June 14th Reflection

All the readings stated that the basis for learning how to read is being able to decod each letter and sound in a word. In the primary grades, teachers are working in groups with students to teach them these techniques of breaking words down and really looking at the sounds that make the word. A word consists of a sequence of sounds and by teaching this to our students we can build word recognition. It does give "sound it out" a brand new meaning. Teachers need to learn how to give highly effective intructions and need to have the knowledge of stating the right cues in order to foster students' abilities of becoming indepedent readers. In some of my observations I have seen a lot of these cues taking place by the teachers. They are constantly coaching students by using cues that prompt specific actions and I have noticed in the younger grades like Kindergarten, they use cues to prompt thought and discussion more than the older grades. I have also observed in a classroom where the teacher just used the sound it out technique and it was difficult for the students. They were struggling more with their reading and they contunued to raise their hand asking for help. They were not learning effective techniques to being independent readers. I also think that this took a toll on them even wanted to read, they would often avoid it as much as possible or just fly through sentences not making any sense because they didn't want to sound out the words. It shows me how important it is as a teacher to learn how to incoporate these strategies and techniques in coaching our students. It was interesting to see in the Clark articles the different dynamics within mutliple grades on how you would conduct coaching in the reading groups. It helps us as future teachers to understand the conversation that should take place so students can apply their developing knowledge of word-recognition strategies. The article states that "reading is a problem-solving process." I have never thought about it from that point of view and it honestly is. For those who are just learning how to read it is a problem that must be solved by pulling from multiple interacting sources. Students need to be taught mutiple ways for working out problems in learning how to read, and if we as teachers don't teach these techniques/solutions then how can we expect students to read, understand, comprehend, and solve the problem?,,,, Of course that is what our readings are basically answering, we can't just expect students to sound it out and know it. In the Yopp article, they give great activities to do in the classroom to build up phonemeic awareness. It's quite interesting because I have seen these done in some of the classrooms that I have observed in, for example, Mail Package, Going on a Word Hunt, and Find Your Partners. I can remember how engaged the children were and how much fun they were having thinking these were just games, but they were actually learning how to make connections and developing word recognition/phonemic awareness. These are activities that I could include in my classroom because I know how easy, fun, and interactive they are for students to get involved while also learning. I enjoyed the readings for this section and have learned how important it is as a teacher to develop new stratigies and learn how to coach childrent to build an understanding of reading and not just say sound it out!