In the present literate world, academic achievement, assured employment and individual autonomy is reflected on reading and writing proficiency. Reading is a fundamental life skill that enables us to function in the modern day society. Learning how to read is recognized as the most paramount accomplishment of the first years of formal education. Success of students in various areas of their life corresponds to their ability to read. Majority of our day to day activities incorporate reading and thus, children who are fit to read must be taught on how to read. To become efficient readers, children need to build up the skills that enable them to read fluently and comprehend the meaning of what they read by being subjected to effective teaching strategies that address the common problems that they face when learning on how to read.
Developing solid reading skills in children is the primary objectives of each early education platform. Through reading, the learners are able to develop their language and learn about their sorroundings. Learning how to read is a process that is done in stages depending on the age, the cognitive ability of a child and the schooling level the child has reached (Fellowes " Oakley, 2014). Children learn this skill at different pace, and most of them experience difficulty in grasping the concepts of reading at different points in time.
Learning information is a systematic process involving a combination of three distinct components: comprehension, decoding and retention. It is crucial for teachers and parents to point out the wellspring of a child’s area of need and use effective practical strategies that can assist to improve his/her reading skills.
From Riley and Mia’s transcripts provided, some of the challenges children encounter while attempting to read and answer questions can be noted. Both of them are provided with the same text extract to read and comprehend, but there is a significant difference in the way the two read. For instance, listening to Riley’s transcript, it can be pointed out that she has an issue with decoding, comprehension and retention of the read text. She faces problems in sounding out some letters in certain words. She is not able to read words such as bored and restless. Her reading speed is low and she is not able to remember what the text was talking about. More so, she misses out or skips significant details in the text, guesses some of the words and lacks interest in the reading session.
On the other hand, Mia is quite fluent in reading but experiences some problems in articulating some vocabularies such as the word towards and hence, she has to make quick pauses as she tries to figure out the correct pronunciation of the words she finds challenging, which consequently slows down her reading pace. In addition to that, the slight pauses she makes and the repetition of the difficult words makes it hard for the listeners to comprehend the script.
A close analysis of the two readers indicates that they are on different levels when it comes to reading, and they both require different attention to deal with the areas of difficulties they individually experience. In accordance to how the two read, it is paramount to select a viable teaching strategy that is applicable to their respective areas of weakness. It can also be useful to combine strategies, keeping in mind that a little motivation can go a long way in ensuring that the child grasps the concepts of reading and does not develop negative associations with school and the learning process (Miller, 2005).
In Riley’s case, the inability to sound out some letters, it would be appropriate to put into use the Phonics method of teaching. This teaching approach is concerned with assisting a child to figure out how to separate words into sounds, make a translation of the sounds into letters and consolidate the letters to frame new words (Algozzine, 2012). Phonemes and their relating letters might be taught in view of their frequency in English words. A few materials present word families with rhyming words assembled together. In general, there are 40 English phonemes to master and different approaches adopt distinctive strategies to teaching them (Miller, 2005). It's likewise possible to instruct comparably formed letters or similar sounding letters together.
Even though in the Phonics method the reading progress may be moderate and reading out loud halting, subjecting Riley two this type of reading strategy will assist in her to eventually automatize the cognitive processes involved in translating between letters and sounds, become more fluent, improve the decoding process and be able to comprehend texts in the long run.
Mia is heard making short pauses while reading out certain words. The most suitable teaching strategy for her should involve focusing on instructions at the word level. The Whole-word approach presents this kind of teaching technique. This strategy centers on learning to say a word by identifying its written form while skipping the decoding process (In Farmer " In Mech, 1992). Context is imperative and giving pictures can assist. Challenging words may at first be introduced individually, then in short sentences and in the end in longer sentences. As their vocabulary develops, youngsters start to deduce rules and patterns that they can use to read new words. After numerous exposures to a word, Mia will be able to sight-read the majority of the vocabulary she encounters, only sounding out unfamiliar terms. Moreover, she will be able to read faster and this will facilitate reading comprehension because it frees up cognitive attention for processing new words.
The specific lesson that Riley has to be taught on phonics is called decoding. Decoding is the ability to sound out words. Under decoding, the aspects of phonemic awareness will be presented and this will enable Riley to blend sounds into words and master blending words onset and rime, which is the utmost skill in learning how to read. The lesson should utilize music, rhythm and activities of play to inspire her to practice, pay attention, find out and generate words from their constituent parts. More so, the lesson should include word games which will give her the feeling that she is playing, which will help her concentrate on the concepts being taught. Learning how to split between onset and rime will assist Riley to be able to read some of the difficult words she finds challenging such as the name Echidna and sunbathing and also recognize syllables.
The whole word strategy is handy when it comes to Mia’s case. Mia should be exposed to high frequency words and repeatedly pronounce them for her to memorize how they are read. The lessons she’s engaged in should encompass repetition of the common sight words and a conversation should be generated explaining as to why some of the words she finds difficult are challenging. Mia should be given an opportunity to sky-write, trace and write the difficult words on her own. She should practice reading those words on a daily basis in isolation and also in written text. As more and more sight words accumulate, they should be put on the word wall so that she can review them on her own. This will help her master and memorize most of the words she finds challenging hence improving her fluency and consequently, her reading speed.
The advancement in technology and the prompt adaptation of ICT has made literacy learning simple and fun for the children. The ICT tools such as webcam, the interactive whiteboards, ICT-based phonics books and the interactive dictionaries have made it easier for the children to learn how to read (IGI Global, 2018). Digitized and high synthetic speech has been integrated into curriculums concentrating on phonological consciousness and decoding, which greatly assists children with the decoding problem. Introducing this in Riley’s lesson will be valuable as she will be able to memorize the sounds and syllables of the troubling words he encounters. The availability of an interactive dictionary will assist Mia in building her vocabulary and learn how to read them through the digitized speech programs.
In Phonics teaching strategy, the students are assisted to recognize words, spell and pronounce the words properly. By making sound of words through letter acknowledgement, children are able to remember how to speak the words in front of them. Phonics is a bottom-up approach that advocates for children need to become eloquent readers as a healthy dosage of phonics in the formative years of learning to read. He/she requires to be exposed to a chronological and open phonics platform that imparts the alphabetic code and how it functions to represent speech. On the other hand, the whole-word is a top down approach that advocates that all a kid requires is to become confident and capable reader is good books. It holds on to the belief that children learn how to read as you would expect, just as they start to walk and talk (Miller, 2005). Unlike in Phonics approach, the whole-word approach has no defined formula to follow. Word identification is often like guesswork for the children. Nevertheless, if an instructor chooses to only use phonic learning, children usually experience significant challenges in comprehending texts, and additionally have problems with imaginative writing procedure. Whole-word language instills better understanding of text.
Consequently, the two teaching strategies have their advantages and drawbacks. For instance, the whole-world is thought to discount the phonics approach because it instructs kids to acknowledge essential words as a solitary word instead of having them sounding out all the syllables. Basically, this method utilizes texts as an instruction instrument and aims at incorporating literacy within all parts of the curriculum. Additionally, the Whole language approach urges children to use reading and writing for day to day purposes rather than just to decode words and text. However, kids who are trained to read using the whole language method may experience difficulties in spelling when they do not receive phonics training as well.
Phonics approach enables children learn how to spell words correctly because they are able to recognize the sounds used in forming the words. Phonics reading also increases a child’s fluency accuracy in reading. In addition, it builds up a child’s confidence as they are able to pronounce words correctly. Nonetheless, phonics also has its limitations. Students taught using this approach have a major problem on comprehending a text. Their reading speed is also greatly reduced because they focus so much on breaking down a word first before they read it (Algozzine, 2012).
In conclusion, children learn to read at different pace. They experience diverse challenges from each other. Therefore, it is important for a teacher to pay close attention to individuals to establish the areas they have weakness in and select an appropriate teaching strategy to counter the challenges that children face when it comes to learning how to read.
References
Fellowes, J., " Oakley, G. (2014). Language, literacy and early childhood education (2nd ed.). Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press.
AITSL. (2016, 17 April). High frequency words [video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-5tNyJ_1lg.
Early Childhood Australia. (2017). Early Childhood Australia. Retrieved from http://www.earlychildhoodaustralia.org.au/
Barker, R., " Moorcroft, C. (2001). Developing literacy text activities. Glebe, N.S.W: Blake Education.
In Farmer, D. W., " In Mech, T. F. (1992). Information literacy: Developing students as independent learners. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Miller, W. H. (2005). Improving early literacy: Strategies and activities for struggling students (K-3).
Algozzine, R. (2012). Strategies and lessons for improving basic early literacy skills. New York: Skyhorse Pub.
IGI Global,, " In Information Resources Management Association,. (2018). Information and technology literacy: Concepts, methodologies, tools, and applications.
