This week’s readings were very interesting and useful, especially after meeting our kindergarten buddies last week. As I was reading through Word Identification Strategies I kept on thinking of my kindergarten buddy and thinking of approaches that may work for him. Additionally, I was thinking how some of these strategies may work for older students with a lower than average reading/writing level.
The first chapter, an overview of word identification as a tiered like system, made me think of how children learn how to read and write. Of course, most of this reflecting was based upon my own learning experience, but I don’t remember too much of it. I can understand the tiers presented on page 5, figure 1-2, in that a student must have the fundament components of phonemic awareness in order to reach a fluency level of word understanding. My main concerns, though, is when these levels aren’t reached by an age that is older than 2nd grade, when the authors state that most of these levels have been (or should have been achieved). What should we, as teachers of higher grades, do in order to not have our students separated from the rest of the class during language and literature study times, since tracking may not be the best option for students?
Phonemic awareness, as presented in chapter 2, intrigued me the most because this is something that my kindergarten buddy is struggling with the most. The kindergarten class is on the letter M in their learning of letters, but my buddy is still struggling with the C sounds, thinking that C is present in most words that we had him sound. Should we be offering assistance to this student in regards of phonetics or just assessing his abilities? I do know, though, when I am writing things out around him that I plan on sounding out the words as I type them, so he may have extra exposure to the process.
Using pictures to introduce students to language is a very widely accepted practice. Similarly, I believe that children have an introduction to language through logos. Is it acceptable to use logos in the classroom as a teaching tool? Where is the line between teaching and introducing advertising (that can separate a class based upon socioeconomic levels and also influence their influence in family purchases – especially in regards to food)? I can see the benefit from bringing in familiar logos/words into the classroom, but can see that there could be ethical issues surrounding this practice.
In any case, this week’s readings made me think about two things: how to help young readers (specially our kindergarten and first grade buddies) and how to help older students that may continue to struggle with fundamental principles of language. I am excited to get more feedback from my peers, experience in the classroom, and further readings that may help me in developing my thoughts and strategies.
Lastly, I attended the WAETAG conference this past weekend and one of the keynote speakers’ presentations was the use of Greek and Latin roots as a tool to teach language. In his speech, he mentioned that teaching students 100 root words could give a student a 5000 word vocabulary. Would introducing roots to young readers/students be appropriate? For example, teaching the smaller, basic roots, like un-, dis-, pre- along with some sight words could extend their vocabulary and show the young learners a pattern within the language. Or, would this concept be too advanced for primary aged students? What are your opinions on this matter? Like my other concerns, the age appropriateness of this concept is something that I am unsure of.
I look forward to another week with my kindergarten buddy, to evaluate him, and see how we can help him succeed with his literacy skills.
