Phonological awareness and decoding are a group of skills that allow the student to recognize words and how they sound. They are the precursor to reading and those students who do not acquire these aspects of literacy will have difficulty reading and with spelling development. Phonological awareness is critical for learning to read any alphabetic writing system (Ehri, 2004; Rath, 2001; Troia, 2004). Experts Louis Cook Moats and Carol Tolman proclaim, “without phoneme awareness, students may be mystified by the print system and how it represents the spoken word.” In the article titled Why Phonological Awareness Is Important for Reading and Spelling they write, the phonological processor usually works unconsciously when we listen and speak. It is designed to extract the meaning of what is said, not to notice the speech sounds in the words. It is designed to do its job automatically in the service of efficient communication (Moats & Tolman, 2009).
If a student does not acquire these aspects of literacy, they will struggle with deciphering unfamiliar words and comparing them with known words, as they likely have a limited selection of know words. They may have difficulty repeating and pronouncing words correctly. Students who cannot hear and work with the phonemes of spoken words will be challenged when learning how to relate these phonemes to letters when they see them in written words. Those with poor decoding skills will also have lower reading comprehension. Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West. Wang, Z., Sabatini, J., O’Reilly, T., & Weeks, J. (2019). Decoding and reading comprehension: A test of the decoding threshold hypothesis. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(3), 387–401.
0 Comments
I found a website that helps design mind maps - for free! Miro | Visual Workspace for Innovation Before starting I admit I did search out the definition of literacy. The reason for this is that I am enrolled in a digital literacy course in a future term. I used the tool to create the following mind map. My background as a Secondary science teacher and resource teacher came into play as you will see. I don't have granular knowledge of language development for younger students or those who are learning English as an additional language.
I am fascinated already by the articles and videos and wish I had this kind of course when I was in my education program. Literacy is a responsibility for all teachers in all subject and grade areas and the techniques we have been exposed to in this module could be used in multiple settings.
Text talk is in line with inquiry questions in my experience, a technique that goes deeper than recall. I can see using this technique with students and as I ask them questions regarding what is happening in the story I can tell right away if they are comprehending what is being said or if I must repeat the passage. In my role as a teacher on call I will find an appropriate book to bring with me and try the text talk technique with younger students or perhaps when I am supporting students with diverse abilities. I think text talk can work with older students as well as we are continually developing our literacy skills. If the questions are too difficult for students, I would consider using the dialogic reading technique as shown in the video. The questions of who, what, when and how many may help to engage the students and draw them into the story. Using the pictures in dialogic reading is different to text talk as the pictures are shown during the reading and questioning versus showing the picture after the questioning. I think using both techniques can help the students. The idea of distancing questions in reading as dialogue is a way to extend the students learning and make connections to their own experiences, whereas in text talk you have to watch for students using their own experiences to answer questions on their comprehension of a reading passage. In text talk I believe you could use distancing questions after the comprehension questions are discussed. A couple of questions came up for me that I am interested in hearing your opinions on. The first one is about priming students for what they are going to be reading. I don’t recall that being discussed in the techniques and wonder if it fits in this context? My other question is regarding graphic novels. I do not have much experience with them but do know many students prefer them over traditional novels. How does a graphic novel contribute to student literacy? Perhaps my second question will be addressed in another module, but I wanted to put it out there to think about. Greetings colleagues, my name is Tanya Kerr and I live in Surrey, BC. I have been a teacher for 15 years and a chemist prior to that. I joined teaching when it was difficult to get a position and taught on call for a few years before acquiring a contract. In addition to teaching in a public school district I worked at Sylvan Learning and taught the beginning reading program, reading program and math. I’ve taught a variety of subjects at the Secondary level mostly junior science, senior chemistry, and junior math. In 2016 I completed my special education diploma and have worked as a resource teaching, supporting students who are identified with a designation. The last five years I have worked in the local union office as vice president and president of the local union. Currently I am working two days a week as a teacher on call and the other three days I am on a paid educational leave from the district.
Our school district’s strategic plan always has literacy as a goal. I’ve done a bit of work with students in my science classes reading literacy but not much. I don’t have specific big ideas or concepts about literacy that I am most curious about, I want to learn it all! I feel like my own literacy skills could use some practice which is a personal goal of mine and now that I am working as a teacher on call, I want to be prepared to support students with their own literacy goals. Fun fact, in my spare time I am a Girl Guide leader. I’ve been involved in Guiding since I was six years old and value the organization and the support it provides women and girls. I don’t have any kids of my own but live with two cats and a dog. Pleased to meet you all! |
AuthorTanya Kerr is a current student of Queen's University Graduate studies. ArchivesCategories |