THREE MODELS OF READING STRATEGIESReported by|: Chelsea Mae Yumul

Bottom-Up

Bottom-up theories hypothesize that learning to read progresses from children learning the parts of language (letters) to understanding whole text (meaning). Much like solving a jigsaw puzzle, bottom-up models of the reading process say that the reading puzzle is solved by beginning with an examination of each piece of the puzzle and then putting pieces together to make a picture. Gough’s (1972) One Second of Reading model described reading as a sequential or serial mental process. Readers, according to Gough, begin by translating the parts of written language (letters) into speech sounds, then piece the sounds together to form individual words, then piece the words together to arrive at an understanding of the author’s written message.

Teachers who believe that bottom-up theories fully explain how children become readers often teach sub skills first: they begin instruction by introducing letter names and letter sounds, progress to pronouncing whole words, then show students ways of connecting word meanings to comprehend texts. Although bottom-up theories of the reading process explain the decoding part of the reading process rather well, there is certainly more to reading than decoding. To become readers, students must compare their knowledge and background experiences to the text in order to understand the author’s message. Truly, the whole purpose of reading is comprehension.

Top-Down

Top-down reading models teach students to read by introducing them to literature as a whole. Instead of teaching students to read by sounding out each word in a sentence, teachers read whole passages of a text. Students begin to use context clues to decipher unfamiliar words. The top-down reading model theory encourages students to focus more on understanding the main ideas of a passage than understanding every word. Even if students do not understand each word, they are likely to grasp the meaning of a text as a whole. The top-down reading model encourages students to rely on their own knowledge and use context clues to understand new concepts or words.

The teaching model allows students choose books to read based on their own interests. Teachers urge students to select materials of personal interest so they are more likely to be motivated to read it. Instead of assigning one book for an entire class to read together, the teacher might take the entire class to the library and allow them to choose their own books. New readers will begin to understand new vocabulary and increase reading fluency as they read engaging and interesting books.

Teachers will encourage readers to develop speaking and listening skills by reading aloud to the class or to a smaller group of students. Instead of stopping students to correct a pronunciation mistake, the teachers will urge the reader to continue reading, even if struggling with a particular passage.

Interactive Model

The Interactive Reading Model, as developed by David E. Rumelhart in 1977, describes a model of the reading process and the way linguistic elements are processed and interpreted by the brain. The model combines both surface structure systems -- the sensory, bottom-up portion of reading -- with deep structure systems -- the thinking, or top-down, aspects of reading -- to build meaning and memory for all learners.

Readers use both knowledge of word structure and background knowledge to interpret the texts they read. For example, a student who encounters an unknown word might use surface structure systems like graph phonic, or letter-sound, knowledge to decode the word. A different student might find it easier to use deep structure systems like semantic knowledge, such as meaning and vocabulary, to decode the same unknown word. Each student makes connections in different ways. This process validates and supports both methods of understanding, realizing that individual’s process information in very different ways.

The most evident benefit of this model is the opportunity for the differentiation that it provides students. Students are not required to fit into a set mold or have identical skill sets to decode and interpret text. They are encouraged to use their own strengths to gain understanding and new information. When used in the classroom setting, students should be encouraged to share their knowledge with classmates or peers. This model allows the reader to bring his own background knowledge to reading and to interact with others to build meaning and memory from the text.

READING PROCESS|: STAGES OF DEVELOPMENTReported by|: Mary Grace Catacutan & Lutchmie Rocacorba

Developmental Stages of Reading Growth

The four major stages of reading skills development are: reading readiness, beginning reading, rapid growth and development, and the acquisition of reading power.

Reading Readiness

Reading instruction at this stage focuses on the pre reading skills that are pre requisites to learning to read. These include the acquisition of oral language skills, visual and auditory discrimination skills, and the development of concepts. In other words, the child is getting ready to learn to read. This stage covers the years before the child comes to school and a part or all his first year in school. With certain children, it extends beyond this.

The idea of reading readiness, however, does not seem to be understood by many parents. In some instance, after a child has been in school for a few months, a parent would often wonder why his child is not performing in reading as well as the other children does. Usually, the teacher is blamed for this. Few parents understand that so much depends on the preparation of the child before he goes into formal reading instruction. Few parents

understand that they are part of this preparation and that the first responsibilities of providing the child with pre reading experiences are theirs.

Many children meet anxiety, frustration, and failure early in their school life because they are not prepared to profit from their initial reading experiences. Of course, even years ago, teachers were always aware of the differences in maturity and training among kindergarten and first grade children coming into their classrooms. The question, however, was “which differences in children really made the difference between reading success and reading failure”. Through pre-service and in-service seminars, workshops, conferences and graduate studies, teacher have increased their knowledge on the teaching of reading. They have learned to use sophisticated materials and evaluative techniques. In view of this, they have become aware of the fact that to ensure reading success, the decision as to when to begin formal reading instruction is of great importance. The reading teacher knows that if he cannot predict reading success for a child under his care based on what child’s attitude, maturity, and prior training, he would extend the pre reading period and he would work to strengthen the specific areas of weakness he finds in this particular child. This pre reading stage during which child is being prepared for his formal reading instruction is termed reading readiness, which is defined as the “the general stage of developmental maturity and preparedness at which a child can learn to read easily and proficiently in a regular classroom setting when exposed to good teaching.” This includes the “whole” child- his mental, emotional, social and physical welfare. It likewise involves the specific skills directly involved with reading act. • Factors that Affect Reading Readinesso Mental Factors

Since reading is a complex mental process that requires mental associations, memory, and attention span, it is important that before the child begins formal reading instruction, he reaches a level of mental maturity where he is able to remember, to classify, to think, to use his ideas to solve simple problems, to concentrate, to follow directions, to create a simple story, and to attend to a task. o Emotional and Social Maturity

Children, even those of the same age, vary in their emotional and social maturity. At the age of six and a half, some are mature enough to begin formal reading instruction because they have developed self-esteem and self-confidence as a result of early success experiences and adult approval. Others, however, are not yet emotionally and socially mature so that formal reading instruction has to be delayed.

Some symptoms of emotional problems which can be observed are nervousness, anxiety, fearfulness, extreme shyness, unhappiness, daydreaming, mistrust, and aggressiveness. Some observable signs of social immaturity are tantrums, selfishness, intolerance, crying, pouting, baby talk, over-dependence on adults, and discomfort in small group situations. All children have some of these symptoms at times, but when several of these characteristics are noticed frequently, the problem should be discussed with a social worker clinical psychologist, or a psychiatrist.o Physical Factors

The physical factors include general health, vision, hearing, motor control, speech, ability to attend to a task, and neurological disorders.o Educational Factors

A broad background of experiences enriches the life of a child. It provides him with concepts through which he views his world. From birth he receives impressions and forms concepts about his environment. o Other factors

The other factors that are important for reading success are age, sex, interest, desire to read, and a child’s general pattern of growth and development.

Beginning Reading

Beginning reading instruction focuses on word recognition and comprehension. The attainment of these goals depends, to a large extent, on the child’s use of the alphabet, his knowledge of the sounds of the letters (grapheme-phoneme relationship), his ability to recognize words and put them together in correct sequence in their spoken and written forms (syntax), and the use of these words in relation to what they mean in context (semantics).

The skill in word recognition and identification is dual in nature as there are two separate and distinct learning tasks involved in developing fluency in this area. These are instant recognition and mediated recognition. Instant recognition refers to the child’s ability to recognize immediately and pronounce the words at sight. Mediated recognition, on the other hand, refers to the child’s ability to recognize an unfamiliar word using phonetic analysis.

Although, the main goals of the initial formal reading instruction are word recognition and comprehension, the pupil at this stage, like those in the reading readiness stage, are likewise trained in three other communication areas- listening, speaking, and writing. The reason for this is that reading is one mode of expression of the language which affects and, in turn, is affected by the three modes. Since proficiency in the four areas of communication – listening, speaking, and writing is the foundation of learning proficiency in all the other disciplines, it is imperative that even at the initial stage of formal reading instruction, the child is also taught how to listen, speak and write properly.

The following are the skills in the four communication areas that are supposed to be taught to and mastered by the child before he moves on to the next step or stage of reading development.• Listening Skills

The listening skills are classified under four headings, namely, auditory discrimination, listening comprehension, work study skills the instruction which are given orally or which the children listen to, and literary appreciation skills.• Speaking Skills

Children in the initial stage of formal reading instruction are taught in speaking skills that will enable them to communicate orally what they hear and what they read. They are, therefore, trained to produce sounds listened to, talk about themselves, their family, and friends, talk about their toys, pets, and games in about two or three sentences, make simple introductions, describe objects at home and in school, talk about one’s activities, in school and at home, talk about community helpers and their occupations, talk about their past and present activities, and have the ability to give simple directions or instructions.

• Reading SkillsIn the initial stage of formal reading instruction, otherwise known as the beginning

reading stage, the children are taught the following reading skills: word recognition, comprehension, oral reading skills, work-study skills and literary appreciation skills.

• Writing SkillsThe writing skills taught to children at this initial stage of formal reading instruction

are as follows:a. using upper and lower case letters in:o Writing one’s full nameo Writing one’s grade, section and schoolo Copying correctly one’s address and parent’s nameso Writing correctly the days of the week and the months of the yearo Writing the names of the school subjects and the material needed in each subjectb. copying correctly words, phrases, and sentences learned, and names of places, persons, streets, towns, cities, etc. c. writing missing letters in a wordd. writing common abbreviations correctlye. writing three or four-sentence stories.

Rapid Growth and Development

The basic listening, speaking, reading, writing and study skills have been fairly developed and mastered at the previous stage. Reading instruction, at this stage, therefore, can be focused on refining their skills and developing new ones as they needed. The children are now reading to learn and he is expected to be able to apply the skills he has internalized to content and recreation. Children who have acquired a certain degree of confidence in the basic reading skills can effectively put their skills to work in context. However, not all the learners readily developed the facility to transfer learned reading skills from skills lessons to the reading of books. They need to practice to be able to transfer and apply the reading skills learned in isolation to the reading of books Duffy, Sherman and Roehler (1997) give ways to help children transfer learned reading skills to reading content and recreation. One involves the teacher’s assistance and is called guided application. The other involves independent reading and is called independent application. In guided application, the target skill is taught in a skill lesson, usually using a skill book practice exercise or one specifically prepared by the teacher for the purpose. Once a particular skill is acquired say nothing details in a story or selection, the child is given à specific piece of reading material in which the skill must be used. The child's attention is directed to the skill he or she ought to apply. In instances where some children find difficulty in making the transfer from the skill lesson to the reading text, it is helpful to highlight certain sections in the text and directing the learner's attention to the fact that third is an opportunity to put into practice the newly learned skill. As the learner becomes more proficient, highlighting can be gradually diminished until he or she can apply the sill unassisted.

The most useful material for guided application is the basal reading textbook. It is readily available in the classroom as there is usually a basal reading textbook for every grade level. Of course supplementary materials can also be used but one advantage of the basal of reading is that it contains a variety of stories which are graded according to the levels of difficulty. Furthermore, it goes with a teacher's guide that often provides clues about the skills demands of particular stories, as such, it is very valuable source of reading materials for guided application. In independent application, the child applies unassisted to textbook or recreational reading materials the reading skills he or she learned in isolation. Usually the learner, who has acquired the skills of independent application, has developed into an enthusiastic, independent, intelligent, voracious reader-the ultimate aim of reading instruction.

The Acquisition or Reading Power

At this stage, the learner has developed a high degree of confidence in the basic reading skills and has become proficient in applying the learned skills in tackling his textbooks and his recreational reading materials. He is ready for the acquisition of the finer and more sophisticated reading skills. The focus of instruction at this stage us now on three most refined skills, such as speed reading, higher level critical and creative reading, advanced study skills, the reading of specialized materials, and literary interpretation. The child is now becoming an expert reader.

FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE THE ACQUISITION OF READING ABILITY Reported by|: Arjorino Corpuz, Harold Rosido,

Robilyn Joy Manalili, Aisha Lizabelle Lirado, and Rafael Espinosa

Reading is one of the main skill that students must master in school to succeed in other academic subjects. Formal reading instruction begins in kindergarten. Children starts learning language from birth. As they grow and develop, language becomes more important. By the time they reach preschool age, children should be learning the letters of the alphabet as well as the letter sounds because learning to sound out words is the foundation of reading.

Learning to read does not begin the first day a child attends school. From the time of birth, children's literacy is influenced significantly by their environment.

Encouraging learners to read on their own positively influences their literacy achievement. allowing learners to choose from a diverse collection of literature supplies them with authentic texts wherein it motivates them to read. When learners fell this type of consistent support in their reading development, they are more likely to read without being prompted.

A child's Literacy development is a great deal in the family. The reading habits of parents and siblings can contribute to the development of a child by serving as models for literacy. Educated parents are more likely encourage their children to read . When children have experiences outside of the school with reading and literature, they can be able to adopt a healthy outlook on the importance of reading.

Not all students use Accelerated Reader, but to be a good reader children need to use comprehension strategies beginning with phonics and decoding. Eventually children learn to create connections, predict, infer, decipher the important information, and figure out the author´s message. Many children have reading difficulty because they do not read material that is at their "Just Right" level.

If a reader is reading a book that is too hard they will not understand it, they can attempt to learn from the text, but they will struggle and miss pertinent information.

Reading is a process where all the skills necessary must be in place. Children learn to love reading by being read to at home and at school. If parents do not offer a literate environment where reading is perceived as enjoyable children will suffer

There are many things that can influenced your child's reading skills. The rate and extent to which these skills are developed depend greatly on several factors. and these factors are group in to two the INRINSIC and EXTRINSIC FACTORS.

INTRINSIC FACTORS:

INTELLIGENCE

Intelligence is defined as the innate capacity to learn. When it comes to happiness and success in life, emotional intelligence (EQ) matters just as much as intellectual ability (IQ). Emotional intelligence helps the learner to build stronger their interest in reading books.

Highly gifted learners may also show an intense interest in numbers or letters. These are often the children who start doing simple math or teach themselves to read by the time they are three. However, a child who does not read or do math early may still be gifted. Children who read or do math early are almost certainly gifted, but not all gifted children do those things early.

The higher the IQ of the child, the better the reading skills.

EMOTIONAL STABILITY It refers to the state of being able to have the appropriate feelings about the

common experiences and being able to act in a rational manner. Stability means to be emotionally and physically predictable and not readily moved. People that are emotionally stable are able to tolerate the day to day strains and stresses by not getting emotionally upset, anxious or angry.

Low emotionally stable learner may also be characterized as neurotic. Neurotic learners have a tendency to easily become upset and experience negative emotions while reading. learners who are experiencing low stability can affects and decrease their interest in reading . Some Symptoms of Emotional problems:1. Nervousness2. Anxiety3. Fearfulness4. Extreme shyness5. Unhappiness

6. Daydreaming7. Mistrust8. Aggressiveness

Mature individuals seems to have great interest on most of the undertakings in school. Most of them are ready to absorb what the teachers discuss and tackle on different topics in the classroom. Intelligence is also one factor to consider in gaining knowledge. In reading, intelligent individuals can readily correlate on the printed materials or figures. On the other hand, it is vital that the children have normal sights and hearings in order for them to associate the sounds and the symbols and there by result to permanent learning through reading.

Reading is the process of making getting meaning from printed word symbols. The are several factors that influence the reading capabilities of children. Some of them are the following: a) the associational abilities or their knowledge to associate between symbols and the facts or objects they represent. b) their power to retain what has been studied and c) their good physical condition. These factors and many more, contribute much their reading performance.

1) Associational abilities of children refer to show the connection of letters or symbols to sounds represented. There are some needs or methods to establish association such as the use of movement and perception or the sense of touch.

2. Memory span- the extent of the ability to retain knowledge has been found to have great effect on the reading ability of children. Tests show that good readers are consistently higher than poor readers.

3. Physical condition- the physical condition of a children has a great effect on their reading ability. The vision of the child as well as his hearing and his general health condition contribute much to his best reading performance. When his vision is normal, he can easily interpret the written symbols. His hearing capabilities must be satisfactory in condition and his overall body parts are working well.

Visual and Auditory Efficiency

Visual pertains to or achieved by sight while auditory refers to sound detection hearing. Both of these senses are basic to success in reading. Children learn to associate the sounds of familiar letters with the corresponding written symbols. It is always necessary to hear clearly and to see clearly in order to have normal reading. Children should distinguish the sound of both the environment and the letters of the alphabet to attain progress in reading.

EXTRINSIC FACTORS Environmental Factors

Studies made on reading performance show that environmental conditions-situations to which the reader reacts and which responds to his behavior- contribute to high progress or failure in reading skills. These include:

Socio-economic statusInvestigators in the field of sociological research have extensively studied the socio

economic status of the family in relation to reading achievement. (Strang) wrote Hill and Guammatteo, Lovel and Woosey, and harris found a higher reading backwardness in the lower socio economic group. She also reports that Sutton Malmquist and Durkin found that reading achievement was associated with high socio-economic level, that only two out of forty-eight students from the “blue collar” class level were poor readers, and that the parents of these students are engaged in the professions.The implication of the foregoing findings is that evaluation results of reading performance should always be interpreted in the light conditions that may influence it. Certain conditions may be interfering with the progress of the reader, and these conditions should be taken into consideration in the preparation of the program of instruction.

MobilityMobility is one environmental factor that is often overlooked by reading teachers

and investigators in the field of reading. This factor includes:1. Mobility of the Family- the transfer of family to one place or another.2. Change of teachers3. Change of teaching methods4. Social adjustment necessity by the school

All these are detrimental and, as much as possible, should be avoided. If any one of these cannot be avoided, then adjustments or provisions should be made in the program of instruction.

In some cases the effect of family mobility on the child is positive. A child who is, either in elementary or high school, may find a new challenge in the environment. Hence, he will do his best to excel in school. Studies that prove this, however are rare.

Education and Attitudes of Parents

The influence of parent’s education and interest in reading and their attitudes have been more clearly established as directly related to reading progress or failure of their children. Strang (1968) mentions Malmquist study found out that children, whose parents have acquired above the elementary level, are better readers than those whose parents did not go beyond the elementary level.

She also cites the studies made by Bell and Schaefer and MacDonald which found marked differences in the attitudes of parents of unsuccessful readers. Parents of successful readers were likely to suppress their children’s curiosity and creativity. The

parents of the unsuccessful readers were found to be opposite. The studies further discovered that it is not the expressed attitude of parents that is related to success, but in way in which children perceive them.

Home Conditions

The home conditions that have been found related to reading achievement are:1. General emotional atmosphere2. Number of books in the home3. The child’s position in the family4. Interfamily relationships.

Several studies discovers that the child who learns to read early is likely to have one or more brothers and sisters, or parents who read him and who are interested in school. It has also been discovered that the child who progresses fast in reading is one whose parents, brothers or sisters are interested in his school performance and who guide him in his studies at home. These family members likewise provide a home atmosphere that is conducive to learning.

Skills that the reading require

Skills related to eye movementEye movement relates to the ability to move the eyes in a conventional manner. That

is for English, from left to right, back left and down from a line, left to right again and so forth. This fact about eye movement appears to suggest that a person reads by moving his eyes across the page in a steady manner, identifying clusters of letters or words, then adding word to word to form phrases, clauses and sentences which he can finally, decode meaning. Citing ophthalmoscope studies Charles W. Kriedler of Georgetown University “that skilled readers see items move in irregular sweeps, pause momentarily and sometimes move backward.” David Eskey of the University of California also notes that “we use our eyes to take in whole chunks it text in a series of short, jerky movements called saccades, and even surprisingly, the better readers we are, the less we actually see of the print on the page” Kriedler agrees with Eskey’s observation “the more skilled readers differ from the less skilled one in just these particulars: the eyes move in bigger sweeps, the pauses are shorter, and there is less regression”.

Visual discrimination

Visual Discrimination involves the ability to perceive words accurately by noting likenesses and differences in words. There are several ways in which readers, especially beginning readers, experience difficulty with the visual discrimination of words. They often do not note likenesses and differences of vowels and consonants in words, and/or display reversals, omissions and additions in their reading.

For example:A student who does not note the difference between words like went and want, ride

and rode, horse and house, confused and confessed may be one who experiences difficulty with vowel discrimination. A student, who experiences difficulty with consonant discrimination may confuse words such as then and when, would and could, ever and even, and presents and prevents. Reversals are displayed, for example, by confusion of was and saw, big and dig, spot and stop, conserve and conversed. Additions and omissions are evident in such word discrimination as our versus your, ever versus every, though versus through, and conversion versus conversation.

Beginning readers often misperceive words that are similar because they have not yet internalized the differences in newly presented words. While it should not be assumed that a beginning reader who reverses letters or confuses similar words is learning disabled, if a student continues to display a serious weakness in visual discrimination beyond a mid-first grade level, diagnostic testing is advisable.

It is important to note, also, that sometimes it is assumed that students who reverse words, reading was for saw, or saw for was, actually €œsee€ the words in reverse. Instead, it is the way they perceive words that causes this difficulty. Upon careful examination of students with this deficiency, it has been determined that students with visual discrimination problems involving reversals experience difficulty with left-right directionality. Sometimes they view the word with a right-left eye-movement, instead of a left-right eye-movement. Thus, they will read was as saw or saw as was. Training students to move their eyes consistently from left to right in the reading of words is an essential part of vision training.

The most common cause for visual discrimination problems, lies in the fact that students with visual discrimination problems do not focus on the individual letters of the word and/or note likenesses and, in particular, differences in words. These students often, for example, read words such as when as then, and then as when because they do not focus on the initial letter of the word and/or think about its initial letter sound. Parents and educators need to point out the differences in these words to students and to work toward establishing an internalized understanding of them.In order to develop good visual discrimination skills students need consistent and developmentally presented vision training to help them learn how to establish consistent left-right eye movement and how to focus on the differences in similar words.

Association

It is the mental link between visual remarks such as letters and written words, and the speech sound that they represent as well as the meanings which speech sounds sequences signify.

It implies the ability of a person to recall sound and meaning immediately when he sees groups of letters or words.

Interpretation

This is the ability to construe, process deduce meaning form the word cluster, word patterns or collocation and arrangements.

Effective Reading

This is reading with speed and comprehension. Harry Shaw (1975|)

Other Factors Includes|: A non-encouraging reading home environment Vision Problems. Lack of interest in books. Attitude of parents about reading. A non-encouraging classroom environment. Deafness

ESSENTIAL ABILITIESReported by|: Alyanna Grace Garcia, Carlyn Miranda, Frances Datuin,

Pamela Denice Perez, Rosalia Cunanan, & Jazaine Sison

Factors Affecting Oral Language Development

• Amount of exposure to language —Children in low SES were exposed to short imperatives and typically negative words such as “No… Stop that.” In contrast, children from high SES families tended to be exposed to a greater quantity and quality of words. Their interactions included descriptive language, expansive narrations and positive reinforcement for communication.

• Exposure to print – Children in a print-rich environment benefit from early exposure to reading and print concepts such as familiarity with letters and sounds, as well as exposure to the conventions of printed words. • English not spoken in the home – Children in homes where English is not spoken often lack exposure to critical oral language skills such as English vocabulary, grammar, pragmatics and discourse. Without these skills being modeled and reinforced in the home, these students enter school already significantly behind their peers (Biemiller, 1998). • Background experiences – Children in low SES homes often lack the opportunity to expand their background experiences and knowledge, compared to their peers in other subgroups. These experiences and knowledge can be based on exposure in books, conversation, or first-hand experiences.

• Parents’ level of education – Research has shown that there is a strong relationship between a parent’s education level—in particular, the mother’s education—and a child’s oral language skills or vocabulary upon entering school (NICHD, 2005).

• Transitions and disruptions in the student’s home life – Student mobility has an impact on student’s achievement level throughout school (Snow et al., 2007)

What is Oral Language?

Oral language is often associated with vocabulary as the main component. However, in the broadest definition, oral language consists of phonology, grammar, morphology, vocabulary, discourse, and pragmatics. The acquisition of these skills often begins at a young age, before students begin focusing on print-based concepts such as sound-symbol correspondence and decoding. Because these skills are often developed early in life, children with limited oral language ability at the time they enter kindergarten are typically at a distinct disadvantage (Fielding et al., 2007).

Oral language comprises the following six areas:• Phonology – The broad definition of phonology includes the organization or system of sounds within a language. Once the phonological system has been acquired for basic listening and speaking, children begin to develop phonological awareness, which is the awareness of words in sentences or syllables in words. Other aspects of phonological awareness include rhyme, alliteration, onsite rime (word families), blending, segmenting and manipulating sounds. At the most complex level of phonological awareness is phonemic awareness. Phonemic awareness is blending, segmenting, and manipulating words at the individual sound, or phoneme, level. • Vocabulary (Semantics) – The development of vocabulary focuses both on expressive vocabulary and receptive vocabulary. Expressive vocabulary represents the words a student actively uses when talking, writing or communicating. Receptive vocabulary represents the words that a student understands—based on context and background experiences—but may not necessarily use in his or her own speaking or writing. A common misconception regarding vocabulary is the idea that an individual’s vocabulary can be measured simply by the sheer number of words he or she can understand and use. This is the breadth of vocabulary knowledge. However to measure the depth of vocabulary knowledge, a broader definition also includes a focus on areas such as: multiple meanings of words (homonyms), shades of meaning, figurative language, and relationships between words (synonym, antonyms, analogies).

• Grammar (Syntax) – As children develop their oral language skills, they also develop an understanding of grammar, which is the set of structural rules that govern the combination of words and phrases into sentences, and how sentences are combined into paragraphs.

• Morphology – Sometimes considered to be a subset of syntax and sometimes considered under vocabulary (semantics), morphology is focused on the smallest units of meaning within a word, as well as the rules about how those words are formed. For example, if we were to examine the word “cats,” a basic analysis would show there are four phonemes (/k/, /a/, /t/ and /s/). However, the word “cats” only has two morphemes (meaningful word parts). “Cat” is a feline animal, and “s” tells us that there is more than one cat. Morphology can also include the study of structural analysis—how words are joined

together and build vocabulary by analyzing the morphological structure of the word (prefix, root and suffix)—which then helps build upon the child’s foundation in vocabulary.

• Pragmatics - Pragmatics requires the understanding of the social use of language. This includes social norms regarding conversational turn-taking, personal space, and appropriate behavior with peers and authority figures in a variety of common social situations. In some classroom settings, students lacking background experience—attributable to cultural differences in some instances—don’t understand group dynamics and expectations regarding behavior. Understanding a variety of situations prepares students for more successful comprehension at later stages, including both listening and reading comprehension.

• Discourse – Oral and written communication, also known as discourse, is a critical skill. For example, narrative storytelling follows a very specific format: Stories typically have a beginning, middle and end. They describe the main characters and the setting in which they live, the conflict and the resolution. An understanding of story structure is essential in order to read, understand and write narrative. In contrast, consider the structure of expository, or informational text. These forms of writing also follow certain structures, such as: persuasive, cause and effect, compare and contrast, procedural. It is critically important that students understand these structures through listening comprehension before they even begin to focus on reading comprehension. They first need to be able to understand and tell stories in those formats, before they can begin to write those kinds of stories.

Strategies and Activities to Nurture Oral Language Skills• Conversation and Discussion• Brainstorming• Show-and-Tell & Sharing• Drama and Oral Language Development• Pantomime• Choral Speaking• Storytelling

Phonological Awareness

In recent years, many researchers have explored the relationship between phonological awareness and success with reading and spelling. Phonological awareness is the area of oral language that relates to the ability to think about the sounds in a word (the word’s phonological structure) rather than just the meaning of the word. It is an understanding of the structure of spoken language- that is made up of words, and words consist of syllables, rhymes and sounds. Fitzpatrick summarizes it best by saying the phonological awareness is “the ability to listen inside a word.”

Children who have well-developed phonological awareness when they come to school have a head start making sense of how sounds and letters operate in print. This

ability is important for using sound-letter knowledge effectively in reading and writing. In fact, a student’s level of phonological awareness at the end of kindergarten is one of the strongest predictors of future reading success, in grade one and beyond. More than 20 percent of students struggle with some aspects of phonological awareness, while 8-10 percent exhibit significant delays. Early intervention is crucial and can make a real difference to students with limited levels of phonological awareness.

The Role of Phonological Awareness

There are different levels of phonological awareness: words, syllables, onsets and rimes, and phonemes. Recognizing this has important implications for supporting students’ development of phonological awareness. Good readers look for familiar “letter patterns” as one strategy when attempting to decode or spell unfamiliar words- they use familiar sound chunks from known words, not just individual sounds. These letter patterns are based on familiar syllable or rhyme patterns as well as sound clusters and individual sounds.

The ability to look inside words for syllables, rhymes, and individual sounds when reading and spelling is based on the student’s phonological awareness. Students have to be able to segment, blend and manipulate syllables, onset and rime, and sounds if they are going to be successful in using letter-sound knowledge effectively for reading and writing. The phonological awareness skills are the most highly correlated with beginning reading acquisition.

Phonological awareness is one component of a larger phonological processing system used for speaking and listening. The development of phonological awareness is closely tied to overall language and speech development. Vocabulary size, as well as other measures of receptive and expressive semantics, syntax and morphology, are consistent concurrent and longitudinal predictors of phonological awareness. Consistent with this finding, children with communication disorders often have poor phonological awareness.

Phonological awareness is an important determiner of success in learning to read and spell. For most children, strong readers have strong phonological awareness, and poor readers have poor phonological awareness skills. In addition, interventions to improve phonological awareness abilities lead to significantly improved reading abilities. Phonological awareness instruction improves reading and spelling skills, but the reverse is also true: literacy instruction improves phonological awareness skills.

Conclusion

Phonological awareness is an auditory skill that is developed through a variety of activities that expose students to the sound structure of the language and teach them to recognize, identify and manipulate it. Listening skills are an important foundation for the development of phonological awareness and they generally develop first. Therefore, the scope and sequence of instruction in early childhood literacy typically begins with a focus on listening, as teachers instruct children to attend to and distinguish sounds, including environment sounds and the sounds of speech. Early phonological awareness instruction

also involves the use of songs, nursery rhymes and games to help students to become alert to speech sounds and rhythms, rather than meanings.

Phonological awareness is important because it is a basis for reading. Children begin to read by listening to others read aloud, then recognize sounds in words, sounding words out for themselves, recognizing familiar words and so on. By engaging in word play, children learn to recognize patterns among words and use this knowledge to read and build words.

SPELLING and DECODING

DECODING

-means translating written words into the sounds and meanings of spoken words.

SPELLING

- Representation of words by letters

Why is decoding important?

-Decoding is important because it is the foundation on which all other reading instruction builds. If students cannot decode words their reading will lack fluency, their vocabulary will be limited and their reading comprehension will suffer.

Prerequisites for learning to decode and spell

1. The alphabetic principle2. Concepts about print. Learners need to understand how print works in written

text.3. Knowledge of letter-sound correspondence.

Four Phases of Word Reading

1. Prealphabetic Decoding

-Knowledge of print -Phonological awareness -Visual identification of words (McDonald’s)

2. Partial Alphabetic Decoding

-Development of phonological processing skills -Letter-sound associations based on letter name

3. Full Alphabetic Decoding

-Decode on letter-by-letter basis with one letter corresponding to one sound -Ability to segment words into their component sounds -Vowels and consonant blends (/bl/)

4. Consolidated Alphabetic Decoding

-Knowledge of common letter sequences representing sounds

Phases in Spelling

1. Preliterate-Phonetic Spelling

-Phonological awareness -Early scribbles

2. Early Letter Name-Alphabetic Spelling

-Insecure grasp of grapho-phonemic correspondences resulting in incomplete spellings -Few memorized sight words in writing

3. Late Letter Name-Alphabetic Spelling

- Letter-by-letter basis with one letter corresponding to one sound -Segment words into their component sounds -Words sounded out slowly with all phonemes detected -Disregard orthographic constraints

4. Within Word Pattern Spelling

-Familiarity with common spelling patterns and rules (letter-doubling rules, silent e vowel marker/vowel teams)

Differences of Spelling and Decoding

Differences: Decoding (Moats, 2000)

Differences: Spelling (Ehri, 1995)

Interdependence of Spelling and Decoding

Spellings are verified through decoding (Ehri, 1997; Perfetti, 1997)

Instruction in spelling has resulted in improvements in decoding (Ball & Blachman, 1991; Byrne & Fielding-Barnsley, 1989, 1990; Ehri & Wilce, 1987)

Instruction in decoding has resulted in improvements in spelling (Foorman, Francis, Fletcher, Schatschneider, and Mehta,1998, NRP, 2000)

Fluency

This is the ability to read a text accurately, smoothly, quickly and with expression. The following activities can improve fluency: A. Reading with a model teacher. B. Choral Reading. C. Tape – assisted reading.D. Reader’s Theater.E. Partner Reading.

Vocabulary

Types of vocabulary

Reading vocabulary Listening vocabulary Speaking vocabulary Writing vocabulary

Significant obstacles to developing sufficient vocabulary to be successful in school:

Students with limited or no knowledge of English Students who do not read outside of school Students with reading and learning disabilities Students who enter school with limited vocabulary knowledge.

Overview of Vocabulary Instruction Strategies1. Include both definitional information and contextual information about each word’s

meaning.2. Involve children more actively in word learning.3. Provide multiple exposures to meaningful information about the word.

Indirect Vocabulary Instruction Wide reading: The more you read, the more vocabulary you learn Multiple exposure to words Multiple exposure and importance of background knowledge

Direct Vocabulary Instruction Promote “word consciousness” Provide direct, explicit instruction in specific words Analyzing word structure: Teaching word parts Use of context to determine word meaning Teach how to effectively use a dictionary

Reading demands a two-pronged attack. It involves cracking the alphabet code to determine the words (decoding) and thinking about those words to construct meaning. The diagram below helps to illustrate this point.

Reading

DecodingPhonemic awareness

SpellingVocabulary

Fluency

ThinkingComprehension

Constructing meaningMetacognition

The skills on the left are those skills essential to mastering the code and are considered the basics of beginning reading instruction. The skills listed on the right point to comprehension as a separate aspect of reading that requires the same amount of direct instruction and teaching time as the decoding skills. Once thought of as a natural result of decoding plus the oral language, comprehension is now viewed as a much more complex process involving knowledge, experience, thinking and teaching.

COMPREHENSION- Is a process of constructing meaning from written text, a complex skill requiring

coordination of several kinds of inter-related information- Is the result of an interaction between the text and the reader

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read. One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words.

Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.

The notion of “something happening” while we read is the essence of comprehension. The “something happening” is the interactive construction of meaning inside our heads, which creates understanding. Sadly, the “something happening” does not naturally occur inside all readers and so there is a felt need to teach them how to use their experience and their knowledge to make sense of what they are reading.

Profile of Proficient ReaderWhat makes a child a better reader than all the other children? In a study of

proficient readers, David Pearson was able to determine several common strategies used by proficient readers that enabled them to make sense of the text. A condensed version of this research is what is described as the “profile” of a proficient reader

A good reader is metacognitive – aware of and able to use and articulate the following strategies in order to interact with the text and enhanced meaning.

1. Make connections. A good reader is able to draw from background knowledge and personal experiences while reading to help create meaning from the text.

2. Ask questions. A good reader asks both literal and inferential questions before, during and after reading to clarify meaning and deepen understanding.

3. Visualize. A good reader is able to create multi-sensory images in the “mind’s eye” while reading to help make sense of the text.

4. Determine importance. A good reader is able to sort through information in the text, select key ideas, and remember them.

5. Draw inferences. A good reader knows that not all information is included in a text, and is able to reasonably “fill in”, hypothesize, and predict based on the evidence on the text.

6. Analyze and synthesize. A good reader is able to break down information and draw conclusion based on both text and his or her thinking.

7. Monitor comprehension. A good reader is able to stop, go back, and reread in order for understanding to occur.

If these strategies are what research has found good readers do to understand text, then this is what we need to be teaching our not-so good readers to do. We can even trim down the seven strategies to five: Connect, question, visualize, infer, and synthesize or transform. These five are considered the ones that students could best learn and that teachers could most easily implement in order to create a language of thinking in the classroom.

Barriers to comprehensionO Decoding is a significant factor in successful comprehension

Decoding is a particular problem of children who lack the opportunities to build background knowledge, access to resources and are exposed to a fraction of words. Words are labels to “packets” of information therefore, the more words a child has, the more knowledge they possess

O DependenceDependent readers rely on teachers to provide the “correct” interpretation or information about a text. Passive Readers do not monitor their own reading abilities or actively engage in the reading process

O Decoding Fluency without ComprehensionOlder students can appear fluent based on traditional assessment for fluency (i.e. they can sound out the right words). These students have trouble relating the words to background knowledge, making inferences, applying the strategies, or knowing the basic definitions to the words they are reading (low vocabularies)

Why is Comprehension Important?O Comprehension, just as reading, is integral to everyday life in our society.O Students need to realize that we need to understand everything we read in order to

learn from the text we interact with.O Because of the demands of high stakes testing, students need to learn to extract

important information and transfer their knowledge to read and respond to different types of questions.

O Students need to use comprehension skills across different mediums such as text books, the internet, and even video games.