Does any of the information
presented in Chapter 15 influence your personal philosophy of reading? In what
ways? How has your perspective this changed since you took the DeFord TORP a
few weeks ago?
Chapter 15, as well as the rest
of Weaver’s book, as completely changed my personal philosophy of reading. In
my undergraduate program, I had to take two classes called “Children’s
Literature” where all we basically learned about was phonics instruction. It
was one of the most difficult classes for me simply because it was hard to
understand. I did not feel as though I could think it terms of phonics rules
and specific phonics “lingo”. Even while I was writing my original philosophy,
I had to keep referring and rereading from my text book because even though I
had an idea of phonics I really did not truly understand what I was even trying
to convey. Now, I completely understand why because Weaver stated that it is
even hard for adults to understand phoneme segmentation because it is not how
we read. There are so many different things that go into reading besides being
able to sound a word out. The main and most important thing that changed for me
can be summed up when Weaver states, “As children have more and more experience
with print, development proceeds, not from part to whole, but from whole to
part: from being read to, to being able to read; from an understanding that
print represents speech to being able to match spoken words to print words;
from perceiving print words as whole units to being able to analyze print words
into units that represent onset and rimes” (2002, p.369).
Children need to be taught comprehension and reading strategies
through observation because we cannot simply tell students the rules and expect
them to understand and implement these rules successfully. As their teacher, we
need to set the example by showing them how to use the tools while they read
and why they are important. “Teaching reading strategies helps students-and
even us, as teachers- to read more deeply, to probe a text more thoughtfully
and thoroughly. Teaching reading strategies helps readers not only engage with
and understand text, but make connections with other texts, the world and their
own lives” (Weaver, 2002, p.329).
One thing I did get correct is that reading and writing
need to be taught relation to the other in order for the students to truly absorb
the specific strategies. The students will be able to see that the two, in a
way, overlap because, for example, the students will be able to deeper their
understanding of spelling patterns by seeing them in a familiar text and then
turning around and spelling them in their own writing. The more language
experiences we give our students the more the students will gain in their
contextual and background knowledge. However, more specifically children need
to be taught in a comprehensive literacy program where the students get varying
levels of teaching scaffolding and involvement.
References
Weaver, C. (2002). Reading process and practice. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Educational Books.
Krista,
ReplyDeleteMy reading philosophy has drastically changed due to this class and I could not be more thankful. Although we are only a third done with our reading endorsement, I feel like I have gained so much knowledge that will help me be a better reading teacher. One big thing I got out of Weaver's text is the UN-importance of phonemes and pronouncing words sound by sound. Like you stated, that is not even how we adults read.
I like how you said that we can not just simply 'teach' the student reading skills, but we must show them. In my opinion, read alouds are a wonderful tool, if not the best method,to MODEL positive reading strategies for our students.
Krista – I believe Weaver’s text has helped molded my philosophy of reading. I did not have any phonics training in my undergraduate, but K – 2 at my school uses Fundations which is a Wilson’s program that works on phonics. However, I had difficult learning the program because I was never taught phonics as a child. It is difficult as an adult to learn all the phonics’ rules but I agree in understanding phonemic awareness and phoneme segmentation. I agree that it is important that children should be read to and then they should read to others. I teach reading strategies through my mini-lessons in reading workshop and they practice with their buddy before trying it individually during independent reading time. I check-in with my students during small group work along with individual conferences to see if I need to review or extend the skills being taught. I agree that reading and writing should be integrated; in fact, I believe all subjects should be integrated, especially with the new Common Core this coming year. The students will be able to dive deeper into the curriculum and deepen their understanding.
ReplyDeleteKrista,
ReplyDeleteI was also exposed to the importance of phonics instruction during my undergraduate courses. I don't ever really remember learning phonics rules as a child, but if I did, they didn't stick with me. Clearly, phonics does not help me in my reading. After this course, I am in complete agreement with you that the emphasis of reading instruction needs to be on comprehension and understanding. I also learned the importance of integrating reading and writing. This is not something I have done well in the past, but plan to work on in the upcoming school year. I can definitely now see how these components of literacy fit together and how it would benefit students to teach them in an integrated manner.
Krista,
ReplyDeleteWeaver's text has helped me to understand the whole to part approach of reading better and I love it! During my undergraduate courses there was so much emphasis put on phonics and teaching phonemic awareness, but I think there shouldn't be as much emphasis on it. I would have much rather have learned about the comprehensive approach to literacy and how I can teach primary students how to take meaning from passages rather than focus on how the word sounds and decoding. I can't wait to implement the comprehensive literacy approach through reader's and writer's workshops in my own classroom.