Dr Seuss said, “The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” This simple, yet dramatic, statement not only includes encouragement to read, but also promises a successful future for each individual child. Therefore, it is vital that every teacher encourage reading and teach to each child’s needs so they will be successful in life and to society.
Webster’s Dictionary defines reading as the act of reading. However, this definition is simplistic. According to Reutzel and Cooter (2009), the term reading is currently interpreted far more broadly and encompasses the learning of a complex set of skills and knowledge that allows individuals to understand visual and print based information. One cannot ensure a happy, healthy, and productive life, nor will one be able to fully access their rights as an individual if one does not possess the ability to read. This inability to read or being illiterate is a national health risk, and has disastrous and far extending reach on the lives of its citizens. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
Teachers are on the front line in the battle against illiteracy. Competent teachers of effective reading make all the difference in instruction. Research concluded that about fifteen percent of the variation among children in reading achievement at the end of a school year is attributable to factors that related to the skill and effectiveness of the teacher (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009, p.7). Furthermore, research suggests that the influence that comes from teachers promotes more growth academically than any other factor, including the student’s family, neighborhood, or school, regardless of economic status. The teacher’s knowledge and understanding of effective reading instruction, and possess the characteristic that make the greatest difference in whether or not a child will learn to read successfully. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
The first characteristic that every effective teacher must have is the ability of being excellent classroom managers. Classroom management refers to the ability of a teacher to organize, direct, and supervise the classroom environment so that effective student learning is possible. Furthermore, highly effective teachers know how to adapt instruction to meet the needs of learners with specific needs. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009) In my classroom, I intend to create a classroom that is centered around the students, and ensure that the students are making connections to and are learning from the text. I will also provide different spaces for multiple use and users, supplying materials, with routines and procedures that follow the schedule and reinforce instruction. Furthermore, my students will learn as a class and in small groups allowing me to assess them while managing the student workload and the classroom environment.
To provide that quality instruction to students, teachers must have routines in the course of the day. According to Morrow (2000), these continually reinforced routines allow students to become independent learners. In my classroom, I will ensure that routines are positively enforced so that students are comfortable in their learning environment. One such routine would be that while I am giving one on one instruction or small group instruction students would be reading quietly or working at an appropriate center. Reading centers positively encourage independent learning and social learning, while allowing the teacher time to work with smaller groups or struggling students. (Morrow, 2000)
I plan to have multiple centers in my classroom, and each center will address the needs of both struggling and advanced students, ensuring that each child gains knowledge further propelling them to success. For example, in my first center I will provide an assortment of children’s literature on multiple levels. I will also include technology in one of my centers, allowing students to work on computer programs designed to specifically targeted areas. In addition to those centers, I will provide opportunities for writing in journals, and group activities.
Before routines and centers are established, I must have rules designed for and produced by the classroom. There should be a minimum of three to five positively stated rules, established on the first day, and these rules will be encouraged through rewards and consequences. During the course of the day, I will point to the posted rules to prevent any further misbehavior.
While posted rules may be enough to discourage misbehavior, there will be times when I must interact with parents or guardians. Parents must be involved in my classroom if the child and myself are to be successful. I can accomplish this goal through email, telephone, conferences, and letters to the child’s home. In addition to letters sent home associated with misbehavior, I must send home positive notes and messages as well. Parents rarely get positive letters and this encourages participation from the parent, and thus forming a good partnership with myself.
“Children that live in poverty come to school with twenty million fewer words than other students, “ stated Ruby Payne. (2002) Therefore, the teacher must become proficient as a highly effective teacher to ensure that these children catch up to the average norm. Highly effective teachers not only understand how oral language effects reading and writing, they also understand that children develop language at different rates. Furthermore, these teachers must adapt reading instruction to meet the needs of this diverse population of students. In my classroom I will incorporate structured times, thus allowing children to read every day, and giving ample opportunity for class and individual discussions to help develop oral language. Furthermore, I intend to give my students a wide variety of books that can accommodate their reading levels. For those students just entering school, my instruction will need to be modified to meet their needs, therefore I intend to model language by doing read alouds and read alongs, with quality children’s literature.
All good readers use a minimum of three cueing systems when making sense of text, and these cues are Meaning, Structure, and Visual. Good readers use the cueing system of meaning in order to make sense of the material by combining background knowledge, the definitions of words, and pictures. If a child makes a mistake the teacher must ask the child if the information read makes sense. Syntax refers to the way readers put words together arranging a proper sentence. Teachers must ask the child if the information read, sound right. Finally, the last cueing system that is vital for every good reader visual. Visual Cueing refers to the way letters represent the sounds present, and at the point of miscue teachers must ask if the text read looks right. The highly effective teacher knows that at the point of miscue it is important to ask these questions allowing the student time to correct themselves. (R eutzel and Cooter, 2009)
While correcting themselves, good readers take action in their heads and decide on a strategy to use when reading and using the cueing system. However, not every child knows about these strategies. Therefore, I intend to teach my children some of the following strategies. I would teach my students to look at the pictures for clues, and for them to think about what would make sense to the content. I would also teach my students to put their fingers under tricky words and with their mouths ready, have them sound out the confusing words. Finally, I plan to teach my students to reread parts that are unknown, and ask them to look for parts of the words that they do know, to help them with the text.
Before the instruction of these aforementioned strategies it is important to assess each child. “Highly effective teachers begin reading instruction by first assessing to find out what the students already know and can do.” (Reutzel and Cooter, p. 11) One assessment that accomplishes this goal is the running record. Running records, developed by Marie Clay, allow one to analyze oral reading errors, by noting everything, through shorthand, the students read correctly and incorrectly. This informal assessment, done on a regular lined paper, documents the miscues read by the student. Furthermore, the running records allow the teacher to note what areas the child is struggling and adapts instruction. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
During the beginning of each school year, I intend to use running records on all of my students. This will allow me to see what mistakes my students are using, and determine what strategies each child uses for word solving. I further plan to continually assess each child once a month if not more depending on the child. This assessment is easy to use and allows me to monitor my students’ progress, or where a child needs more attention.
According to Reutzel and Cooter, highly effective teachers must teach the essential components of reading, using evidence based instructional practices. (2009) Teachers can achieve this by focusing on their curriculum essentials, allowing access to print materials, and through effective instruction. Furthermore, highly effective teachers must model reading and writing for the children. The process of modeling will help emergent readers; an individual who has little or no skills in the task assessed and requires instruction, to learn the skills necessary to succeed. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
As emergent readers begin, they will first need to be taught that there are Concepts of Print. Teachers must first teach these readers that a book has a front and a back, and beginning and end. Then that as a rule, print corresponds to speech, readers read from left to right, and read from the top of the page to the bottom. Furthermore, the reader must understand that print comes in many forms. (Blevins, 2006) As a future teacher, I intend to teach these Concepts of Print by modeling how a book is read, through guided practice, and by using large text so that the students may follow along as I am reading. I plan to assess my students by using a checklist and individually asking students to identify the different parts of the book, as well as where to begin reading, the title, and other established concepts of reading text.
Alphabet Knowledge is another highly critical aspect for emergent readers. As an educator, I intend to teach my students the alphabet by first teaching the names of the letters. In addition to that, I plan to allow my students many opportunities to practice writing letters. Furthermore, I plan to teach my students memory strategies to help children write letters. I can assess my students by implementing the three second rule; which is that if a child does not know the information by that point the student probably does not know it. I also plan on using the Letter Naming Test to assess my students, because without a firm understanding of the alphabet students will fail to become successful readers.
Phonological Awareness is another important factor for the emergent learner to comprehend and is important for speaking and writing correctly. Phonological awareness is defined as a broad term that includes phonemic awareness and can involve things such as syllables, onsets, rimes, words, and rhyming (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2008). One idea that I will use is substituting; by substituting letters the students can make new words and build on existing ones. Furthermore, I will incorporate rhyming activities so that the students in the classroom, can hear the sounds, but are creating new words. Finally, I will blend sounds, segment, and delete sounds so the children can build new words to add to their vocabulary. I can assess my students by writing a word on the board and asking them to create new words with similar endings or sounds, either verbally or written.
The third component, that is important to reading success, is Phonemic Awareness. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2008). This aspect is important for emergent readers due to the fact that without this knowledge the child would fail to recognize individual sounds and be able to read words and spell correctly. One way I will teach my students is by using Elkonin boxes, this is a manipulative that allows children to separate sounds by using chips to mark each sound. I will teach a majority of this verbally and by modeling for the students. Furthermore, with the use of instructional aides, such as personal dry erase boards, I will ask students to add or delete phonemes to build new words. This last tool will be one way I can assess my students. In addition to that assessment, I can also make corrections consistently during the day to correct errors.
Another component that is important to the emergent reader is Alphabet Principle. The Alphabetic principle is the knowledge that a specific letter or letter combinations represent each of the speech sounds (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009). For students to progress in reading they must understand that the alphabet letters and the sounds they represent, speech is made up of sounds represented by those letters, and that the spelling of those words remain the same no matter where they are seen. I will teach the children in my classroom by introducing two letters at a time, so that the students can contrast the way each letter is written and how the letter sounds. Furthermore, I will have the alphabet around the classroom on the wall, and in other areas so the children can constantly be reminded. With the use of skilled base worksheets, I can assess my students and their progression. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
According to Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn (2009), phonics is defined as the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between phonemes, the sounds of spoken language, and graphemes, the letters and spellings that represent those sounds. Teaching phonics allows children to learn and use the alphabetic principle, and help them recognize familiar words accurately and automatically. The first thing I will do is to create a word wall in my classroom. On the wall I will place high frequency words and one exemplar word. Each week I will place six new frequency words on the wall, to build the students’ vocabulary and also serve as a reference for the students throughout the year. (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn, 2009)
Time must be set aside for proper instruction of phonics. I will begin by setting aside thirty minutes in the day for working with words. During this thirty-minute period I will first begin by introducing the words of the week and explain how each word works. I will segment and sound out the words, so that the children will hear the correct pronunciation. On the second day I will focus my attention on word building. Using magnetic letters and a magnetic board, I will line the letters up at the top and build words with similar patterns, for word manipulation. The third day, we as a class, will work on word sorting, reading, and gluing words into the children’s journals. As a class we will analyze the words and focus on the word in its entirety. On the fourth day, I will work with the children on building and writing high frequency words on personal wipe board and playing word games, to strengthen their accuracy and automaticity. Finally, on the fifth day I will work on word knowledge, I will give the students a test on ten spelling words, five spelling pattern words, five high frequency words, and two dictated sentences for the children. After the assessment, I will go over the test and re-teach if necessary.
Fluency is the ability to read text accurately and quickly according to Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn (2009). Fluency is important for children due to the bridge it creates between word recognition and comprehension. Furthermore, fluent readers are able to read with expression. In my classroom, I intend to model fluent reading, and allow my children the opportunity and time to practice oral reading. I will also have my students participate in choral reading, reader’s theater, and tape assisted reading. Furthermore, I will have a variety of genres and levels of books allowing children the opportunity to find “just right” books. Finally, in my classroom I will guide children’s reading in small and large group and give them the appropriate feedback. I will be able to assess my students by listening to them read, using timed passages, and using a well defined rubric. (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborn 2009)
Assessment, according to Reutzel and Cooter (2009), refers to the observations, record keeping, and ongoing performance test that a teacher uses to gather information about each student’s reading progress. The reason I will assess is to inform my teaching, to find out what my students can and cannot do, to communicate student progress, and evaluate my teaching strategies. These assessments further allow the children to gain the knowledge of becoming better readers. (Reutzel and Cooter, 2009)
Teachers are on the frontline in the battle over children’s literacy. We are responsible for following the procedures listed above, to give students the knowledge and power to become successful citizens. Without this knowledge students will fail to meet their full potential, thus causing a greater health risk for students and the country. I intend to give my students the knowledge needed for their success, if not, one must remember that we will not be young forever and these are our future doctors, lawyers, and other individuals that will one day help take care of us.
Bibliography
Armbruster, B.B., Lehr, F., &Osborn, J. (2008). Put reading first: The research building
blocks for teaching children to read (3rd ed.). Jessup, MD: NIFL
Blevins, W. (2006). Phonics from A to Z: A practical guide (2nd ed.). New York:
Scholastic
Morrow, L. (1999). The literacy center: Contexts for reading and writing. York,
Maine: Stenhouse
Payne, Ruby K. (2002). Understanding learning, the how, the why, the what.
Highlands, TX: aha! Process, inc.
Reutzel, R.D. and Cooter, R.B., Jr. (2009). The essentials of teaching children to read:
the teacher makes the difference (2nd ed.). Boston: Pearson
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