Teaching+Reading

 TEACHING READING

Teaching students to read is one of the most important aspects of being an early year’s classroom teacher. It is an important foundation to the learning process. The hour of reading in the early years literacy block can be split into 10 -15 minutes of a Whole Class Focus on Reading, this includes both shared reading and modelled reading. The next 40 minutes is spent as small group focus on reading and this can include reading to students, language experience activities, shared reading, guided reading and reciprocal teaching depending on the reading level of the students in each group. The last 10 minutes is whole class share time, this is where reflecting on and celebrating students learning occurs.  ([|www.staff.edfac.enimelb.edu.au]) As an early years teacher, teachers need to make the students aware that as a reader they play four roles, code breaker (how to crack the code: alphabet code, punctuation, vocabulary), text user (what is the function and form of the text: analyse the purpose and features), meaning maker (how to comprehend the text: comprehending text and pictures) and text critic (what is the aim of the text: critical awareness of the intent and purpose). Hill pp.172. These four roles as a reader are what the teacher needs to teach and this can be done by separating these roles further into different areas. The teacher can split the role of code breaker up so that they teach about the alphabetic principal, phonemic awareness and letter knowledge. The alphabetic principal should be taught as the connection between the letters of the alphabet and the sounds of the spoken language. But in order to understand this alphabetic principal the student also needs an understanding of phonemic awareness. This is the ‘conscious knowledge of spoken words and sounds in language... For beginning readers, phonemic awareness concerns listening for words, syllables, rhyme, alliteration and phonemes.’ Hill pp 173. An understanding of letter knowledge is also important for a student to understand the alphabetic principal and therefore a successful code breaker. ‘Knowing the letter names helps children to remember their sounds, as the names help to introduce the sounds’. Hill pp 173. This is the basic building block to teach beginner readers as it is one of the first things a student needs to understand in order to read any text. The role of meaning maker is the next that needs to be taught by the teacher because even if the students can now break the code and read the text, the next important thing is for the students to make meaning from and understand what they have just read. This is where it is a good idea for the teacher to ask many questions while the student is reading. Before starting the student could be asked to predict what is going to happen by looking at the illustrations and throughout the text they could be asked what has happened so far and what they think is going to happen. The next important role for a teacher to teach their students is text critic. After understanding what they have just read it is important for the student to ask themselves some simple questions such as:  -    What message does the author want to tell you?  -    What did the author have to know to write this book?  -    Why did the author choose to write about this topic?    Does the author think you are sill or clever? Hill pp 176 By asking these simple questions the students are given the opportunity to learn to understand why they might be reading this text. These three roles if taught correctly and in the correct order to children in the early years are a basis for further teachings in the reading block.

Link to youtube video clip showing a teacher teaching one their stundents to read: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsl_sf4DoRo&feature=related