Concepts and Knowledge Children Need To Have To Become Fluent Readers - Essay Example

"What concepts, and knowledge do children need to have to become fluent readers" es of twenty, first graders are practicing their phonics skill everyday with their teacher in a rock garden school environment. This is the image which comes before my mind, a multicultural group with fifteen different accents, and learning English as their second language. It is amazing what is revealed in their wide open eyes, inquisitive mind and keen ears. They hear, they see and they feel the sounds, the letters and the words. How can a class of twenty, six year old can be so absorbed, to decode the mystery of language and open up a whole new world of reading. They are learning to solve and decode the mystery of stringed words. Learning phonics is the key to learning to read print. "Research directly points to the direct relationship between phonic instruction and success in acquiring the skill to read print. In short, evidence on the importance of phonics is incontrovertible." (Savage, ). The practice of phonics everyday is the key to mastery in reading fluently. This should be practiced with music, where songs based on phonics can be reinforced. A video approach is even more effective, as it stimulates the auditory as well as the visual concept. And it is easy for the child to remember and decode information both using their auditory and visual stimulus. Flashcards can also be used for further practice. "The English writing system is based on alphabetic principle: that is the individual speech sounds (called phonemes) are represented in writing by individual alphabet sounds (called graphemes). Children need to understand the alphabetic principle as they learn to read. Mastering these sound symbol relationships is what phonics is all about." (Savage, ). Phonemic awareness - the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in spoken words is crucial to success in beginning reading. It is in-fact a better predictor of learning to read than listening ability, IQ and several other factors. Lack of phonemic awareness puts children at risk of failure to learning to read. Phonics should begin with rhyme recognition and rhyme production and continue with segmentation, isolation, deletion, substitution and blending of phonemes throughout the learning program. Emphasis should be on the five essential elements phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, comprehension and vocabulary. . (Savage ). Motivation should also be the key factor in reinforcing the concepts. Children should be exposed to a variety of folk tales, fairy tales, rhymes and stories from diverse cultures which can encourage them at their level of learning to code and decode the symbols and decipher the hidden meaning. This journey of exploration of literature should be rewarded by more challenging books, materials and rewards. (Savage ). Although phonics remains an essential factor in the word recognition, other strategies should also be taught in helping children identify words and unlock the meaning of words they encounter in print. Children use multiple clues in identifying words, including sight recognition, and context clues all these need to be integrated with the study of phonics to nurture a fluent reader. This lesson should begin from home before Kindergarten years and should be fully mastered by third grade. The appropriate level of challenge should be maintained throughout. These skills should be taught to help children become productive and fluent readers. "Through critical attention to relevant research and careful observation of children in the reading-writing process, we teachers can intelligently decide how to teach phonics. . . . I prefer to teach phonics strategically, in the meaningful context of the predictable stories children read and write every day. In the context of written language, phonics instruction facilitates meaning making and independence."-Regie Routman, 1991(Weaver, 1996) Comparative and naturalistic research indicates that encouraging children in phonics not through drill but integrated natural approach is more effective. Research on how children read and write in home indicates that children can become literate in much the same way as their first oral language. Fluent readers can identify many words on sight; this can be achieved only by exposure to variety of material which stimulates the pattern recognition. The child should be able to identify letter and sound patterns symbolically. Parents and teachers can do various things to stimulate reading, writing and language play. "The following are some of these: (1) read and reread favorite nursery rhymes to reinforce the patterns of the language, and enjoy tongue twisters and other forms of language play together; (2) reread favorite poems, songs, and stories and discuss alliteration and rhyme within them; (3) read alphabet books to and with children, and make alphabet books together; (4) discuss words and make lists, word banks, or books of words that share interesting spelling/sound patterns; (5) discuss similar sounds and letter/sound patterns in children's names; (6) emphasize selected letter/sound relationships while writing with, for, or in front of children; (7) encourage children to play with magnetic letters and to explore letter/sound relations; (8) help children write the sounds they hear in words, once they have begun to hear some separate sounds; (9) when reading together, help children use prior knowledge and context plus initial consonants to predict what a word will be, then look at the rest of the word to confirm or correct (Mills et al., 1992; Powell & Hornsby, 1993; Wagstaff, n.d.; Freppon & Dahl, 1991; Griffith & Olson, 1992; Weaver, 1994a and b; for other ideas, see Cunningham, 1995)." (Weaver, 1996) Tracking back to the classroom scenario, twenty first graders in a beautiful rock garden setting, is assembled together giggling and distracted waiting for their teacher. The Red Queen, enters the classroom with pile of books in her hand. She rolls down a poster with Alphabets and the group begins to sing ABCDEFG-----.She leads them gently to the specific sounds of the letters. She asks Beta an Arabic girl to pronounce S, she struggles saying SH, SH. She asks Gamma a Korean boy to say the sound for L and she asks an American girl Theta to say the sound for V and the session with identifying the sounds continues for twenty minutes. Then she puts on a music CD with songs and rhymes on phonics. Kids love it, some fall, some sing and some are lost. But when she takes out the books everyone is actively responding to her cues, of sounds, picture, story and expression. She is very effective teacher, who can keep twenty first graders absorbed in language for forty minutes. Kids call aloud for quiet reading time, and enthusiastically move to get a book from the pile which she had brought with her. Students are absorbed in trying to decode and decipher the hidden meaning behind the symbol. It is the same book which the teacher had read, so students can identify the pattern of symbols with the corresponding sound. Some lead aloud, some read quietly and some read in whispers. But all of them are engaged in activity which challenges them. Now comes the most challenging session of the language learning. Beta, Gamma and Theta along with others have to take turns to read a sentence from a slide with a picture. They all wait for their turn. Theta begins "This is a Dog" no problem perfect score, rest of the class repeats. Beta goes up " THHIsh is red Shu" , here Beta has problem with her S sound, she says SH for S. Teacher corrects, and she practices. Everyone gets their turn and some do better than others but everyone gets good practice in language skills. In this class the biggest difficulty is that every child is at different level, so the biggest challenge for the Red Queen is to plan a curriculum which engages all. The third setup of the class, is when the group is divided into three groups . One group have good oral exposure of English, the second group which has little exposure and the third which has no exposure. She assigns the group with good exposure to watch a video, she assigns the group with little exposure to hear some audio and she engages the third group to alphabets and sounds (phonics). She has a new student X , who joined the class today and is very restless and homesick. She sits with X to find out where he stands in the class and assigns him to watch the video.Red Queens management of class is highly commendable. She accomplishes what she wants with humor and discipline. She is an effective teacher The problem of learning to read and write in school is a little like learning a sport (e.g. tennis) entirely with couching and no play. It is all well and good for an expert instructor to teach the fine points of proper strokes and strategy and to make observations from the sidelines, but unless this instruction is supplemented by actual interaction with a real player on the other side of the net, it is likely to remain abstract, hypothetical and unrealized. (-Nystrand, 1997, p.96). (KIGOTHO, 2002) . "The case studies discussed here show that 5-7 year olds can engage with contentious, real-life issues and if offered structured support, they are able not only to produce written texts in the argument genre but their thinking also develops." (Reily & Reedy, 2005) Works Cited: Savage, John.F Phonic Plus. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from Educators Publishing Service Web site: www.epsbooks.com/downloads/research_papers/Phonics_PLUS_research.pdf Weaver, Constance (1996). Retrieved February 20, 2007, from Facts On the Teaching of Phonics Web site: www.books.heinemann.com/shared/onlineresources/08894/08894f3.html Reily & Reedy, Jeni & David (2005). Developing young children's thinking through learning to write argument. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from Sage Journals Online Web site: intl ecl.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/5/1/29 KIGOTHO, MUTUOTA (2002). RELATING THE STRUCTURE OF THE ORAL NARRATIVE TO LITERACY. Retrieved February 20, 2007, from INTERNATIONAL EDUCATION RESEARCH CONFERENCE Web site: www.aare.edu.au/02pap/kig02111.htm Read More