Let's Get Kids Hooked On Phonics

In Classrooms That Work, Cunningham and Allington put a very strong emphasis on the importance of students being able to use their phonics knowledge to read. This knowledge not only helps readers understand words they have not seen before, but also enables them to write. They say that good readers look for patterns of letters they have seen together before and then search their mental word banks, looking for words with similar letter patterns.

Cunningham and Allington's opinion on strategies that good readers use to successfully decode unfamiliar words:
  1.   Recognize that this is an unfamiliar word, and look at all the letters in order
     2.  Search your mental word bank for similar letter patterns and the sounds associated with them
     3.   Produce a pronunciation that matches that of a real word that you know.
     4.  Reread the sentence to cross-check your possible pronunciation with meaning. If meaning 
         confirms pronunciation, continue reading. If not, try again.
     5.   If it's a big word – “chunk it”

    Recognizing patterns in words is one of the most important aspects of phonics and reading. When looking at short words, students need to focus on onsets -- commonly called big letters, and rimes --spelling patterns. When looking at big words, students should focus on morphemes -- prefixes, suffixes, and roots -- patterns that allow readers to quickly decode an spell longer words. Spelling and word patterns help readers gain meaning, and is especially important when reading polysyllabic words. One lesson in teaching phonics, is the Wheel of Fortune game. This helps students learn to identify patterns in bigger words and is an enjoyable and engaging game for the classroom.

In Clark's What can I say besides Sound it out article, the strategy of "Coaching" is highly recommended in reading instruction. 

Steps of Coaching

     1. Review the reading process

     2. Elaborate on coaching

     3. Present examples of coaching

     4. Share elements to consider when preparing to coach

     5. Discuss implications for practice, and offer conclusions about the nature of effective coaching

Coaching is said to promote thought, and helps foster students' ability to become strategic and independent readers. By giving cues to students and helping them along in the process, while having them to the primary thinking and explaining, you are causing the students to think in different ways that they would have previously. Also, by demonstrating this process, the effects will rub off onto the kids and they will start picking up on cues just as the "coach" is. I think coaching is an especially effective strategy in teaching phonics and reading, because they readers are repetitively walking through the process and explaining the reasoning behind why a word is the way that it is. 

The Literacy Club

Everyone is literate. Kindergartener's coming into their first day of school can read, regardless of their background culture or previous learning experiences. Donna Bell and Donna Jarvis' "Letting Go of 'Letter of the Week'"exemplifies the importance of valuing every child for their intelligence. They explain that all children should know they are valued as literate human beings, and are members of the literacy club. This appealing description of readers is one of the first ways to portray reading as an enjoyable activity, and something to be proud of. Their stance on reading which they tell students, and which I completely agree with, is that "reading is about making sense, not about calling words or sounding out". It is essential that students know that they are learning how to read, so that they can understand the world around them, not just because it is a a task in school. 

The IRA/NAEYC joint statement expresses their goal of helping children learn to read well enough by the end of third grade so that they can read to learn  in all curriculum areas. It is necessary, not only to be able to sound out a difficult word in a textbook, but to understand the meaning behind it and relate it to the topic at hand. The goal to help children learn how to read proficiently also focuses on helping them find interest in reading and writing "for their own enjoyment, information, and communication". As they pointed out, students are coming from more diverse backgrounds with different experiences than ever before. At the same time, basic proficiency in literacy has a higher standard than ever before, with comprehension and analysis, and it is only going to increase further.  

Both Donna Bell and Donna Jarvis, and the IRA/NAYEYC joint statement, put a strong emphasis on phonic awareness and different phonic strategies. Hallie Kay and Ruth Helen Yopp also focus on phonics in the classroom. They have multiple strategies of incorporating phonemic awareness in engaging ways for young children. 

I also especially like Donna Bell and Donna Jarvis' "Phonic Strategies":

1                  1. Look at the beginning letter or letters. Are they like letter in any words you already know?

2         2. Look through the word for familiar chunks. Are there nay chunks in this word that are like     

               chunks in words you already know?

           3. Read through to the end. Does the word end with letters that are in any words you already know?

   

   The overarching theme of these three articles, supports the idea that children are literate, and valued, at every age. It is important to establish strong literacy teaching, especially in the crucial learning period from birth to age 8. Teaching children that they are more than capable of becoming proficient in reading and writing gives them a positive outlook on the subject, and providing them with engaging instructions and activities in the classroom make learning much more enjoyable. 

Reading Is Fun!

One of my biggest goals as a teacher is to try to help students genuinely enjoy learning. Reading is the core subject of this goal, because when I was a student I hated reading. I saw reading solely as a task that had to be done, with books that I had no interest in.  I want to provide my students with options for reading materials, in hopes that their opinions will help them find something that they like and will want to continue learning about.

When I thought back about my experiences with learning how to read, a couple people in particular stuck out in my mind. My family played an important role in teaching me how to read. I am the youngest of three girls, so I always wanted to be able to do what my sisters could do, including reading. Both of my sisters read to me and with me often, along with both of my parents. I am fortunate that I had many people close to me helping me along, including my 5th grade teacher. In 5th grade, although I had already been through foundations of reading and knew how to read, my teacher helped bring out the pleasure of reading. After learning how to read, until 5th grade, it was my least favorite thing to do in school. I dreaded everything about reading, due largely to the fact that I had a very hard time comprehending what I read because I was a slow reader and felt that I had to rush to keep up with the rest of the class. My 5th grade teacher put a big emphasis on reading, and right away I had a new outlook. I was started to actually enjoy reading and doing so on my own at home, something that I rarely did before. From my experience, I have learned how important reading is to the foundation of learning and education. I want to find a way to make learning the most enjoyable and beneficial that it can be in the classroom. I want to have different choices of books, all varying genres and levels, so that each student will be able to find something suitable to them. I, like my 5th grade teacher, want to put a big emphasis on reading.

 

Similar to the Jones family, my environment made a big influence on my educational experience. The community I grew up in was large, but supportive and cohesive. A vast majority of parents were frequently at the schools volunteering, visiting for lunch, reading to classes, etc. This encouraging community gave me a healthy and positive outlook on school, especially at a young age when learning to read. I remember more than one of my classes having "Mother's Day Muffins" or "Dad's Donut Day", in which your parent would come and have a snack with you and other classmates families, and afterwards the class would read aloud the the parents in sections. These special occasions made students look forward to reading while incorporating families in the school, creating a motivating atmosphere. These are some things that I would like to bring into my own classroom in the future, as I remember only good experiences with them.

Did your schools have similar "Mother/Father Reading Days"?

What other ways can a community promote fun reading?

The Right Way to Teach Reading?

I have wanted to be a teacher for as long as I can remember, however, taking courses that apply to my major and career goals put things in a new perspective. In my opinion, teaching children how to read is one of, if not the most important lesson for a student to master. Reading is the foundation of education in all areas, as you read about every topic and have to understand different types of text and genres. After reading Richard Allington's What I've Learned About About Effective Reading Instruction, I am so much more interested in the teaching of reading that I was previously. As a student, I was not the best reader. I dreaded getting assigned books to read in class and had a very hard time understanding analyzing what we were reading, which made me very frustrated. This dislike of assigned reading transferred into any type of reading. I felt as though reading was never a "choice" for me, but rather that is was a dreary task that I had to complete regardless of if I enjoyed it or not. This article does a great job in showing the simple, yet necessary aspects of teaching reading, using the 6 T's: Time, Texts, Teaching, Talk, Tasks, and Testing. No one "T" could be as effective without the rest of them. It is important to recognize the conclusive instruction of teaching reading using these six T's and to recognize what importance each aspect carries. I loved the way Allington spoke about theories and the need for great teachers. It is absolutely true that knowledge of successful theories are needed in a classroom, but it is even more essential that a teacher understands the depth of a theory enough to put it into practice. A teacher's role is to convey information not just by talking in the front of a classroom, but by actively teaching and getting involved. 

Reading can be seen as a task to a lot of students, instead of an enjoyable leisurely activity. One main goal of teaching students how to read, is to try to teach students to actually enjoy reading. In Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write, Cunningham and Allington point to the importance of a wide variety of reading. Reading is a comprehensive subject that should be taught through a variety of materials, formats, and instruction. It is also said that higher-level thinking is a key part of learning to successful read. Jobs in every field require high levels of comprehension, and this understanding begins with learning how to read. Again, a variety of reading materials is essential in learning to read. A student should be reading and writing independently and in group settings, they should be examining books in different subjects, they should be assessed with critical thinking and not just a "right or wrong" answer. It is also important to have an open line of communication with students about their reading and to give them choices. Each person is different and has varied preferences and interests, therefore everyone should not be limited to one type of reading. Independence in reading will hopefully show students that there are multiple ways in which you can read, different genres, etc. The freedom of choice gives a more positive outlook to reading and would hopefully be enticing and make students more excited about reading. In accordance with independent reading, reading logs or profiles are beneficial to help keep track of a students progress and interest in what they are reading. All in all, reading is a building block to education, and learning how to properly teach a student how to read is with the utmost importance. Comprehensive views with a wide variety of theories and outlooks will lead to successful reading instruction.