The other day I was sitting in a waiting room and there happened to be a young lass aged 5/6. She picked up a book from the children's shelf and started to try and read it but there were too many words on the page, the text was too small and after attempting the first word, she gave up. Her mother intervened at this point and put her finger under the words and she managed a couple more, before giving up again. At this point her mother wisely said 'I'll read it to you.' So they snuggled up for a story, talking about the pictures as they went. This young girl's opinion of herself as a reader was kept whole.
With this picture before me I recalled something I'd read earlier this week. It was on a school's website where parents were complaining that the language in their child's reading book was so stilted and unnatural. Maybe you have thought this yourself? The Whole Language Approach Chidren encouraged to 'make up' the text. Let's think about this. Let's look back at the young lass I saw. What was her expectation. She didn't pick up the book and ignore the words. She wanted to use her new reading skills to actually read the words. After all, we tell pre-school children enough times that they will learn to read when they go to school. Many of these pre-schoolers will have spent a couple of years pretending to read. And that's a great way to start, but they know they can't decipher the words and they desperately want to be able to. So they enter the Reception class with great expectancy! Bright eyed, bushy tailed, they are going to learn to read. The teacher sends home a book and tells them it's their reading book. It's a colourful book with several words in natural sounding sentences. But oh dear. There are so many words, and they have so few reading skills, that they know they can't properly read it. There are lots of pictures so they do what they are encouraged to do and make up a story and some may get some satisfaction from finding out that the words they came up with were actually written at the bottom of the page. Now this is because the author has tried to make the language as natural as possible, to match what a child will most probably say on looking at that picture. But it is a method that encourages guessing which may work with some, but as many teachers know and find, fails many children. This is called the Whole Language approach to reading. Giving up with reading - it's too HARD! For many children this isn't going to be good enough. They know that adults don't look at pictures and make it up. They read words, and they want to be able to do the same. Now about a third of the children will learn to read with htis method. but for the other two thirds this 'making it up' continues, and continues until they become despondent. Other seemingly brighter ones may have managed by now to remember what some of the words say (by look and say and maybe a smattering of phonics), but for many they remain a mystery and all they can do is 'make it up'. And in time, some give up. Reading becomes unpleasant, despite numerous teachers/classroom assistants all encouraging them with big smiles. They are soon left behind and in need of 'remedial programmes', not so labelled but that's what they are. Meaning is more important than being able to decode This was the way to teach reading when I started teaching back in the 1990's (and for many years before) and although the UK Government now insists on phonic teaching, old philosophies are only just under the surface. It may even have been the way you were taught. Most teachers when questioned will tell you that there is no one way that works with all children. Many still deep at heart believe that meaning is more important than decoding. Decoding is sneered at as secondary to meaning as if young children are not capable of making sense of anything by themselves. The truth is that of course we bring meaning to language, otherwise language is nonsensical and little children start to talk with an in-built need to communicate which presupposes meaning. Many so called 'phonic' readers used in schools these days are merely a nod and a wink at phonics. They contai a few words which the child can sound out, while expecting him/her to know a lot of other much more phonetically harder words. No wonder children (and their parents) are confused and frustrated! The Phonetic Approach Now the scenario above need not have happened. Young children are vastly underestimated in our day and age in my opinion. They are far more capable than us adults like to think. In years gone by children of 5/6 were not only reading and writing their own language fluently, but often another as well. And yet this is the age of progress. Our Reception children want to be able to read words. So why do we fob them off by trying to make them think they are reading when they know they are not reading words. Why don't we help them read the words? Well let's try the scenario again. This time our Reception child starts school and the teacher says, 'Today I'm going to teach you to read.' Our little one sits up importantly. They want to read, after all, isn't this why they've come? The teacher explains about the letters of the alphabet and how each ones represents a sound. S/he gives an example. 'When I think of the word 'apple' I think, what sounds can I hear? The first sound I can hear is 'a,a'. Can you hear it? Say it with me 'a-apple'. So we see that when this word is written down here, at the start of it is the letter that stands for 'a'' and s/he writes the letter 'a' on the board. The children after some more practice go to their desks to learn to write the letter 'a' and to maybe draw pictures of things they can think of beginning with 'a'. All the while the teacher is watching to see what impact her/his teaching is having: who needs more practice, who seems to be hearing the sound and feeling it with their lips and tongue? She uses this information to plan the next lesson. "Tomorrow we will learn another sound, but tonight I want you take take a book home and look in it for as many words that start with an 'a' sound.' Get someone to read it for you and you follow the words and see if you can see any words starting with the sound 'a'." So the book is taken homeby the children, but not with the expectancy of reading it, but of practicing that first nugget of knowledge that they have tucked under their wing. They find some words and feel hopeful that the next lesson will reveal more of the mystery of reading. Their confidence is well intact. The good teacher does not rely on this extra practice (at home) for the success of her/his teaching. S/he will ensure that every child will get all the help they need in class. The place of meaning in reading What about meaning? WelI, I can honestly say I have never met a child who doesn't understand the simple sentences of stage 2 and 3 of Reading Made Simple (cvc/cvcc/ words). If we do come across a word they have never heard, we discuss it to give it meaning. We start with sounds, we build words and with words we build sentences, all the time the child will be bringing their knowledge of the world to bear on their reading. Children will of themselves strive to make meaning of life, including what they read. They may for a time be so focused on decoding each word that they lose sense of the longer sentence, but if they re-read it, or have it read back to them, they will understand it. If you are not sure you can always talk about it and check what they have understood. Do expect good early phonic reading books to seem a little repetitious, especially at the beginning. It builds a budding readers confidence and fluency to see familiar words that they can 'remember' after having decoded them a few times. This is natural and to be encouraged. We don't want them decoding for ever! It is only a means to an end, but without decoding, many children are left to guess and have no means of working out new words and they can easily become despondent. The truth is that whole language methods don't work for all, but phonics can work for all if it is taught systematically, even for children with special educational needs. Children will naturally develop 'whole language' skills once they are comfortable and confident at the sound and word level and as they build their 'bank' of experiences in life. Reading lots of stories and encouraging children to re-tell them and write about them will be going on alongside phonic teaching in a good classroom and home environment. Having said that - it is true that no two children learn phonics in the same way. The good phonic teacher will skillfully apply the steps that need to be taken to lead toward reading fluently, in a way that makes it accessible to that child. And no two children access them in the same way! Some will need more support. For others, the programme goes too fast. If phonics fails, in most cases it is not the phonics to blame, but the teacher. Teacher's you must find a way to make it work. Don't underestimate your children!
Reading Made simple is truly simple!
I have provided parents and teachers with the basic programme and it can then be followed while providing each indiviual child the necessary support s/he needs to succeed,
My Phonic Reading Books
Based on the experiences of young children, I have writen these simple readers to be truly phonetic, unlike most 'phonic' readers, which throw in a lot of words that the child doesn't know and can't decode.
I have written my phonic reading books to be simple to print and I said earlier, not too overwhelming in length. I have seen books with sentences purely made up of cvc words that go on and on and on, taxing the young child's patience. If a child can read these succesfully, in my opinion they should have moved on.
My key factors are:
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WelcomeHello, I'm Lilibette, qualified teacher (B.Ed Hons). I have taught phonics in mainstream education, followed by have home-educated my two sons to 18, and am now a private tutor. Categories
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