Ch 3 Learning to Read

Ch3 – Learning to Read

As the title of this chapter says it is about learning to read in a kindergarten or first grade class so the framing question it addresses is about learning to read.  The authors discuss reading books to children, independent reading of familiar text, shared reading, and guided reading in detail with examples of dialogue during particular reading times.  The examples in the book make learning to read sound fun and enjoyable especially in the eyes of children.  At the beginning of the chapter the authors discuss deficits versus strengths in teaching reading.  For struggling readers most teachers teach based on what the students don’t know rather than what they know which “is in direct opposition to what research tells us about how the brain acquires information and then organizes related information into larger networks” which means the old knowledge has the potential to activate new connections and to stimulate higher-level process in the brain (p. 24).  Dorn et al. (1998) further state that building self-regulatory systems that enable young learners to use their current skills and strategies to initiate new learning is imperative to higher-level processing based on conceptual understanding.  In contrast, instruction that is grounded in a deficit model leads young learners to rely on low-level processes such as memorizing basic information that the brain does not understand when the reader has no background knowledge of the topic to tap in to.  These statements justify our knowledge of the importance of building background knowledge and knowing student’s strengths to create literacy activities. 

Learning to read for independent readers requires attending to many sources of information:  meaning, or semantic cues, structural, or syntactical cues, and graphophonetic cues.  A struggling reader has not learned to integrate multiple sources of information but relies on one source of information at the expense of others which lessons important information from the other sources which lessons checking and confirming responses to the text.  Young learners need positive experiences to become proficient at one of the sources of information to increase learning and practice to the other sources of information.  When I read this I realized that most reading programs developed for struggling readers only work with one of the sources of information such as the graphophonetic cues and accuracy in reading out loud.  The program our school adopted was Reading Mastery and Corrective Reading which we used for about a year and a half.  Our reading scores did not improve because our students did not have the opportunity to read grade level material where the other sources of information would be needed – making meaning or using structural or syntactical cues.  The students were grouped by their ability to read which was seen as a deficiency because it was lower than their present grade level.  The students were grouped as Intensive, Strategic and Benchmark.  Even the benchmark kids were placed in the reading program designed for struggling readers.  This was a directive from our agency office without any input from the local school level mainly the teachers. 

Responding to students’ miscues was another important aspect in this chapter that made sense to me to support students as they learn to read.  Teachers have to remember that today’s prompts need to help with tomorrow’s problem-solving actions.  We cannot correct or assist students at the expense of constructing meaning within the text.  We should create connections through analogies based on what the students know.  Other literacy activities include being read to, rereading familiar books, shared reading and guided reading. 

Read aloud:  Listens to complex language patterns and acquires knowledge of text structure vocabulary and concepts above instructional reading level

Familiar Reading:  applies strategies in easy independent activity

Shared Reading: participates in group with teacher guidance with selected material to promote early reading behavior

Guided Reading:  Problem solves with minimal help from teacher on text at instructional level

Shared reading involves using cloze procedures, reading alphabet chart, cut-up poems, sentence strips and word cards, reading poetry and reciting nursery rhymes.  The examples given specifically demonstrate teacher’s ability to help students “intuit” problem-solving of words by having students figure out the words rather than just giving them the word or giving an unrelated prompt.