Learning+To+Read



Children begin learning skills for reading development at an early age but once they start school their ability is measured so that books of appropriate difficulty are given to the child. The child needs to be able to comprehend the text as well as reading it. 



 =__**Reading Comprehension** __= Comprehension is understanding the meaning of what is read from the print, illustrations, layout and design. (Hill 2006, pg190) There are three parts incorporated in comprehension:  ·  __The Reader__- Aspects that make everyone different. Eg, culture, knowledge, gender, age.  ·  __The Texts__- They can be in electronic or print form or different genres.  ·  __The Activity__- The purpose for reading, the process of reading and the consequences of reading. Before comprehension can be successfully taught five ‘road blocks’ need to be overcome. These are:  ·  __Building Active Involvement-__ Children are told they control what information their brain retains and therefore need to stay active in learning.  ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Holding Attention__- The child needs to learn strategies to pay attention to what they are reading. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Being Persistent__- When the child finds the text difficult they need to learn to keep trying. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Taking Time To Reflect__- Teaching the child to take time to think about what they have read before responding. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Being Flexible__- Being able to respond positively to feedback and learning that its ok to be wrong. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">To assess comprehension teachers can use comprehension questions which encourage the child to retell the text they have read. The following is a walkthrough of guided reading: <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'"> media type="youtube" key="-2jckrzhwYo&hl=en" height="355" width="425"

<span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">There are four roles of an early reader and they can be used by teachers to plan how to teach reading in stages. (Hill 2006, pg172) <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Code Breaker-__ Uses sound-letter relationships and high-frequency sight words to decode print. Involves the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness, letter knowledge and phonics. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Meaning Maker__- Read to understand. Search for meaning in the illustrations, sentence structure and print. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Text User-__ Identify the form or genre of a book to determine how it will be read. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Text Critic-__ Evaluate the author’s intentions and biases as well as the truth accuracy of the information. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Three stages are used for planning reading lessons: <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__Before Reading__- Where the teacher connects the child’s prior knowledge and interests to the book being read. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__During Reading__- Prompts are used to help the child problem solve and gather information from a variety of sources. Prompts include the syntax, meaning, sounds and letters. <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol"> ·  <span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">__After Reading__- Teachers plan activities to reinforce what the children have learnt so they can become more independent learners.
 * __<span style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman','serif'">Teaching Reading __**

The following are good websites for activities to help teach reading in the early years: http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/earlyyears/contents01literacy.htm http://www.readingrockets.org/?gclid=CM7nirzs_ZICFRwsagod33_3Fw http://teachingtreasures.com.au/homeschool/reading-methods/reading-methods.htm