How Children Learn to Read

How Children Learn To Read



    A child’s ability to read does not come all at once, rather it is the product of a progression through stages of literacy development and effective instruction.  These stages of literacy development include five distinct phases, namely awareness and exploration, experimental, early, transitional, and independent reading (Vacca et al., 2012).  All students may not reach these phases at the same time or at standard ages, so teaching must be flexible in order to meet the needs of all students.  Effective literacy instruction, although flexible, must also include nationally recognized components of instruction.  These components include phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Learning Point Associates, 2004).
    From birth to preschool years a child is in the first phase of literacy development, which centers on exploration while building awareness.  Children may exhibit a curiosity for their environment and for written and verbal word, which helps build a foundation for literacy.  Here children enjoy being read to and can begin to pretend to read on their own.  Toward the end of this phase some children may begin to identify certain letters while also attempting to draw them (Vacca et al., 2012).
    Next children progress into the experimental reading stage, which usually begins during kindergarten.  Here children are acting on their curiosity and explorations, as they begin to experiment with reading on their own.  They work with rhymes, letters, and high frequency words, while also working to become oriented with the specifics of reading such as the “left-to-right, top-to-bottom orientation” (Vacca et al., 2012, p. 105) of print.
    As children enter first grade they move into the early reading stage of literacy development.  Here instruction becomes more formal, which allows students to begin to read simple and familiar stories.  During this year students work on developing their word recognition and comprehension skills, while also increasing their higher-order thinking skills, by working on reading strategies like making predictions (Vacca et al., 2012).
    Moving out of purely simple reading tasks into more complex ones, children enter the transitional reading phase, which usually occurs around second grade.  Students are now more comfortable with reading and may be able to read with greater fluency.  They have also developed skills in word identification strategies, spelling, and word recognition (Vacca et al., 2012).  This stage prepares them for the final stage, that of independence.  Students may begin to become independent readers around third grade, but that is only “the beginning of their journey into independent and productive learning” (Vacca, et al., 2012, p. 106).  True independence will take time and will be continually shaped through new reading experiences.
    In order to address these various stages of reading and to help all students become comfortable, independent readers, teachers must be aware of each student’s specific strengths and weaknesses.  Research suggests that teachers should use a combination of components for effective instruction, including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (Learning Point Associates, 2004).  Furthermore, I plan to include a variety of these methods in my lessons for tutoring my student to ensure that she can grow as a reader with my help.
    Phonemic awareness refers to the knowledge of how sounds work to form words (Partnership for Reading, 2012).  Phonemic awareness is an important building block to reading, since it helps students recognize words and sounds.  Some students may have less phonemic awareness than others, so often explicit instruction is needed to teach students sounds and how to blend them (Learning Point Associates, 2004). Phonics, too, concerns word sounds, but is rather a distinct method of recognizing and pronouncing words rather than an overall awareness of sounds.  There are many different ways to use phonics instruction, many of which vary based on the differing levels of students’ phonemic awareness (Vacca et al., 2012).  Phonics instruction may include drills on letter sounds and relationships, analogies to compare and contrast parts of words, spelling work, and more, all of which aim at increasing the student’s phonemic awareness and literacy (Vacca et al., 2012).
    Fluency incorporates a few defining features, namely the ability to read accurately, expressively, and with appropriate speed (Vacca et al., 2012).  These traits of fluent reading should positively influence a students’ ability to comprehend what he or she is reading.  To help students increase their fluency they need to read often.  Students should participate in “repeated reading” (Learning Point Associates, 2004, p. 18).  Through these repeated readings, students can begin to shift their focus from decoding unknown words to greater comprehension once they become more familiar with the text (Learning Point Associates, 2004).
    Vocabulary is a key component of word recognition and of overall reading comprehension (Learning Point Associates, 2004).  Students can be successfully exposed to new vocabulary in a variety of ways.  Teachers should preview new vocabulary words before lessons, then offer repeated exposure to those words in a variety of contexts.  Furthermore, students should have ample opportunities to work with these new words by writing their own definitions, creating sentences, and by participating in similar meaningful activities (Learning Point Associates, 2004).
    Finally, reading comprehension pertains to a student’s ability to construct accurate meaning from text (Learning Point Associates, 2004), which has been called the “final goal of reading instruction” (Learning Point Associates, 2004, p. 30).  Effective comprehension instruction includes helping students activate their prior knowledge to make meaningful connections to the texts, engaging students in thorough discussions, getting students to ask their own questions, and having them accurately summarize texts (Learning Point Associates, 2004).  All of these methods should be modeled first, with independence gradually being given to students over time.  Furthermore, working in cooperative learning groups also helps foster discussions and meaningful comprehension of the text for students.
    For the student that I am currently working with, I plan on attempting to use many strategies to help increase her reading abilities, especially in the areas of fluency and comprehension.  I find that this student often reads too quickly to achieve proper fluency or comprehension and may not have many skills at her disposal to help aid in her comprehension.  I plan to help her increase her vocabulary retention by having her write down her own definitions and sentences of vocabulary words and by also helping her focus on getting comfortable with some more common words that she struggles with.  Additionally, I want to help her to get used to using context clues within a sentence for help with unfamiliar vocabulary.  Since she rushes through the passages and especially rushes through unfamiliar terms, it should be helpful for her to slow down and see where she can pick meaning out of a difficult sentence. 
    Furthermore, I plan on giving her ample opportunities to fill out story maps and summarizing activities to help with her comprehension.  I also plan on creating activities that focus on making connections to the text.  These activities will help the student connect her current reading to her prior knowledge and past readings, which should have a positive impact on her comprehension.
    Overall, it is clear that learning to read is a multifaceted task that takes years to perfect.  However, it is important to note that there are many strategies to help students become proficient readers and also many activities to help hone in on specific skills for struggling readers.  With the aid and guidance of a skilled teacher, students can learn a variety of ways to increase their reading skills based on their specific strengths and needs.  I hope to address the needs of my student in this way, by isolating her needs and working to make reading easier and more meaningful to her, which will ultimately provide lifelong benefits.














References

Learning Point Associates. (2004). A Closer Look at the Five Essential Components of Effective     Reading Instruction: A Review of Scientifically Based Reading Research for Teachers.     Retrieved from: www.learningpt.org/pdfs/literacy/components.pdf

Partnership For Reading. (2012). Phonemic Awareness: An Introduction. Reading Rockets.     Retrieved from: http://www.readingrockets.org/article/3406/

Vacca, J.L., Vacca, R.T., Gove, M.K., Burkey, L.C., Lenhard, L.A., & McKeon, C.A. (2012).     Reading and Learning to Read (8th ed.).  Boston, MA: Pearson.