Memorizing vs. Connecting

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After reading three articles related to the power of phonemic awareness in young readers, I have been carefully weighing the advantages of specific strategies used to teach reading skills. The first thing that comes to my mind when I think of teaching students to read is the alphabet. I think that it is pretty safe to say that it is crucial to spend a lot of time on each individual letter while learning to read. A common strategy used in kindergarten classrooms is the 'Letter of the Week'. I know that I participated in this activity as a child and I consider it a fundamental reading strategy. Having a entire week designated to a letter gives the students time to learn the sound the letter makes, how to write the letter, and words that start with the particular letter. This seems like an effective strategy, right?

I would completely agree that using strategies, like the 'Letter of the Week', are the best way to teach fundamental reading skills and phonemic awareness. However, what happens when the students forget about the letter and everything that goes along with it? What do you do when several of your students are learning English for the first time and do not recognize the alphabet yet alone the words that start with the letter? I had never thought of these issues until reading the articles. I realized that many of the strategies used are geared towards children who are already familiar with the alphabet and who already have experience reading. For the students who are not familiar with English these strategies allow them to memorize rather than connect the letters with words and meaning.

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I believe that as teachers we must use strategies that would be most beneficial to each and every student. For example, in the article by Bell and Jarvis one of the teachers strung letters of the alphabet across the classroom. She then put pictures of each student under the letter that their name started with. What I found my fascinating was that she also used universal objects, such as a McDonald's bag, and hung them under the letters. This allowed every student to connect the letter with something they are familiar with. While they may still struggle pointing out specific letters on demand, this strategy allows the students to connect familiar words to the letter. Connecting words to letters is what is really most important to reading, not memorizing letters.

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• Do you agree with forgetting about the 'Letter of the Week' type strategies?
• What type of strategies were used by your elementary school teachers?
• What are other activities that could be used to connect familiar words to letters, especially for students who are learning English as a second language?

Write On!

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Does writing help children read?

 I can recall starting to write my name, or what I thought resembled my name, at a very early age. I was extremely proud to display my writing skills on notebooks, coloring books, menus, and sometimes on my walls. I never realized that my fascination to write letters was the first step to reading.

I also remember adults always trying to help me write by correcting my backwards Ls and my sideways Cs. While adults are only trying to assist their children they are unaware that it is okay for children to make mistakes. These early attempts of writing mean that the child is aware that we write down our words. Although the letters may not exactly look like letters it is a good sign that the child is observing adult's writing and trying to imitate what they see.

The readings on fundamental reading and writing lead me to think further into a child's early attempts to read and write. I think that encouraging writing is an excellent way to help a child start to recognized letters, words, and sentences. I love the idea of incorporating a writing station into the classroom, especially in grades K-2. The writing station could be used at the beginning or end of the day to encourage students to write as much as possible. The writing station would also make writing fun and they would have the ability to be creative and have various materials to work with.

The topic also raised a few questions. Do you agree that adults should not correct a child's first attempts of writing? Were you encouraged to write as much as possible as a child? If so, do you think it helped you learn to read?

Effective Reading Strategies

How do you effectively teach reading and writing skills and make it fun?

As I read the assigned reading I could not help but ask myself the question above. How is it possible to teach my future students how to read and write and make it interesting at the same time? The task seems a little overwhelming but the authors of Classrooms That Work: They Can All Read and Write, Cunningham and Allington, give many examples of effective teaching methods.

As an elementary school student, I was turned off to reading in the fourth grade because of reading program that awarded prizes for achieving reading goals. I completely agree with Cunningham and Allington that reading programs often have the best intentions in mind for their students but the focus is placed on prizes and goals rather than reading. Reading should be a reward within itself and there has to be a way to motivate children to want to read other than winning shirts and pizza parties.

That leads me to my question. How do teachers make teaching reading and writing effective and fun? Cunningham and Allington researched classrooms to discover what worked in classrooms and what made classrooms successful. Out of everything that was mentioned, I was most surprised at integrating reading and writing into science and social studies. My elementary school hardly dedicated time to science and social studies because they wanted to improve the efficiency in reading and writing. I never thought that integrating reading and writing into every subject is actually key to improving skills across the board. I like the alternate view better than cutting out science and social studies completely. I believe that often reading and writing are forced into their own subject when in reality they are a significant part of every subject. I will strive as a teacher to use this method and integrate reading and writing into every aspect of my daily routine.

Food for Thought

As I reflect on the readings I am still curious for other opinions. What are some other methods to increase reading and writing opportunities in the classroom? What are some fun ways to motivate children to read without extrinsic motivations such as t-shirts and pizza parties?