The Early Stages of Reading

In this weeks readings I noticed a common theme of looking at the early stages in which a child starts to develop the skills for reading and writing.  The idea that children learn a lot about literacy when they are very young is also a common theme.  We hear about how children see literacy throughout their lives even if they are not read to every night.  In some ways I find this reassuring to know that even children who are not read to constantly are still learning about reading before they go to school.

One of the readings this week focused on the importance of reading for a child and how early a child starts to learn about reading.  This was a joint article by the International Reading Association and National Association for the Education of Young Children, titled "Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children."  It lays out various ways to help children build a foundation for reading, from babies to elementary school children.  I take away from this article that children come to school with a basic knowledge of literacy.  I also get the importance of exposing young children to literacy.

Another reading takes a similar approach to the above and focuses on two teachers that have started to teach their students to read and write by focusing on what they already know about reading instead of looking at them as non-readers.  'Letting Go of "The Letter of the Week,"' is an article written by two Pre-K and Kindergarten teachers that have tried the new approach in their classrooms.  I really enjoyed this article and the stance that it took on treating children as readers by their basic knowledge of literacy.  I feel that this would make children feel more important and confident, giving them an edge on learning to read.  It also seemed to get straight into reading instead of just reading over letter sounds for weeks before getting into words.

In the last reading for this week I learned about phonemic awareness.  Phonemic awareness was a term that I have often heard, but I honestly did not know the meaning of it.  Phonemic awareness is the concept of children being aware that their speech consists of a sequence of sounds that make up their words.  Yopp and Yopp focus on the importance of phonemic awareness and give multiple ideas for teaching children to phonemically aware of their language.  They stressed that it should be taught explicitly and with the goal of teaching it, not as just a part of another activity.  I really liked the idea of reading a book aloud to children with many rhymes and letting them catch on to the rhymes and predict what comes next.  This teaches them to think about the different sounds that make up words and what changes can make rhymes and different words with similar beginnings or endings.

I come away from these readings with an increased knowledge of the importance of early literacy for children and an appreciation for my parents and teachers for immersing me in environments that turned me into an independent reader and writer!

Does anyone remember learning to read in classrooms that focused on what the students already knew about reading?  I remember more of an approach of the children being non-readers when coming to school.  It would be really interesting to be in a classroom that focused on what the students knew and see how well they were able to adapt it into learning new words and ultimately learning to read and write well with it.