Developing Fluency

Learning to read with fluency is a very difficult process for children. Many times, if it is not strongly worked on in the elementary school years, they may struggle with fluency for the rest of their lives. As a future early childhood educator, my students will be just beginning the process of becoming fluent readers. It will be my job to get them started on a positive and effective journey to read at a highly fluent level. Throughout the readings on fluency for this week, its seems to me that interest, repetition, and support are the three most important factors needed for young children to develop their reading fluency. I have learned that in order to really understand what a child's interests are, you have to talk to them about it. It is easy to assume what will interest a young child, but when you ask them, they will surprise you with what they are really interested in learning about. Also, their interests may change rapidly, so it is important to be flexible when possible. Using these interests, I will be able to find books and incorporate the students interests into my lessons so that they will be willing and excited to do a lot of reading. It is important for the children to read a lot, and often times the same books or passages, in order for them to feel comfortable and familiar with the words and prosody of the text. Supporting children by verbal encouragement, appropriate reading instruction and assignment, respecting their interests, and reading with them will also help children develop throughout their reading fluency process. All of these factors working together benefit children as they learn to become highly fluent readers in a challenging, fast-paced educational system. Some questions I encourage you to consider are what factors do you think are most important in helping children to develop fluency? and what are some activities you think you will use in your classroom to help children become fluent readers?

Emergent Literacy: They all can read!

The main idea of this weeks readings is that emergent reading is a very important step in the reading process. I agree with the authors that even before children begin to read words and sentences in books and magazines, it is important to help them see themselves as readers. They all may be at different stages in the reading process, but it is our job as teachers to encourage the growth and future reading development. We have to learn where our students are in the reading process and foster their continued interest in increasing their reading skills. We also need to learn how much "push" is appropriate in getting them to advance their reading skills. If they are not ready to move on to new skills, pushing them too hard will do more hard than good. My questions for you all are how do you feel about the beginning reading stage? and what are some things you could use in your classroom to encourage interest and enjoyment of reading?  

Early Family Literacy

After doing the readings for the week, it seems that the overall message is that the earliest literacy experiences (or lack thereof) are very important to an individual's life of literacy development. Cunningham and Allington (2010)  highlight that "Through early reading and writing experiences, children learn why we read and write." Even before a child learns to read and write conventionally, they are picking up ideas and beliefs about the worthiness and usefulness of learning literacy skills. They are also informally acquiring foundational literacy skills before they even begin school. This is very important for teachers to remember, especially teachers such as myself, of young children. Teaching and supporting the beginnings of formal literacy development can have lasting impressions on children long after they leave your classroom. For this reason, it is important to also share this vital information with the family members and caregivers of the children in your classroom. It will take assistance of many people in children's lives to help them develop healthy, advantageous relationships with literacy as a whole. Reading, writing, listening, and speaking in an efficient and beneficial way takes support from not only teachers, but family, friends and community as well. I have even seen the difference play out in my own extended family. My siblings and I received a lot of support from an early age with reading and writing which lead to our more successful literacy learning than some of our relatives who received much less support from their family and community. This difference can be seen in many different types of classrooms, which is valuable for all teachers to keep in mind. One question to consider is how do your early literacy experiences compare to those in the readings? Also, for those who have observed or worked with young children, how do you think foundational literacy skills are being supported in the classroom?             

Welcome!

Welcome to my Reading Education Blog! I will be using this blog to reflect on material I learn in Reading Ed 430 as it may (or may not) apply to teaching emergent readers and beginning readers. Hope you enjoy and find this helpful in some way!