While some teachers find it "fun" for their class to sing songs and play games, sometime they are not aware of the educational purpose behind these interactive lessons. That's why playful songs, chants, and rhyming games in the classroom should be developmentally appropriate. I believe it is important to have these interactive ways for children to be playful with language and explore new words, but the teacher needs to have a deliberate purpose behind their intentions for the activities. Yopp & Yopp make a great point about this in their article. Often times, as teachers we want to tell the students what the word is, but it is important that we coach the child through difficult words to help them become confident and independent readers. It takes time and practice as teachers to develop the skills of coaching, and I believe this will come as I have raw experience in the classroom. I love the techniques given in the Cunningham book about using words you are already familiar with, to connect new words and meanings. It then went even further to add extra syllables to the words, to where the endings only rhymed. This may be more complex, but the children will learn a chunk of sound within these words, and it will help them when sounding out unfamiliar words in the future.
1. How do you know if a child is having a hard time with a certain concept, or if they have a reading disability? When do you know to look for further assistance?
Phonemic Awareness Activities
Week One Blog Post
10 years ago
I agree that being deliberate with everything you do in the classroom is important, because it helps you emphasize what the children need to be picking up on and learning. I have also wondered about the questions you posed. I think that if you have tried many different techniques to teach that child and offered extra help, and he/she still is not learning it, it may be time to at least get a second or third opinion.
ReplyDeleteI think if the student is consistently making the same error with a skill, like switching sounds around in a word, for more than a year, a referral to have a reading test should be administered.
ReplyDelete