Nicole Hatcher
Wilmington University
Learning to Read
There
are five essential components of effective reading instruction that children
experience from birth until they become experienced readers which is usually
around the age of seven (DeBruin-Parecki). Those five components are “phonemic
awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension” (Johns 3). Depending
on how much emphasis is placed on these components there will be different
results in how effective reading instruction is for a child.
When
babies are born they begin experiencing phonemic awareness and phonics even if
it is not explicitly so. Babies are born knowing to cry as their form of
communication. They quickly learn to smile and coo. It is difficult to find a person
that will completely ignore a cooing baby. Those little responses from
strangers and utterances of “Oh! How cute” help to introduce that baby to a variety
of phonemes thus creating phonemic awareness. Most people read to their
infants, the creation of bedtime stories being a major help to this component. Babies
and toddlers ages 0-3 years begin to associate letters with words and sounds
they also “Begin to pay attention to specific print such as the first letters
of their names” (DeBruin-Parecki). As toddlers are read the alphabet they begin
to associate the phonic sounds that are made when people read the word with the
combination of letters.
As
children grow to the ages of three to four the number of components that goes
into their reading instruction increases. Their vocabulary increases as they
are learning new words every day from any source that is available. They want
to know what each and every word they hear means and they will ask anyone that
will answer them. Children are also incredible mimics. If they see people
reading, whether it is a book, a tablet, computer, smart phone, or newspaper
they will want to read too. Even children who do not know how to read will sit
with a book and try to make sense of the print if they see others doing it. As
the child’s vocabulary expands they begin to build on their phonemic awareness
and connect the sounds that they associate with letters. They begin to recognize
words on sight so that they do not need to sound out every letter. Children “Understand
that print carries a message” (DeBruin-Parecki) and they want to know what that
message is.
When
children reach the age of five they are for the most part emerging readers.
They know their letters, they can read and write certain phrases without much
help. Children really begin to understand the mechanics of reading as they “Understand
print is read left to right and top to bottom” (DeBruin-Parecki) and they have
been practicing flipping pages since they first got their hands on a book. For
children who may be behind this is also when most kids enter into a school
setting when they begin Kindergarten. For many this is the first time that
students are evaluated on their abilities and exposed to structured reading
instruction.
For
some kids that first time in a classroom is the only time they have someone
focus on the components of reading instruction with them. Teachers will read a
story to them and ask the students to repeat the story back to them or ask them
questions that let the teacher know how much of the story the students have
been able to comprehend. Many teachers also give students sight words so that
the students can increase their vocabulary for words that they may be dropping
when they are reading. Kindergarten is also a fun time because as the child’s
vocabulary expands so does their ability to “Use descriptive language to
explain or to ask questions” (DeBruin-Parecki) which helps with their ability
to comprehend what is being said in a story.
For
the final stage of learning to read for most children the age is from six to
seven years old. Now that most children have learned the basics of the other
components this is where the component of fluency comes into play. As children
increase their vocabulary, are familiar with phonemes, phonics and the idea of
comprehension they can begin to have an increase in their reading fluency. Since “Fluency is comprised of four
components: rate, accuracy, expression, and comprehension” (Johns 87) it is a
component that children of this age will need to work towards. In order to give
the correct expression to the words they are reading they have to have the basic
steps of comprehension in order to know what type of expression to put with the
words. They also need to have a sufficient vocabulary that they recognize on
sight so that they can read the words at a faster rate with a higher accuracy.
All
of the components of effective reading instruction work together in order to produce
an ability within a child to read the print that is placed in front of them.
Reading is the key to success in all other core content areas. If a child cannot
read their science book, or even the instructions for a lab then they will
struggle in that course. Not all children will like Science or Social Studies
but they should not dislike those classes because they cannot read the
material. By focusing on these five components young children are given the
opportunity to become strong readers.
Works
Cited
DeBruin-Parecki, Andrea. Literacy
Milestones From Birth to Age Six. Helping
Your Child Become a Reader. U.S
Department of Education. Retrieved from : http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/literacy-milestones-from-birth-to-age- six.htm
Johns, Jerry L. (2012). Basic Reading Inventory: Pre-Primer Through
Grade Twelve and Early Literacy
Assessments. Dubuque: Kendall Hunt.
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