2.+Teaching+Reading

Teaching Reading

Children enrolled in prep have come from an incredible range of backgrounds as there is no set education level that they should have achieved through kindergarten or care services. It is crucial that teachers introduce books as if the students have never read one before. This is called Creating Print Awareness. Here is an example of how the teacher may approach creating print awareness in their students:







Once children have gained an awareness of print the teacher can move on to encourage and teach reading in a classroom. They can do this through Modelled, Shared, Guided and Independent Reading. ** Modelled Reading ** is where the teacher reads aloud a range of texts to the whole class. (Hill, 2006, p73). It is vital that the teacher familiarises themselves with the text before reading it to the class. This way, the teacher will know when to pause, apply emphasis, create voices and dialogue and be fluent when reading the text. The teacher can also engage the students in the text by asking the students questions before, during and after reading the text. For example, before the reading, the teacher may ask the students what they think the text is about, if it is a new text, or if reading a chapter book, to recap on the events that happened in the last chapter and what they think may happen next. During the reading the teacher may pause and ask students to empathise with the character or to make predictions about what will happen next. At the end of the reading the teacher could ask the class what were the main events in the story or to make predictions about the next chapter. This will help with the student’s literal, interpretive and inferential comprehension of the text.

** Shared Reading ** is again the teacher reading aloud to the whole class. However in this method using big books is best so that students can see the words being read to them. before shared reading begins, the teacher can prompt the students by asking them questions about what they think the text is about. The teacher should refer to the title and pictures to prompt the children and engage them in the reading. During the reading the teacher may also question the students about what may happen next and to ask the students to empathise with the characters and think about what they would do if they were in the same position. This is great for extending the students comprehension of the text both literally, interpretively and inferentially. The teacher could also ask students to point out capital letters and punctuation to extend their print awareness. After the reading, the teacher should discuss the text with the children; a good idea is to base small group writing activities on the text. (Hill, 2006)



This leads to ** Guided Reading **. This is where a teacher works with small groups of 4 – 6 children, while the other groups are working in learning centres. These groups should be based on the children’s learning needs so the teacher can address the help they need. The children all have a copy of the same text, usually smaller copies of the big book that has been read to the class as a whole. The teacher moves around the group listening to each child and taking notes on their strengths and weaknesses to assess what level of reading they are at. (Hill 2006)

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Independent Reading ** is where the children are capable of reading silently or aloud by themselves. Children will learn to build fluency and will become confident to read by themselves. (Hill, 2006) When planning lesson for teaching reading, teachers should draw on the four roles of a reader. (Hill, 2006, p172) To incorporate the ‘Code Breakers’ in their lessons teachers should provide opportunities for students to understand the alphabetic principle, phonemic awareness and letter knowledge. They could do this by: - teaching students the alphabet in a variety of ways such as through song and dance - asking students the name and sound of letters when pointed to  - teach students about rhyme, encourage singing of nursery rhymes - teach students about syllables, alliteration and repetition - have students practice onset and rime as a mini lesson in learning centres - use magnetic letters and a board to allow children to view the letter and sound relationships To incorporate ‘Meaning Makers’ into their lessons teachers can encourage students to: - read picture story books and have them write what they think the story is about by drawing on the detailed pictures, for example the book ‘Window’ by Jeannie Baker - relate the book to their students. For example, ‘Mrs Wishy Washy’, ask the students if they have ever been given a bath like one of Mrs Wishy Washy’s - ask children to create a different ending for the story or another part of the story - get the children to re-enact the story or their favourite scene To engage ‘Text Users’ in their lessons teachers should offer a range of texts for students to identify and have various students read from a different text each time. By being aware that there are different text types students will become fluent with reading the varying texts. ‘Text Critics’ can be involved within teacher’s lessons if the teacher gives the students copies of all different texts such as narratives, advertisements, recounts, informative text and procedural texts and asks them to find the message that the author is sending them, or what the author is trying to get them to feel. This may be difficult for Preps and Grade One students however towards the end of Grade 2, students should be able to easily identify different text types and to know what the purpose of the text is for.

Another way for teachers to engage their students in reading is to read online. There is a program called Story Place, where children can read interactive stories on the internet.

http://www.storyplace.org/

To test whether effective teaching of reading skills has taken place, teachers should conduct running records with each student. Running records is where there are sentences rated easy to hard and students have to read them out. If the student reads the words in the sentence correctly, they score a point, if they miss a word, create a word or mispronounce a word, they don’t score a point. Running records are used all through the early literacy program.

Hill, S. 2006, //Developing Early Literacy: Assessment and Teaching,// Eleanor Curtain Publishing, Prahran