I learnt to read at an early age. I read widely whilst at school, both school reading schemes and then from the school’s library of classic books, as well as books at home and borrowed from public libraries. This love of books continues today, I studied English Literature and Music at university and I still read for pleasure whenever possible.
I loved reading to my own children from birth and chose from a wide range of children’s literature. This was encouraged in their early years at school where they were given a decodable book and a story book each week. I find the fact that some schools are removing ‘real’ texts from classrooms and restricting early readers to decodable books risks creating a generation of children who fail to associate reading with pleasure.
Schools today are obliged to use systematic synthetic phonics from early years but during my school experiences I have seen other phonics systems in use and I have found that, for some children, these methods have been just as effective as synthetic phonics.
The Rose Report of 2006 was based primarily on Gough and Tumner’s 1986 ‘Simple View of Reading’ in which they stated that language comprehension and word recognition were vital components for reading. In his report, Rose suggests that the phonics referred to is Systematic Synthetic Phonics.
The combination of these two ideas is a contradiction, it was found that, although a child’s reading ability increased through the use of synthetic
Moat argues that learning to read is in fact not a natural process and students need explicit phonics instruction. Furthermore, the English alphabetic writing system cannot be learned simply from print exposure: students need to be taught how to develop phonological awareness to sound words out to help them learn how to read and without the support of context-based word recognition. Whole language’s legacy is still embedded in educational practices despite being disproven by scholars, thus Moat advocates for updating state language-arts standards, assessments, and textbooks to reflect direct, explicit phonics-based instruction as the best approach in teaching literacy. She also notes that teacher licensing requirements and preparation programs also need to be informed of effective literacy instructions that is supported by
The Simple View of Reading (SVoR) model suggests that children must have language comprehension and word recognition skills to be proficient readers, Medwell et al (2014). Jim Rose’s report (2006, p. 40) outlined the Simple View of Reading as a useful framework, which would make explicit to teachers what they need to teach about word recognition and language comprehension (see appendix 1). Before the Rose report, reading was defined as decoding black marks, Graham and Kelly (2012). After this the searchlights model suggested that phonics, grammatical knowledge, reading comprehension and graphic knowledge are equally useful tools when learning to read, Ward (2008). The Rose report’s Independent Review of the Teaching of Early reading reconstructed this model and created the SVoR. Rose (2006, p. 38) determines word recognition as a process which allows you to use “phonics to recognise words” and language comprehension as the means by which “word information, sentences and discourse are interpreted.” The SVoR suggests that, to become a fluent reader, the skills of language comprehension and word recognition are equally important and dependent on each other. Gough and Tummer first mentioned this model, as stated that “comprehension is not sufficient, for decoding is also necessary” Wyse et al (2013, p.
he most fundamental responsibility of schools is teaching students to read. Indeed, the future success of all students hinges upon their ability to become proficient readers. Recent scientific studies have allowed us to understand more than ever before how literacy develops, why some children have difficulty, and what constitutes best instructional practice. Scientists now estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read. Yet, in spite of all our knowledge, statistics reveal an alarming prevalence of struggling and poor readers that is not limited to any one segment of society:
The purpose of this paper is to identify and understand the importance of a supplemental phonics program, such as Fundations by Wilson Language, to ensure that students are making noticeable and trackable changes in reading and understanding. Phonemic awareness is the key skill needed for students to better understand how letters and sounds correlate. Some basal reading programs do not have an
Gross (2010) state that children should systematically be taught to read through phonics and not by memorising “whole words”; by the late 1970’s teachers were no longer fond of that approach as it was not working because children were still struggling to read, it was dull and repetitive and new words were introduced at a
’51. Having considered a wide range of evidence, the review has concluded that the case for systematic phonic work is overwhelming and much strengthened by a systematic approach’ (Rose, 2006, p20). To further his proposal Rose (2006) proclaimed that the teaching of systematic phonics should be enhanced and active by the age of five; It can be evidence through practice that children as young as five can define the terminology for a phoneme and a grapheme, due to the position phonics has within the English curriculum. There is also a world-wide debate on the various ways educational practitioners can most effectively implement phonics in their practice states Dombey (2010). Due to the impact of the Rose Review, it could be suggested that the value of systematic phonics had increased, meaning that primary teachers have to be confident in their ability to teach and support pupils in their reading and spelling through the use of phonological
Whether the task is understanding mathematical word problems, analyzing research articles in science, or summarizing instructions from a shop class manual, it is self-evident that learning cannot occur independently of reading. Furthermore, Trelease cites the 1983 Department of Education report, which reads, “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children,” (Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook, 2013, p. 1). From an evidentiary standpoint, this report draws credibility from a compilation of twenty five years’ worth of research projects and is given its authority because of its connection to the Board of Education. On the same token, Trelease introduces findings from another report, this time from doctors Hart and Risely at the University of Kansas. In short, their findings strongly correlated the volume of words heard at home to student success at school (Trelease, The Read-Aloud Handbook, 2013, p. 2). When the students heard fewer words at home, students were less successful; inversely, when students heard more words at home, students were more successful. In conclusion, Trelease’s ultimate supposition rests on these conclusions: literacy is extremely valuable in general education, while reading aloud is crucial to developing
The synthetic approach is becoming widely accepted as a highly proficient method. It is a part-to-whole approach, which involves synthesising individual phonemes to make whole words (Fellowes & Oakley, 2014, p. 228). The synthetic approach promotes the use of letter tiles, magnetic letters or moveable alphabets to teach word blending and segmenting. The physical act of pushing together letters and taking apart words has a powerful effect on children’s understanding of these language processes (Konza, 2016, p. 158). Additionally, children should learn some common letter combinations and whole words, to the point of automaticity and immediate recognition. These are referred to as sight words as they can not be decoded or sounded out. Teachers should aim to increase students repertoire of such words and pursue rapid word recognition. Fellowes and Oakley, (2014, p. 243) suggest various strategies for teaching sight words, including: sentence strips where children write, cut and reassemble sentences; word shapes where children draw ‘frames’ around words; and tracing activities which involve children writing words with a variety of different materials, such as sand trays, chalk or clay. Also, games such as word dominoes, word bingo and matching activities can be
Phonics are essential to literacy and children’s ability to learn to read and write. Phonics are a system of associating letter symbols with speech sounds (Orton, n.d.). They have an important role in the Australian Curriculum and Reporting Authority: phonics and word knowledge [ACARA]. There are two main concepts related to phonics they are analytical phonics and synthetic phonics. Diana Rigg (2016) states that “direct systematic instruction in phonics during the early years of schooling is an essential foundation for teaching children to read” (para. 3). Phonics are used by children to learn to read and to write, they include letter identification, onset and rime, blends and the relationships between blends and phonemic awareness (Hill, 2012, p.259) (Rigg, 2014). There are many teaching approaches that may be implemented to teach phonics effectively. This essay will discuss, critique and analyse phonics their importance and how different teaching approaches may be implemented to teach phonics to students effectively. It will maintain that synthetic phonics have been proven to be more successful in teaching children than analytical phonics, although it is imperative to use both a synthetic and analytical approach to teaching children phonics.
For this assignment, I will first briefly discuss the value of early reading pre-school and the stages of reading. After that I will critically evaluate the history of introducing synthetic phonics reading in primary schools in England. Furthermore, I will investigate the developments and issues which have been brought about the different teaching strategies used in schools and using teaching synthetic phonics in early years to teach first reading.
There are several different types of phonics but the two main types are implicit and explicit (Ruddell, 2009). The implicit approach, or analytic, is when the teacher teaches the relation between sounds and letters in the context of the word it is found in. This means you are looking at the whole word and not isolating sounds. The explicit approach, or synthetic, approach is the opposite of the analytic approach. Instead of looking at the word as a whole, the teacher looks at each individual sound (Ruddell, 2009). From what I know I believe that both of these need to be brought into the classroom. It is important for the child to know each sound so they are able to sound out unfamiliar words in their readings but it is also important for them to be able to recognize a word in context so they can identify words easily and quicker. In my experience in classrooms I have noticed the different ways these approaches were used. In my kindergarten placement the teacher usually used the explicit approach. Each day we would concentrate on two or three letters and the sounds they made. We would practice the pronunciation and read a poem or sing a song with the letter in it. In my second grade class the teacher had a very different way. She would have the children look at the whole
Whole Language versus Phonics has been a question among many top educational groups for years. Which is the best way to teach kindergarten children the proper way to speak and learn the English Language? There are many valid reasons why experts argue for both phonics and/or whole language. Both seem to be exceptional ways to master the English Language. The purpose of this research paper is to compare phonics versus whole language and to determine how technology can support each approach.
How did you learn to read? Most of us do not put much thought into this question, but learning to read is a difficult task. According to Cervetti and Hiebert, the National Reading Panel identified five essential components that a teacher should use during reading instruction, which gives the student the highest chance of being an effective reader (2015, p. 548). These five essential components are also called five pillars of reading instruction. They are Phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension. This paper will describe each of the five pillars, how they are related, the benefits, as well as give some effective methods of teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. It will continue by addressing the relationship between reading assessment and instruction and end by identifying ways to address the needs and different learning styles of a student. This paper will start by looking at a definition of phonics and phonemic awareness, then move onto the role that each play in learning to read, how they are related, the benefits and effective methods of teaching both.
Reading has been one of my favorite hobbies since I was a little child. I grew up as a normal child should grow and eventually I had to start learning for me to fit in society. My literacy started many years ago, after I knew how to talk and communicate with people. Reading my alphabet was quite stressful and I had to be given a hand by my family members. I remember my parents reading with me and it was the most meaningful and memorable way to spend time with me. This is because I liked reading a lot and I was eager to learn so that I could fit in with my older siblings. My favorite books were storybooks taking about adventures and fairytales
Reading is something that is taught to everyone in their early childhood, the time I learned to read I was very fond of books. I loved to read novels to myself and to read them out loud to my sister. I like reading action, thriller, historical fiction, and mystery. During my early childhood we would have challenges of reading such as wrapped up and reading, golden dragon. These were reading challenges for students to read 20-25 specific grade novels during the school year and at the end you got a party if you read at least 5-10. I used to love reading and at that time I would read at least 20 books because I wanted to go to the party and win something with the lottery tickets I got. My childhood was fulI of reading, even if I read because I was greedy and I read because of the party, it still improved my reading level. As I grew and grew my reading