Brooke Davis



Brooke Davis

RE5100

October 29, 2002

1. What is concept of word? How can you tell if a child has “got it” or not? What is the importance of carefully modeling fingerpoint reading and ensuring that beginning readers are doing it accurately? That is, why is it important that kids be guided in doing their own pointing and not just watching the teacher point?

Concept of word has to do with a child’s ability to make sense of an array of print. It is a child’s ability to visualize words as individual, speakable, printable, and understandable pieces in a body of text. (Adams, p.61) As students obtain concept of word, they begin to see that individual words are separated by spaces and that the spoken word matches up to the written word. They gain the idea that print moves from left to right and top to bottom. Students start to see that using sentence context and beginning consonants can help them to identify words, and they begin gaining an initial sight word vocabulary. (Morris, p. 41) A child who has mastered concept of word is able to fingerpoint read from left to right and top to bottom with ease and can identify individual words when pointed out to them by using the rereading strategy and paying attention to beginning consonant cues. When a child has mastered concept of word, it becomes evident in their writing too, as they begin using spacing in their own writing samples.

When introducing a child to reading, it is essential that he/she be taught to fingerpoint read. The teacher should model this skill so students can become aware of the position of printed words and how they move in a left-to-right, up-to-down pattern. (Adams, p. 69-70) Modeling by the teacher helps to ensure students’ understanding that space between words is a general concept that applies across different pieces of text. (Adams, p. 62) After careful teacher modeling, children need to practice this skill themselves. This is because kindergarten fingers are multi-talented; they can do lots of things and go lots of places. A child may be able to fingerpoint read correctly one time and then the next he/she is unable to do so, especially when faced with multi-syllable words. It is so important for a child to be able to fingerpoint read correctly because it ensures that he/she has internalized this concept. Through fingerpoint reading, children come to learn how spoken words match to printed words and how words are made up of letters that match sounds. They learn that words have different lengths and are separated by the space in between them. Marie Clay’s studies indicate a child must be able to fingerpoint read in order to understand the one-to-one relationship between spoken and written words, and that print moves from left to right along the line, back and down. (Holdaway, p. 75-76) When children are able to fingerpoint read on their own, it is a good indication that they have grasped the idea of concept of word and are ready to develop their reading skills further.

2. What are word banks? What purposes can they serve for beginning readers? Why might they be important to incorporate into classes that use challenging literature-based basals?

A word bank is “a collection of word cards that represents the child’s sight vocabulary.” (Nessel and Jones, p. 22) It is formed from words children have underlined as knowing in their dictated stories. The teacher checks each underlined word in isolation. If the child is able to recognize the word immediately and firmly, it is then written on a note card or small piece of oak tag. The child takes his/her cards and places his/her initials and the story number on the back of each. These cards are then stored in a sturdy container for future use. (Nessel and Jones, p. 22-26)

Word banks are a good resource for beginning readers because they offer a core vocabulary for children as they read. They are words a child knows he/she can count on knowing, and so he/she may devote his/her mental energy to unknown words that arise in texts being read. Word banks also allow for an individualized reading program in which children are able to develop reading skills at their own rate of learning. Each child learns what he/she is ready to learn, even when working in a small group setting. Thus, each child is successful, has learned from others’ contributions, and gains a sense of accomplishment. (Nessel and Jones, p. 29) A word bank helps a child to build fluency, as he/she is more readily able to recognize words in text. This in return, promotes the child’s self-confidence and gives them a sense of responsibility in their learning.

Use of word banks within classes using challenging literature-based basals may be effective as well. This is because literature-based basals constantly present new vocabulary each lesson. Here again, having a bank of words they are sure of allows students to focus their mental energy to the new vocabulary they face. Word banks are set up so that a student can use his/her word cards in later reading and writing exercises to practice, review, and reinforce the new and challenging words he/she has learned.

3. Why is it important to have a broad variety of materials available to use with beginning readers? Why is it important to have these materials carefully graded by difficulty?

It is important to have a wide variety of materials available when working with beginning readers because children are on a variety of reading levels. According to Arthur Gates, “a single basal reader program does not meet the needs of every child in the classroom.” (Morris, p. 40) Morris suggests that big books and language dictated stories be used early in the year to teach children the basic concepts of print. He also proposes the use of carefully controlled text to help build sight vocabulary and develop decoding skills once these basic print skills have been developed. (Morris, p. 41) Having a wide range of materials also enables the teacher to meet the interest needs of his/her beginning readers. Of even greater importance is the need of materials that are easy, but challenging enough to create success for every beginning reader, and without a large variety of materials, this is hard to do. Beginning readers also need lots of practice in fresh materials to exercise their newly learned skill, which requires a large amount of materials be available.

It is a must that these reading materials are carefully graded by difficulty. This allows the teacher to know at all times the appropriate “instructional” reading level of every child. Being able to communicate this knowledge to parents, classroom teachers, and administration is key, because it helps to ensure that children are placed in reading materials that are matched to their reading level and skills. For a child to become a successful reader, it is important that he/she not be placed in materials that are to easy for him/her, nor materials that are to difficult, because a child placed in either of these scenarios is unlikely to make growth. A child working in material that is too easy is very likely to become bored with reading, whereas a child placed in material that is too hard is likely to become frustrated and discouraged. Neither of which promotes reading success. Graded materials allow a child to be paced “gradually but efficiently through the graded reading curriculum. (Morris, p. 40) Correct leveling allows for more efficient and effective pacing, which leads to students making quicker progress and more growth.

4. Discuss some ways that Big Books and Language experience dictations can be used to provide extra support for slow starting readers. How can you make sure that the books and dictions are at the child’s level? What things do you need to pay attention to?

4. OPTION: Discuss the role that decodable books could play in early reading instruction. Why might they be valuable; what might their limitations be?

Using decodable books in early reading instruction is often an area of reading instruction in which people tend to disagree on its effectiveness. This is because while it has some definite advantages, it has its downfalls as well. The use of decodable books helps to build sight vocabulary and teaches basic decoding skills. It gives children a non-threatening way to practice reading skills they have been taught until they are mastered, because there are no surprises and nothing is new. Children feel successful because they are capable of reading the text with relative ease and accuracy.

Many teachers complain that decodable texts are not examples of good literature and should not be used to teach beginning readers. They point out that the majority of these texts have no story line, and do not require any higher level thinking skills. Another complaint is that decodable texts do not hold children’s attention and interest, because they are unable to delve very far into a topic or idea without getting into vocabulary that is not so predictable and easy to decode. Decodable texts are also not as readily available as basals and tradebooks are, which in turn makes teachers less likely to use them.

5. Explain the importance of encouraging inventive spelling during children’s writing in Kindergarten and First grade. What do children get from this? What do teachers get from this?

According to Morris, encouraging inventive spelling is important because the “sound-it-out spellings allow children to demonstrate their phonemic awareness – their ability to attend to the sequence of sounds within spoken words.” (Morris, p. 26) Children using inventive spelling make better sense of their reading and spelling instruction. Inventive spelling helps a child “develop the understanding that words are composed of a sequence of individual sounds that match to letters.” (Morris, p. 52) It leads children to have a curiosity about print, naturally attend to sounds within words, and begin using this letter-sound knowledge within their own writing, which in return is applied to their reading. Templeton states that encouraging invented spelling is the “most powerful way to help children discover and explore the alphabetic principle in writing.” (Templeton, p. 327) Inventive spelling gives children a “freedom” to write about topics of interest, which generates creativity and self-expression in their writing, and produces a higher degree of motivation about school things in general. It encourages them to take risks in their writing, instead of writing about and using only words they know, or think they know how to spell correctly.

Teachers can gain a lot from a child’s use of inventive spelling as well. This is because a child’s writing leaves a permanent trace in which to assess his/her knowledge and understanding of the alphabet. As a result, this writing becomes a very important diagnostic tool for the teacher. He/she is able to see what the child is using and misusing in their written language. This affords the teacher an idea of how to effectively plan, and place a child in his/her appropriate instructional level, so he/she may gain greater writing success. A child’s invented spelling also allows the teacher to gain insight into the child’s progress and gauge his/her growth by examining and comparing early pieces of writing to more recent pieces. This knowledge is quite powerful because it can be shared with the student’s parents, so that they can see their child’s progress, or lack thereof in some cases, and is an important indicator of future reading acquisition. It is also a way for the teacher to assess the effectiveness of his/her instructional program and make needed changes to promote more successful student outcomes.

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