TEACHING READING

UNDERSTANDING THE READING PROCESS

• Learning to read is the most important educational outcome of primary education.

• Reading is a complex process that builds on oral language facility, and encompasses both specific skill development (phonemic and decoding strategies) and the use of comprehension strategies.

THE BIG SIX

1. Oral LanguageOral language provides the foundation for learning to read, and is related to overall reading achievement throughout primary and secondary schooling (Snow et al., 1995; Wise et al, 2007).

• Children who are surrounded by, and included in, rich and increasingly complex conversations, have an overwhelming advantage in vocabulary development, in understanding the structures of language, and in tuning into the sounds of the English language.

• To understand language at the printed level oral language competency is a necessity. Children need strong vocabularies to understand the broad range of words in texts; they require strong grammatical skills to understand the complex sentences present in many texts; and they require the ability to reason and infer so that the necessary links between information in texts can be made.

• Experiences with books and other forms of print, and seeing people reading and writing as part of their everyday lives also prepare children for reading.

• Oral language abilities are not only closely related to the development of early reading skills, but there are also substantial long-term correlations with reading in the middle years of primary school (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001).

Importance of the Early Years

• It is impossible to understand the written form of a language without a wide vocabulary and familiarity with language structures. These are, in most cases, already well developed before a child begins school (Reese, Sparks & Leyva, 2010; Skeat et al, 2010), thus parents are rightfully regarded as a child’s first teacher.

• As parents interact with their young children, they shape the foundations of language development (NELP, 2008). – reading aloud of story books; – the quality of play experiences– rhyming games– singing and word play

• As children make sounds and combine them into words and sentences, they literally “tune in to” the phonological system – the intonation and rhythm of the language and its common sound patterns (Dickinson et al, 2003; Goswami, 2001; Whitehurst & Lonigan, 1998). Children’s awareness of the separate sounds in words then forms the basis for learning the written symbols that match those sounds – they begin to understand the alphabetic principle.

General principles regarding oral language development

• Refer children for assessment if speech and language delays are significant.

• Build oral language across all the year levels.

• Allow wait time / thinking time.–OWL (Observe, Wait, Listen)

General principles regarding teacher language

• Model clear and correct use of oral language• Monitor student understanding• Adjust language according to student need– Remember the 4 S:• Say less• Stress important words• Slow down• Show

Teaching Strategies

• Teach active listening• Build on student language• Build oral language development into daily routines

and classroom activity• Provide opportunities for social interaction• Explore story books together • Model thinking processes through “Think alouds” • Consider the language demands of each lesson• Don’t be afraid to “correct” children’s communication

Conclusion

• Reading proficiency is built on a wide knowledge and fluent use of oral language and teachers can do much to support students in this across all content areas and with all year levels. Engaging in conversations with them as often as possible, providing many opportunities for them to engage with other fluent speakers and exploring books together are simple and rewarding ways to help develop these critical skills.

2. Phonological AwarenessFaced with an alphabetic script, the child’s level ofphonemic awareness on entering school may be thesingle most powerful determinant of the success sheor he will experience in learning to read and of thelikelihood that she or he will fail.

(Adams, 1990, p. 304)

• Phonological awareness is a broad term that refers to the ability to focus on the sounds of speech as opposed to its meaning.

• It is the realization that a continuous stream of speech can be separated into individual words, that those words can also be broken up into oneor more syllables, and that syllables are made up of separate, single sounds.

• The most significant of these components for reading development is awareness of the individual sounds or phonemes, that is, phonemic awareness.

• Some children find it very difficult to hear the separate phonemes because the continuous nature of speech compresses them into a series of overlapping sounds through a process called coarticulation.

• For many children this might begin with nursery rhymes or rhyming games.

• The ability to recognize and produce rhymes is an early indication that children are developing phonemic awareness.

PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS

PHONEMIC AWARENESS PHONICS

the ability to focus on the sounds of speech as distinct from its meaning: on its intonation or rhythm, on the fact that certain words rhyme, and on the separate sounds

a subset of phonological awareness

the ability to focus on the separate, individual sounds in words, the phonemes.

the relationship between individual sounds (phonemes) and the letters that represent them (graphemes)

Hierarchy of Phonological Awareness Skills

1. Rhythm and Rhyme– In English, it is syllables that provide the rhythm.– If children can recognize and produce rhyming

patterns, they are actually demonstrating early phonemic awareness.

– These two early levels of phonological awareness – rhythm and rhyme – usually occur in the preschool years, and prime children for the more advanced phonological skills that are required for the development of reading.

2. Onset – Rime Division– Onset and rime are divisions within a syllable. – The onset is made up of the parts of the syllable

that come before the vowel; the rime is the vowel and all subsequent consonants.

ONSET RIME

m at

c art

d og

str ap

3. Phoneme Isolation– the ability to recognize the separate phonemes in

words. The first phoneme in a syllable is the easiest to identify, then the final phoneme, then the middle phoneme.

4. Phoneme Blending– Phoneme blending is one of the most important

phonemic skills and requires careful attention. Blending requires children to listen to a sequence of spoken phonemes and then combine them into a word.

– Great care needs to be taken not to distort the phonemes when teaching children who are having difficulty.

– For example, the word pat should be said “paaat” not “paaatuh”.

5. Phoneme Segmentation– requires the children to count out the separate

phonemes in a word, saying each sound as they tap out or count it. Once again, model multiple examples of simple vc and cvc words before moving to ccvc and cvcc words, giving plenty of opportunities for children to copy your model and try examples for themselves

– Listen to the sounds in at /a/ /t/ – • Listen to the sounds in met /m/ /e/ /t/ – • Listen to the sounds in stop /s/ /t/ /o/ /p/ – • Listen to the sounds in trust /t/ /r/ /u/ /s/ /t/

6. Phoneme Manipulation– The ability to manipulate sounds to form different

words in order to support the flexible use of sound knowledge as one component of the reading and writing process.

– Phoneme deletion, addition and a combination of both are included in this very refined skill.

When Should Phonic Skills be introduced?

• Once children can discriminate separate phonemes (that is, can answer questions like those in the phoneme isolation section), letter-sound relationships can be introduced, as both phonemic and phonic skills can be taught simultaneously from this point.

Principles of Teaching Phonemic Awareness

• Ensure that everyone working with students in their phonemic awareness groups (teachers, school support officers, volunteers) can articulate the sounds being taught accurately and clearly.

• When letters are first introduced, they should be referred to by the sound they represent, not by the letter name.

• Work in small groups of four to six students for phonemic awareness training for all children if possible.

• Work in groups of 1–3 with children who are having difficulties.

• Concentrate on blending and segmenting, the most important phonemic skills for reading and spelling.

• Build from easy to hard when constructing practice items for children (vc, cvc, ccvc, cvcc, long vowel words)

• Give children multiple opportunities to practice.

3. PHONICS• Once children understand that words can be

broken up into a series of sounds, they need to learn the relationship between those sounds and letters – the “alphabetic code” or the system that the English language uses to map sounds onto paper.

The Synthetic Approach

• The term “synthetic” refers to the process of synthesizing, or blending individual sounds together. In synthetic phonics programs, children practice blending as soon as they know letter-sounds that blend together to make a word.

• Common letter combinations, such as double letters, digraphs, and common patterns like -ble are taught in a similar fashion, with the focus on rapidly teaching children how to blend individual or combination sounds together to make words.

Explicit and Systematic Instruction

• Synthetic phonics programs are designed to be both explicit and systematic.

• Explicit instruction is designed to focus children’s attention on the precise target of instruction.

• Systematic instruction recognizes that certain skills or concepts need to be taught before others, and therefore skills are taught in a particular sequence.

• While different synthetic phonics programs use slightly different orders, they essentially teach common and therefore most useful combinations first, in an order that promotes blending. In several synthetic phonics programs the first six letters to be taught are s, a, t, p, i, and n – letters that combine in various ways to make many simple consonant-vowel-consonant (cvc) words.

• High frequency sight words are taught gradually and simultaneously with the expanding letter-sound knowledge.

• ESL students in particular need explicit instruction as the sound-symbol relationship may differ markedly from their first language.

Embedded (literature-based) phonics Instruction

• An embedded or literature-based approach to teaching phonics involves pointing out letter-sound relationships to children incidentally while engaged in reading motivating and engaging text.

• Some children do acquire a working knowledge of the alphabetic principle using this method – usually those fortunate enough to have had great exposure to print before they arrive at school.

• For children who have not had these early experiences, however, this is not an effective approach. Pointing out letter-sound relationships “on the run” is too fleeting – too “hit and miss”.

Analytic Phonics Instruction

• Children are not required to pronounce sounds in isolation, nor to blend individual sounds together. Single letter-sounds are taught through reference to words that begin with that sound, thus, a series of words beginning with the letter a may be listed – for example, ant, apple, animal – and the children are invited to say the words, and note the similarities in letters and sounds.

Guidelines for Teaching Phonics Systematically

• Teach letter-sound correspondences: in a sequence that introduces the most common sound for a new letter; that occur frequently and so are more useful; and initially separate those that look and sound alike (Carnine, Silbert, Kame’enui & Tarver, 2004).

• Begin with a few sounds that are continuous (e.g., /s/, /m/ and the vowels) as they are easiest to blend.

• As soon as children know letter-sounds that will blend into words, help them combine them into words

• Provide practice with connected text composed of a high percentage of simple VC and CVC words that the children know or can decode.

• Extend phonics instruction beyond single letter-sound correspondences to include more complex letter patterns.

• Extend phonics instruction in the upper primary years to include morphological elements

“He that loves reading has

everything within his reach.” –

William Godwin