How Children Learn To Read
Krisy Green
Ashford University

Author Note This research assignment is being submitted on March 4, 2013 for Professor Lisa Edmunds EDU411 Reading & Cognition course

How Children Learn To Read

The success of a child’s educational future is dependent upon their ability to read, and without their ability to read, a person cannot enjoy all this world has to offer, such as reading about world history, reading a letter from a friend, or learning a new language. Reading unlocks doors that would otherwise be locked forever. In recent years, there has been a great deal of debates on the methods used to teach our children how to read; parents and teachers need to determine whether the whole language, phonics, or the combination of both methods is the most adequate approach for teaching children how to read. Thomas Hopkins Galluadet first developed the whole language method in the early 1800s. The method was originally developed for deaf mutes because they were completely unaware of phonetic sounds for letters. The whole language method teaches children how to read with complete words, rather than breaking them into parts or syllables. Children are repeatedly drill with simple words until they can recognize the by sight, and then they are introduce to more complicated words. The whole language approach is considered more creative and interesting for a child who is eager to learn. In a whole language learning environment the teacher would read aloud or tell stories more often than in a phonetic learning environment. Reading books aloud is consider a very effective way to help a child learn how to read and comprehend what they have read. The more excitement a parent show a child when reading a book, the more a child will enjoy it. Once a child begins to read this will not only help build their confidence in reading, but it will help them learning exciting new skills.

We know from research that an effective reading program must address several aspects of reading. Among others, these aspects include the alphabetic code, fluency, comprehension, and motivation. In addition to phoneme awareness and letter knowledge, knowledge of sound-symbol associations is vital for success in first grade and beyond. Accurate and fluent word recognition depends on phonics knowledge. The ability to read words accounts for a substantial proportion of overall reading success even in older readers. Good readers do not depend primarily on context to identify new words. When good readers encounter an unknown word, they decode the word, name it, and then attach meaning. The context of the passage helps a reader get the meaning of a word once a word has been deciphered. Beginning readers must apply their decoding skills to fluent, automatic reading of text. Children who are reading with adequate fluency are much more likely to comprehend what they are reading. Thus the concept of independent reading level is important: it is that level at which the child recognizes more than 95 percent of the words and can read without laboring over decoding. Poor readers often read too slowly. Some poor readers have a specific problem with fluent, automatic text reading even though they have learned basic phonics.
The undisputed purpose of learning to read is to comprehend. Although children are initially limited in what they can read independently, comprehension instruction can occur as soon as they enter school.
Comprehension depends, firstly, on a large, working vocabulary and substantial background knowledge. Even before children can read for themselves, teachers can build this vital background knowledge by reading interactively and frequently to children from a variety of narrative and expository texts, chosen in part for their ability to expand what children know about the world around them. Further, comprehension is enhanced when teachers make sure students understand what they are reading by asking questions and encouraging student questions and discussions. Effective instruction will help the reader actively relate his or her own knowledge or experience to the ideas written in the text, and then remember the ideas that he or she has come to understand. A successful teacher of beginning reading generates enthusiasm and appreciation for reading. Research reviews have repeatedly stated that children who are read too often, who are led to enjoy books, and who are encouraged to read widely are more likely to become good readers than children who lack these experiences. Teachers who are juggling the technical challenges of program organization and delivery may lose sight of the fact that purposeful reading and writing is the goal of instruction.
Information on the importance of daily reading aloud, the selection of varied reading material, the use of the library, and the integration of topics across the curriculum will bolster literacy instruction, even as teachers focus on teaching specific reading and writing skills. Team and school initiatives to promote a love of books and wide reading should be ever-present. A critical part of effective reading instruction is explicitly teaching students how to use efficient word reading strategies. Simply put, students need to be taught what to do when they get to a hard word. In one research-validated early reading intervention program, young students are taught to use a three-part strategy when they try to read difficult words: "Look for parts you know, sound it out, and check it" (Denton & Hocker, 2006, p. 144).
Look for parts of the word you know. In the earliest stages of learning to read, students may find a letter or a letter combination (e.g., th, ing) that they know. Later, they may recognize common word endings (e.g., –ot inpot, rot, cot). Still later, they may identify roots or base words, such as the root spect (which means "to see") in the words inspect and spectacles, or common prefixes and suffixes like pre- or -ly.
Sound it out. Students should be taught from the earliest lessons to use a sounding-out strategy to read unfamiliar words. They should learn how to blend sounds and larger word parts together to read words and how to apply this strategy when reading real text. Some teachers teach students in kindergarten or 1st grade to identify unknown words by looking at pictures on the page or at one or two letters in a word. These students are being taught to use a guessing strategy, the strategy of choice of struggling readers, as described so well by the middle school student above. If a word is too difficult for a student to sound out, the teacher can model the process of looking for known letters or word parts and sounding out the word, and then simply tell the student the word. Some reading programs include controlled text, sometimes called "decodable text," that contains only words students can read using words and letter sounds they have been previously taught in the program. This kind of text can provide a temporary support for students in the early stages of reading development.
Check it. After students sound out the unfamiliar word, the last step of the three-part word reading strategy is to teach students to put the newly solved word back into the sentence and to check it to be sure it makes sense. Thus, the meaning of the word in context is not ignored; it is used as the checking mechanism. Studies of skilled young readers show that this is the main way they use context—not for guessing what words are, but for checking to be sure that their reading is making sense so they can make corrections when it doesn't make sense. Today, as in the past, teachers are being challenged to broaden their repertoire of teaching strategies to meet the needs and strengths of students from a tremendous diversity of backgrounds and cultures. These learners—African Americans, American Indians, Asian

Americans, Hispanics, and many others—face societal discrimination; live in conditions of poverty, or both. The ways in which we teach these young people exert a powerful influence on their linguistic, social, cognitive, and general educational development.
Research suggests, for example, that effective instruction acknowledges students' gender differences and reaffirms their cultural, ethnic, and linguistic heritages. Many effective instructional approaches build on students' backgrounds to further the development of their abilities. Who deserves accommodations? Everyone! Instructional accommodations are not just for students who are struggling. When accommodations are made, all students benefit.
Accommodations do not fundamentally alter or lower expectations or standards in instructional level (conceptual difficulty), content, or performance criteria. Instead, changes are made in the instructional delivery method, assessment method, or both to enable the student to have access to the same learning and equal opportunity to demonstrate learning.
Accommodations fall under four major categories:
Content: What the student needs to learn. The instructional concepts should be broad based, and all students should be given access to the same core content.
However, the content’s complexity should be adapted to students’ learner profiles.
Teachers can vary the presentation of content, (e.g., textbooks, lecture, demonstrations, and taped texts) to best meet students’ needs.
Process: Activities in which the student engages to make sense of or master the content. Examples of differentiating process activities include scaffolding, flexible grouping, interest centers, manipulative, varying the length of time for a student to master content, and encouraging an advanced learner to pursue a topic in greater depth.
Products: The culminating projects that ask students to apply and extend what they have learned. Products should provide students with different ways to demonstrate their knowledge as well as various levels of difficulty, group or individual work, and various means of scoring.
Learning Environment: The way the classroom works and feels. The differentiated classroom should include areas in which students can work quietly as well as collaborate with others, materials that reflect diverse cultures, and routines that allow students to get help when the teacher isn’t available
(Tomlinson, 1995, 1999; Winebrenner, 1992, 1996).

Reference Page

Roe, Betty & Smith, Sandy (2012).Teaching Reading In Today’s Elementary Schools/

Denton, C. A., & Hocker, J. L. (2006). Responsive Reading Instruction: Flexible intervention for struggling readers in the early grades. Longmont, CO: Sopris West.

Tomlinson, C.A. (1995). Differentiating Instruction for Advanced Learners in the MixedAbility School Classroom, ERIC Digest #E536, October 1995. Retrieved January 25, 2006
From http: www.kidsource.com/kidsource/content/diff instruction.html

Tomlinson, C.A. (1999a). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Winebrenner, S. (1992). Teaching gifted kids in the regular classroom. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit.
Winebrenner, S. (1996). Teaching kids with learning difficulties in the regular classroom. Minneapolis, MN: Free Spirit. ED 396 502.