Research-Driven Education
  • Home
  • Our Story
  • Blog
  • Enrichment Programs
  • Workshops and Camps

Teaching Children How to Read

7/8/2015

0 Comments

 
Once a child has developed the ability to distinguish between letter sounds (auditory discrimination) and the ability to visually discriminate letters (visual discrimination), he may be ready to read.  First we teach the letter sounds. Teaching letter names is not necessary for a child to learn to read, and is more often than not a hindrance in the early stages of reading.
Children who have learned to focus on letter names will have a hard time re-learning that the letter "C" does not say "see" and the letter "G" does not say "j". 
Once a child has learned all of the letter sounds, we begin to put the sounds together. We start with these ladders. The children use their fingers to climb up and down the ladders, reading the sounds as they go. Learning these beginning chunks helps the children become smooth readers. Rather than sounding out each individual sound in "sss... aaa... ttt...", the child can sound the word out in two chunks "sa" and "t".  
Synthesizing is the skill required for your child to put the sounds together. We play lots of games practicing synthesizing, so that it is natural and easy when your child begins reading. I may show a child a set of pictures and ask, "Can you point to the ba...t?" 
In the beginning, the children play lots of games finding pictures that begin with the word chunks that they are learning to read. 
Picture
When the children have become proficient at their beginning ladders, we start to build words by adding ending sounds. 
Reading is not just the act of putting sounds together. It is important to make sure that the children are comprehending the words they are reading. 


A child may read: Ca...t. Cat!
I ask: What is that?
Child: A cat. It chases mice!
We keep practicing the same thing over and over again until the child has mastered the concept. 
Picture
If we move on before a child has mastered a concept he will have even greater trouble with the next concept. A small hole in a child's learning will compound itself with each new concept until it becomes a huge gap. For example, if a child has 75% mastery of the "short a" words and we move on the the "short e" words, the child will likely only gain 70% mastery of the "short e" words. Since 70% is usually considered a passing grade, we could move on to the "short i" words and lessen the child's understanding even further. This child would certainly begin to experience confusion and frustration.
I have very high expectations for my students, but studies link teachers with high expectations to high performance from students. (Studies also, unfortunately, link the reverse. Teachers with low expectations yield low performance results from students.)
Some teachers may argue that it's best not to stop a child to correct him while he is reading. I disagree. "Had" and "has" are very closely spelled, but they are different verb tenses and that difference is important. 
A child who is truly gaining proficiency in reading should be able to read new words, and even nonsense words, by following the phonics rules he has learned. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

More Letter Sounds!

2/26/2014

0 Comments

 

We practice letter sounds A LOT. Here, the children are stamping the letter that makes the beginning sound from the picture (spider, list, lion fence). 

An individual activity like this works as an assessment, so that the teacher can keep a running list of what the child needs help with. 

While we do not need to conduct formal assessments every day, we must always be assessing whether or not our students are understanding the concepts we are teaching. If we move on before the children are MASTERING the concepts, we are creating frustration and confusion. 

Our goal is to practice these letter sounds until they are committed to the child's long term memory. As these activities get easier and easier, the begin to turn into 'rote' learning. Once they become 'rote',  the children can commit more of their brain to higher level thinking and problem solving. 
Mastery Learning: You don't practice until you get it right. You practice until you can't get it wrong.
0 Comments

Working on the Short "A" Sound

2/22/2014

0 Comments

 
Our preschoolers working on the short ‘a’ sound. These children are cutting out "aaaa" pictures and gluing them to a lowercase "a". We try to add a fine motor component, like cutting, to our activities every day.
Picture
We use the lowercase letter ‘a’ because the lowercase letters are more frequently used and therefore more important for children to be able to recognize and write.
I always refer to it as ‘the aaaaa letter’ (drawing out the short ‘a’ sound, as in ‘alligator’) to prevent confusion.
0 Comments

Fishing for Letter Sounds

2/16/2014

0 Comments

 
A common misconception in Early Childhood Education is that it’s important for children to know the NAMES of letters before they begin kindergarten (or reading).
Picture
Picture
Picture
A much more important skill is the ability for your child to be able to discriminate sounds (auditory discrimination).
Picture
These children are fishing for pictures that begin with the ‘ssssss’, ‘mmmmmm’, or ‘ffffffff’ sound. It is not necessary for the child to know any letter names in this activity. When she catches a ‘sssssssock’ fish, she puts it in the pail with the letter that says ‘sssss’.
Picture
There is a component of visual discrimination (remembering which letter makes which sound) to this activity, but for the children who do not remember, I will tell them what sound each letter makes. This keeps the integrity of the activity (sorting sounds).
Picture
We take our time with these letter sounds (it is preschool, after all) and let the children really MASTER each sound before moving on. Once they learn a few letter sounds and understand the concept, they begin to learn them VERY quickly, and it’s quite fascinating.
0 Comments
    LearnWithJoy
    Picture

    Author

    Wendy Joy Yohman
    Eleven years teaching experience
     at a small private  school. 
    Current preschool supervisor.
     Bachelor's Degree in 
    Psychology with an emphasis
     on educational kinesiology 
    (how different movements 
    activate certain areas of the 
    brain). 

    tpt store

    Archives

    December 2017
    October 2016
    February 2016
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    March 2015
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014

    Categories

    All
    Academic Standards
    Art
    Attribute Blocks
    Auditory Discrimination
    Auditory Memory
    Chapel
    Classifying/Sorting
    Counting
    Counting Bears
    Creativity
    Dr Seuss
    Fine Motor
    Freebie
    Geometry
    Letters
    Math
    Measurement
    Money
    Music
    Patterning
    Patterning Blocks
    Phonics
    Pre Reading
    Problem Solving
    Reading
    Rhyme
    Skip Counting
    Story
    Strategy
    TPT
    Unifix Cubes
    Visual Discrimination

    RSS Feed

    Sites I recommend:

    The Homeschool Mom
    Visit LearnWithJoy's profile on Pinterest.

    Affiliate Disclosure:


    Some of the links on this website are affiliate links, which means that I may earn a commission if you click on the link or make a purchase using the link. When you make a purchase, the price you pay will be the same whether you use the affiliate link or go directly to the vendor’s website using a non-affiliate link. By using the affiliate links, you are helping support the LearnWithJoy website, and I genuinely appreciate your support.

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.