Sabado, Setyembre 17, 2011

Effective Teaching Practices in Reading

Effective Teaching Practices in Reading

By Stephany Elsworth, eHow Contributor
Effective Teaching Practices in Readingthumbnail
Reading is one of the most important skills a young child needs to master.
According to the University of Oregon, the National Reading Panel was formed in 1997 to determine which methods were most effective for teaching reading. After examining more than 100,000 research studies and holding public hearings on reading instruction, the panel found that there were five specific practices that needed to be incorporated into an effective reading program. This research was used to fund reading programs in schools under the No Child Left Behind act.

  1. Phonemic Awareness

    • Phonemic awareness helps students to develop an awareness of the sounds in words. This is important because just as spoken words are made up of individual sounds, printed words are made up of the sounds within letters. A child who has an awareness of spoken sounds within words will be able to identify those sounds in print.
      Phonemic awareness includes these skills:
      --The student needs to be able to segment words. For example, the word hat can be segmented into three sounds: /h/, /a/, /t/. Similarly, the word shark can be segmented into the sounds /sh/, /ar/, /k/.
      --Blending words is another important aspect of phonemic awareness. If the teacher asks the child to blend the sounds /b/, /e/, /l/, the child should be able to blend those sounds to create the word "bell."
      Phoneme manipulation is an important aspect of phoneme awareness. This helps children to recognize the fact that the letters in words can be added, deleted or removed to create new words. For instance, the sounds in the word "inch" can be switched to create the word "chin."

    Phonics

    • The National Institute for Literacy advocates using a systematic phonics approach. This means that letters and sounds are taught in a specific, clearly defined sequence. This approach teaches children to decode or sound out unknown words by reading from left to right. Phonics instruction improves student comprehension because students are better able to understand what they are reading. It also improves their word recognition and their spelling because they learn how to recognize the sounds within words.
      Students learn different skills depending upon their grade level and developmental ability. For example, kindergarten students need to have a strong foundation in individual letter-sound correspondence. In first grade, students learn about consonant blends, common digraphs (two letters that create one sound, such as /th/, /sh/, /wh/ and /ch/,) and vowel pairs, as well as root words and word endings. During second and third grade, students continue learning about less common digraphs such as /ph/ and /gh/; diphthongs, which are vowel pairs such as ai/ay and oi/oy that are pronounced as a single vowel sound; and irregular spellings. After third grade, phonics are no longer taught except under special circumstances.

    Fluency

    • Fluency is the ability to read text with expression. When students are first learning to read, their reading sounds are slow and choppy because they have to decode every word before continuing. As their reading skills improve, they learn to divide information into chunks while they are reading aloud. They also learn that some words need more emphasis than others.
      Fluency is an important component of reading comprehension. Slow, choppy readers often miss the main points in text because they are not able to chunk the information together in a way that clarifies the meaning. Teachers can improve student fluency by using repeated readings, where the child rereads the same text a number of times to practice chunking and phrasing, and by offering feedback to the child.

    Vocabulary

    • Vocabulary is another important component of reading. Children pick up most of their vocabulary from listening to peers and adults, but some vocabulary needs to be taught directly. The National Institute for Literacy recommends teaching children word-learning strategies as well as teaching individual words. In addition to providing direct vocabulary instruction, teachers can improve the vocabulary of students by teaching them to analyze prefixes, suffixes and word endings to determine a word's meaning. Teachers also can teach students dictionary skills, so they can look up the meanings of unknown words.

    Comprehension

    • Comprehension is a critical component of reading because the purpose of reading is to get information out of the text. Students who comprehend information are able to use their background knowledge to connect with the information. They are able to make predictions, ask questions while they read and re-read to clarify confusing points. Teachers can improve student comprehension by teaching them to use graphic organizers, which will give the student a visual representation of the information. They also can use collaborative learning techniques, such as having students read sections of information and discuss the text in small learning groups.
Ads by Google

Read more: Effective Teaching Practices in Reading | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_6365189_effective-teaching-practices-reading.html#ixzz1YBvmprKM
Ipinaskil ni sa

Walang komento:

Mag-post ng isang Komento

Mag-subscribe sa: I-post ang Mga Komento (Atom)