Chapter 5 discusses how children "figure out words." According to the author, children learn words in three steps. These steps are achieved by children in no particular order, because it all depends on the individual child. One step that children learn is that print has functions. Functions refer to the meaning that goes along with words, like family member's names and names of fast food restaurants. Next, children become interested in forms of print, like the details that go into letters and sounds that form words. Lastly, children learn the conventions of print, which is the process of reading from left to right, and taking note of punctuation when reading. Have any of you had experience with young children learning to read for the first time? Have you noticed any of these steps being learned with the child you observed?
Before today, I did not think much about the ways my younger cousin was learning to read, but now I am able to recognize one of the steps that she took. A few years ago, I would listen to my cousin Ava read picture books on my lap. She was not at the point of reading the words yet, so she just made up words based on the pictures on each page. I would find her it funny, and correct her to help her learn the actual word. Now, I realize that Ava was just learning the functions of words! She was using her resources by trying to figure out what the words were saying about each picture. I think it is very important to acknowledge these steps that children take when learning to speak and read, because they are very meaningful to their language development. Although it can be difficult for adults to recognize the significance of a child's reading habits, every steps towards reading that a child takes should be valued.
Going along with this is the use of environmental print when children are first learning words. Environmental print refers to children using their surroundings to develop their vocabulary. Children as young as two years old can learn the names of road signs, restaurants, and stores just by associating them with a sign or logo. When followed by praise, the ability of a child to read this way gives them a sense of accomplishment. In the classroom, environmental print can be providing by labeling things around the room that are important. As the year progresses, you could add more labels to further your students' vocabulary even more.
Overall, it is very important to address the different and unusual ways that children learn to read words. What are other ways that you think children can learn words besides through their environment?
Maddy-
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your post! I cannot think of a time yet that I have observed a young child moving through the steps of learning words but I can remember some of my own experiences as well as some classmates. I remember it was always really cool to be able to do the next big thing in elementary school like to know the bigger math facts and stuff so I remember feeling really cool when I could recognize familiar words in and outside of the classroom and then could brag about it to my classmates! I think the authors' steps make total sense but I also find it really interesting that it is different for every student. Teaching is so interesting in that even though our alphabet never changes the way we teach it does have to evolve and change because students' needs have to be met and a new group of students every year makes us re-evaluate effective teaching strategies! I really liked how you talked about the realization with your cousin as well I know I have had similar realizations during our class discussions and things that didn't make sense in elementary school are making way more sense now!
Maddy – Great Post! I think that the steps to reading are fascinating. I never really thought about how children initially learn how to read and what they go through to be experienced readers. I don’t really have much experience watching children learning to read for the first time. I have volunteered at a preschool and a kindergarten classroom and observed a phonics lesson, but I don’t really remember it. I also helped children with sight word flashcards, and watched them try to sound out words. I have a lot of little cousins, but never paid enough attention to them when they were learning to read.
ReplyDeleteEnvironmental print can be very important when learning to read, and as teachers it should be one of our top priorities. We can also use morning message, the language experience approach, or any other strategy. Children can also play with letters, like letters on blocks and cut-out letters. As the students get older and learn more about spelling and reading, they can form more words.
I had the opportunity to experience young children learning to read. It was an amazing experience because you can observe young children learn something and it is a wonderful feeling when they are able to read a word they have had trouble with before. It just makes you proud to see and it also gives a lot back to you because you were part of this learning experience. I believe that I observed children moving from “forms of print” to “conventions of print.” I once worked with a young boy who had trouble reading. He was able to sound out the letters of the words and the whole words, but he did not really care about how he read the story. He might start at the bottom of the page and read his way up the page or he starts in the middle and reads words at his own order. To see him understand that reading has a specific order and that we have to follow it to make sense of what we are reading was a really amazing experience.
ReplyDeleteLike you said sometimes it is really hard to differentiate on what level of reading children are or if their behavior actually has anything to do with learning to read. So we as teachers have to be very careful to look out for these signs and behaviors that we can support the children in this very important development.
I think that the environment overall has a very huge impact on how children learn words. Environmental print is a huge way for even young children to learn words, symbols and their meaning. Another way to learn words is simply having conversations with the child, singing or reading a book to them. Just interacting with young child can have a huge impact on their development of vocabulary.
Maddy- Your post was quite interesting. I liked how you talked about your younger cousin and how she learned to read. I haven't had much experience with younger children just starting to learn to read, but the steps of how that occurs is incredibly fascinating. It is weird to think that we all started off learning that way. I could remember my brother learning to read pretty fast. I on the other hand struggled because of my dyslexia, so I feel like I remember learning to read quite a bit differently. I think that the environment has a big impact of how a child learns language and how to read. children can learn from anything around them, and these days it is very easy to access new things to learn. Technology has a big role in that, even though I think in some ways technology can be good and bad. But parental involvement is also the environment and I believe that is important to a child's development in language. And other ways that a child could learn new words is having conversations, or parents and teachers talking to the children. I believe we talked about how we shouldn't in a sense "dumb down" our vocabulary when we talk to kids. If we add words that they might not know into the conversation then they will most likely ask what they mean, and thus learned a new word.
ReplyDeleteGreat post- when i am around children that have just started reading. Most of the words that they are reading they are breaking the words up into letters that they know trying to sound them out. One other thing that i have observed with children reading is the child trying to tell the story through pictures in the book. They try to figure out words by looking at the pictures that they see. Ava is very similar to the children that i have been around that are trying to read. I think that environmental print is an amazing skill that children pick up on. Labeling things that they see every day that help them develop their vocabulary. Parents play an very important role by encouraging their children to talk about things that they see. For example if a parent was to point at a cow in the field and ask the child what is that and the child says its a dog. You make sure you tell the child that it looks like a very big dog but that is actually a cow. Encourage children to talk and read.
ReplyDelete