The Four Roles Which Are Involved In The Process Of Reading And Constructing A Literate Person - Case Study Example

The four roles which are involved in the process of reading and constructing a literate person: Breaker: This is a role that involvesthe reader breaking down and decoding information from printed text and recognising words and letter-sounds; hence, they become capable of decoding words and understanding the meanings (Winch et al., 2010). Therefore, using this role, the reader draws on their knowledge on language, word meanings and topic in order to decode words (Winch et al., 2010). This process allows readers to formulate the meaning of the text and make sure that they are decoding correctly. Also, the code breaking role allows the reader to be able to look at images from print and digital texts and become capable of decoding and combining meanings of the text (Holiday, 2008). In addition, Freebody (1990) states that the ‘doing part’ involves readers drawing on linguistic structure to attempt to break down the meaning of the text. Text Participant Practices: This role involves the reader using events of the story to help their understanding and knowledge of the context (Walsh, 2005). More specifically, this involves the reader contributing in the “construction of meaning from and with the text” (Winch et al., 2010, p. 39). In addition, text participant practices involve the reader relating their experiences to the ideas and events in the text. Winch et al. (2010) mention that when readers become familiar with a topic, the reader will be able to understand vocabulary effectively. The role of this text participant practice is linked with the inferential and literal meanings; therefore, this refers to what the readers believes to be the intended meaning of the text. Text User Practices: The text user practice involves the prior knowledge, both cultural and social, that the reader has in order to understand the meaning of the text. The way in which readers achieve this knowledge is through contextual understanding; for example, this is done when someone purchases a book for cooking in order to learn recipes (Winch et al., 2010). Consequently, readers may cooperate with other people to relate to the text, as this involves talking about the characters, plot and actions of the characters. Therefore, this involves text user practices (Winch et al., 2010). Text analyst practices: This is the way in which readers critique assumptions in a text and understand the way in which the text attempts to position the reader (Winch et al., 2010). Through the text analyst practice, the reader will analyse the text and gain contextual understanding through exploration of strategies and skills (Walsh, 1999). For this reason, the reader attempts to look at how the language in the text is used to depict characters and cultural groups. Through the text analyst practice, the reader will be capable of understanding and pointing out the writer’s positive and negative language. This positive and negative language may be used to describe characters and events and how these factors can be related to the meaning of the text; these methods are favoured by text analyst practices (Walsh, 2005). Assessment of Code-Breaking Skills: Running Records: Through a running record, the reading skills and strategies of the students will be discovered (Winch et al., 2010). A running record is a tool that analyses and observes strategies that the reader uses to read a text. A student is given a text of adequate difficulty level and must make phonological, grammatical or semantic miscues. The code breaking skill could be assessed through a running record, as the reader may break down the meaning of the word and this could be recorded on the running record. Thus, when the running record is completed, it is essential for the teacher to analyse the results to guide students with their reading skills (Winch et al., 2010, p. 141). Read and Retell: Assessment of Text-Participant Skills An effective way of assessing a child’s understanding of the text, including comprehension skills, is to get students to retell the story after they have read it to you. Hence, when a teacher asks the student some questions, this will allow the student to think “deeply about the book and to identify what they understood from its deeper meanings” (Winch et al., 2010, p. 143). Consequently, in the future this deep thinking will allow for their understanding of literature to be enhanced. E-Literacy’s: Web Based Texts: Technology is an approach which has changed grammar. As a result, this has led to the conventions of literacy practices to be affected (Snyder, 2002). As technology has been the main source of communication with the rest of the world, our grammar has become more complicated (Committee for the National Inquiry into the Teaching of Literacy, 2005). Technology has encouraged students to read and write in a non-linear way. Also, as has been stated, the use of multimodal resources in digital texts has “facilitated more active and reflective reading” (Walsh & Sprainger, 2007, p. 41-42). Therefore, as students are introduced to this form of technology, their cognitive thinking will be increased and they will be able to discover different methods of reading (Coiro, 2003). Assessing Hassan’s running record & improving student literacy: The text for Hassan’s assessment was ‘The Milk Shake Man’, written by Sally Cole and illustrated by Lorenzo van Der Lingen. This book contains more than 500 words (Hassan read the whole book); however, he was assessed on only 175 words. As a result, his level of accuracy was 93% and he achieved 1:12 for his self-correction. Through conducting the running record, it has been revealed that Hassan is in Stage 1 of reading as it is relates to the English k-6 Syllabus (1998). Through his reading, Hassan demonstrated that he used visual, grammatical and phonological-graphological strategies for the writing in which he read fluently. Thus, his running record confirms that he reads fluently and uses visual and phonological-graphological cues more than grammatical and semantic ques. For example, Hassan used the word ‘paints’ instead of ‘painted’ (see appendix 3 & 4). Hence, this shows that a similar word structure was used. This reveals that Hassan has to draw on grammatical knowledge to recognise words faster. Winch et al. (2010) suggest that in order to improve code breaking skills and increase knowledge of grammar, Hassan should use an activity to help him improve his word recognition of the ending and beginning of a word. More importantly, the endings and beginnings of the words will be taught through using the circle (see below) to help the student with his phonics: the beginning of the word could be ‘dr’ and the endings could be any one of ‘ank’, ‘ink’, ‘aft’, ‘op’ and ‘eam’. The student has to twist the beginning of the word and put it to an ending and speak the word. This could be done in pairs in order for the children to learn from each other. Also, endings such as ‘ed’ could be used to guide the student. For instance, the ‘ed’ beginning could be matched to beginnings such as ‘paint’, ‘work’, ‘help’, ‘call’ and ‘jump’. The reason why this activity is suggested is because Hassan needs guidance in the endings and beginnings of the words (see appendix 4 & 5). Hence, these activites can be effective, as Hassan knows how to decode and construct sentences to show grammatical understanding. Through the running record, it is clear that Hassan self-corrected himself when he was aware of his mistake. He attempted to draw on letter-sound relationships while reading words that were unfamiliar; this word was ‘worn’ and he stated ‘worm’; however, he then self-corrected himself (RS1.6) (See appendix 3 & 4). For that reason, this confirms that Hassan should draw on his understanding of phonological and graphological knowledge by monitoring himself. To improve his knowledge, this could be done through guided reading or an activity. For instance, by working in pairs (to guide and learn from each other’s mistakes), students can be given cards with the word on it except for the last letter; the students will receive a bunch of last letters and they will have to match the last letter to complete the word. For instance, there will be ‘wor’ and the students will have letters such as ‘m,’ ‘n,’ ‘t’ and many more. The students will have to match these up; hence, this will allow the students to understand the meaning of the book and learn how to read the text (Winch et al., 2010, p. 152). Also, another way to improve literacy is by allowing students to read with partners, as they may share ideas and support each other. Through the teacher conducting a guided reading, the teacher can then ask questions about spelling. For instance, “How do we spell ‘painted’?” The teacher can use the alphabet chart and attempt and sound the words out with Hassan. This way, he would be able to correct all the words that he got incorrect. Hassan can be guided to write sentences after a consultation with the teacher for the words that he got wrong. For example, the teacher can say “okay, using the word ‘painted’, write a sentence using that word”. Hence, model this out orally using the word ‘paints’, which will develop his vocabulary. This will allow him to become more familiar with the word. An activity on tense could be implemented, as in this activity teaches past, present and future verb tenses. The class can be put into pairs, as this will allow the students to share ideas and learn and correct each other. The students can then be given an envelope with words in past, present and future tense and the children are to put the words under the heading. After this is done, they are to write three sentences using a word from the past, present and future tenses.. Retell and Comprehension Questions: Hassan’s retell of the text illustrates that he was able to comprehend the text effectively (see Appendix 5). Hassan was able to understand the text and retell the events that occurred in the text; also, he was capable of retelling what the characters roles were in the book (RS1.6). By analysing the questions, it reveals he was able to express his opinion of the text, such as the plot of the story (RS1.7). Also, through analysing the book and having a look at the cover, he was able to predict what the book was about and also whether he was going to enjoy it or not (RS1.7). E-Literacy Assessment- The website which Hassan used to navigate through was ‘Count me in too’- http://www.curriculumsupport.education.nsw.gov.au/countmein/children.html.This website is a factual website, in which the NSW government has developed this website to allow support in mathematics for teachers, parents and children. The information on the website is publicized through images and words that are clearly read. Hassan was asked a few questions in relation to this website (see appendix 6 & 7). As the assessment on Hassan’s e-literacy was being conducted, it was obvious that he was able to use technology competendtly as he has a laptop of his own. Hence, it is clear that children should be able to experience the multimedia so they can “learn technology and learn through technology” (NCTE 21st Century Curriculum and Assessment Framework, (p.1 2009). Therefore, Hassan showed that he understood technology as he was capable of browsing through the different links and following the instructions. More importantly, through the use of technology Hassan will develop skills that are e-literacy based. Hassan, does make obvious that he is working towards accomplishing and achieving the outcomes (1.2, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 3.2) from the Australia & New Zealand Information Literacy Framework (Bundy, 2004).Through the analysis of the comprehension questions it was clearly identified that Hassan understood that this website involved maths games as he clearly states “games and maths games” (see appendix 6). This shows understanding of the purpose, scope and appropriateness of a variety of information sources (1.2) A way in which Hassan’s e-literacy skills can be increased is doing another activity which involves guided reading. Hertzberg (2006), believes that guided reading scaffolds the reading of the students as they will focus on a skill which can be discovered through small controlled context (p. 50).These skills include, his vocabulary, hence able to blend the words. Hence, Hassan could then be encouraged to use these skills whilst he is searching on websites in order to understand more about the website as he did not know how to find out information about the website (see appendix 6 & 7). In addition, Hassan was able to reveal that he was able to construct and implement strategies whilst discovering the website as he was identifying key words and identifying related terms for the information needed (2.2). This was shown as Hassan was navigating through the website and understanding where to click to go to the addition games (see appendix 6 & 7). Also through Hassan stating that website is safe, he evaluated this by indicating in a previous question that .gov means government (see appendix 6 & 7), this reveals that he is able to analysis and apply criteria for evaluating the quality of the information (3.2); hence this was evaluated through his ability to navigate around the website. As Hassan was able to identify that the website was a government website but yet didn’t know why, an activity could be done on cyber safety in order to teach how to know when the websites are safe, hence, other children can benefit from this. This can be first started as a class discussion as scenarios can be given to the children such as:Cindy has been talking online to a girl named Julie for a few days now. Julie has told Cindy where she lives, how old she is, where she goes to school, and what she looks like. Julie asks Cindy what school she goes to.Is it okay for Cindy to tell her?(What else shouldn’t Cindy tell Julie?);Michael is online talking to his friend from school, Chris.  They are working on their homework together and studying for a test. Chris says they should meet before class to review for the test. Is this okay?(Should Michael also ask a parent just to make sure?). The teacher can then place the students into pairs and give the pair a group of cards and the students are to identify why those words are private. These words can include your name, address, the name of your school,schools address,E-mail address,phone numbers,your passwords, parents place of work, photos of you.. Language and literacy outcomes The running record also allowed the reading behaviour of Hassan to be identified. For instance, through the running record it is clear that he demonstrated outcomes RS1.6 and TS1.2 from the NSW Board of Studies English K-6 Syllabus (1998). Hence, the outcomes and indicators that are demonstrated from Hassan as a whole are in appendix 8 and 9. Through these outcomes and indicators, Hassan’s literacy was able to be assessed and through analysis of his reading behaviors recorded in the Running Record. Read More