the kid’s books the answers your questions can be answered within the text. However, sometimes the student should to think beyond the text, also known as making inferences. The questions that I designed for read aloud session supposed to help the students to draw the connections between the story and the questions, and create a deeper thinking about the
In alphabetic languages such as English, individual spoken sounds are represented by individual letters or groups of letters. For reading and spelling, a young child should learn the complex rules by which these letters and sounds relate to each other. In languages with non-alphabetic orthography such as Chinese, There is no need to break words down into individual phonemes. Phonological impairments can cause greater difficulty in alphabetic languages than in logographic languages (Brunswick, 2009: 48). Several studies have shown that phonological awareness is essential in literacy and development of skills in reading and writing.
First one is that activities should be appropriate children`s age level. Second one is that instruction should be purposeful and third one is that activities and materials should be integrated with other components of a balanced literacy programs. A teacher can teach identifying words, categorizing words, substituting sounds, blending sounds, and segmenting sounds by doing age appropriate activities with children. Teachers assess children by using screening test to determine the level of their knowledge about phonemic awareness and they use instruction assessment cycle are planning, monitoring, evaluation, and reflection. Phonemic awareness is important to learn how to read and it is prerequisite.
For example, when a child connects his personal experience to a story that he could relate to and reading would then be meaningful to him. Writing would also be meaningful when it can be linked to personal experiences. It would be a motivation when children are able to see their purpose in reading or writing. Whole language approach is based on constructivist theory as their concept of learning is similar. Children are able to naturally express and construct their own meaning of reading and writing through experiences.
The first step in phonemic instruction should include a stimulating activity which enables the child to understand the concept of rhyming. I spy, “What starts with the sound”, Guess the word I’m thinking, Stand-up when you hear silly sound name are some examples of such activities. The second step contain teaching letter-sound correspondents. The succeeding steps would include teaching frequent initial and ending sounds, short vowel sounds, blending, consonant diagraph, long vowel sounds, practice reading words, sight words, etc. (Torgesen,
According to the communicative approach, the ultimate goal of language learning is language production; as such, students can be prepared for the last activity of speaking by building good foundations in the other
Interactions between an adult and child during the early years are vital for their development and learning, as they are still grasping day-to-day skills and understanding new life concepts. Children learn and develop their language and literacy skills through interactions with others; they begin by absorbing, listening and then imitating and practising (Buckely 2003) Learning environments that promote language and literacy development are environments which expose and encourage children to interact with various forms of print. Behaviourists such as Skinner (1953) argue that language acquisition and development are learned through observation of behaviours in their social environment; these behaviours are then practiced through imitation by the child. Children learn through imitating what they see others do or how they behaviour, play is the most important learning tool for children to construct meaning of these behaviours.
Having students fully engaged with a text to achieve meaningful learning requires some components be put in place. The text must be on their appropriate instructional reading level, so as not to frustrate them. The students must have the skills to read and then critically analyze the content. To do this, students must usually have scaffolded instruction on how to analyze a text, for example how to make inferences or connect a topic to its real word application. Students also must have the opportunity to discuss with others the text to deepen their understanding by using others points of view to help deepen their own understanding.
This chapter outlines how children learn how to read. The way children learn how to read is using background knowledge and experiences in order to comprehend what they are reading. The author also lists “The Three Cs, in which the content is vocabulary rich and designed to be understood by a young child of a certain; the context enables back-and-forth conversation and opportunities for exploration; and the needs and interests of the individual child are considered” (Guernsey and Levine 27). These components are very important in ensuring that children become proficiency in reading and writing.
Modifications: English Language Learners (ELL) Some of the main characteristics include, but are not limited to: • Copy and repeat oral instructions, questions and modeled responses • Rely on visuals and diagrams to understand and communicate • Rely on first language • Require