Module Four

Cindy Summerhill
READ 5572
Module Four
      The three things I gleaned from this reading are firstly that initial learning-to -read stage the student may feel overwhelmed by all the demands of theskills it takes to read. The book lists these components of the reading process, word recognition, accessing word meaning, deciding on the correct meaning of the word, grouping words into grammatical units, generating inferences, and using reader knowledge to construct coherent, understandable model of the text. Just listing all of them makes my head spin. I do beleive it is important for student to get a good foundation in reading in the early formative years. If they are taught correctly and with understanding and compassion all studnets can grasp the componenets it takes to be a good reader. The second thing that stuck out to me is the three basic processes that are involved whenever we read they are decoding, comprehension and attention. Decoding is the ability to pronounce the words printed on the page. Comprehension is a process in which meaning is constructed using information from the printed page. Attention is required to be able to decode and comprehend text. It was good to read this and realize that there is a limited amount of space available for the beginner reader. I work with the beginner everyday in my room and if I just take it step by step they can grasp how to decode or word blend, understand what they read and show reading attention so they can process waht they are reading. The third thing I gleaned is that repeated exposures to the same words children are exposed to over and over leads to the improvement of their fluency. When students increase their amount of reading it improves their word recognition, speed, ease of reading and comprehension. I do this in my room both in whole group and small group instruction time. In whole group I read the same big book story for one week and during small group the students have the same book for two days. They read individual and chorally. Fluency is an important part of reading. Teachers need to assess students to know what their fluency level is. When you know what your students weaknesses and strengths are the better equipped you are to instruct them.
       I plan to implement more repeated readings. I think reading a poem several times and pointing to the words would be a great whole group time. The students can read it together and then we can discuss the poem. As I have read repetition is very effective for fluency. The students need to be engaged and motivated to what they are reading and then better fluency can happen. I have seen chidlren in my room progress during our small group time and read with out pausing and with confidence.
       A strategy I used is observation during literacy work station time. I walked around the room listening to my students read a poem in the poetry station, read the sentences they are building in the pocket chart station and read the books in the reading station. Some students are still struggling with fluency so I noted it in my notebook and others are progressing which I noted too. This will help me in my small group time to reach my students at the level they are at.