Philosophy of Reading

Ms. Lisa Wagner

At one point in my teaching experience I had a student who I will refer to as Jake. Jake gave me nothing but trouble day after day.  He was the type of student that would constantly get out of his seat, hit or kick the other students, talk at random continuously at inappropriate times, refuse to do his work; he would do anything he could think of to disrupt the class.  I was told in the beginning of the year that aside from being a discipline problem he had a hard time with all of his academic work and knew very little of what he should have at the end of his pre-k year. 

Students that attend the small private school that I teach in should leave pre-k not only knowing all the letters and the letter sounds, but they should have the ability to read, and to some extent spell, simple CVC sight words in addition to a few other sight words. Jake only knew the sounds of just over half of the letters.  This could have been do to his immaturity as he was the youngest in the class, or his disruptive behavior may have played a role in his abilities, or it could have been a combination of the two.  Whatever the cause it didn't take me long to realize that although his academic skills weren't where they should have been he still showed plenty of signs of literacy intelligence.  His oral literacy skills and interest were highly developed.  Jake could tell stories that were filled with details.  Most of them were clearly made-up stories but they were well developed, especially for being made-up on-the-spot for the most part.  He also loved to be a part of a story.  Throughout the year there are a number of different stories that I use for drama, allowing the students to act out the story.  This was clearly a favorite activity of Jake's.  Another skill he had was the ability to retell a story.  At times this came as a shock to me as during story time Jake was often causing some kind of trouble that would cause him to get sent back to his seat.  However, it seemed his behavior didn't stop him from listing to the story, because he could easily take a book that I had read to the class and flip through the pages telling the story almost exactly how it was written simply by using the pictures and his memory of hearing the story. 

The behaviors that he showed me revealed that although Jake's reading and writing skills weren't strong he did poses skills that were important to literacy development.  His interest in drama and retelling a story showed an ability to interact with a story and put it in his own words.  His love of story telling allowed him to develop his skills with spoken language and explore his insight to the world around him. 

Throughout the year Jake's reading abilities gradually increased.  He did not become a miracle story of a student that started below average and ended up at the top of the class.  But he did make significant improvements.  By the end of the year he was able to read short stories consisting of simple text.  He often read word-by-word, but had the ability to use the skills that he knew to read unfamiliar words and had a good number of words that he could recognize and read without hesitation.

I tell this story because it is important to look for and recognize all literacy skills in every student.  Literacy skills don't develop at the same rate or in the same pattern for every student.  Some student's will learn slow and some fast, some will learn to identify simple sight words easily while others will need to rely on phonetic decoding skills to read those same words.  Writing skills will develop at different rates as well.  Some students will learn to write by sound and phonics learning to use as many sounds as they know into the words they are spelling others will learn to spell through memory simply copying words and remembering how to spell them.  Regardless of how they learn all students will show some variation of literacy skills.  Though for some students you may have to look a little harder to identify those skills and find a strength within them. 

As a kindergarten teacher I see an assortment of skills throughout my classes.  Even students that are at the top of the class will show differences in their strengths.  Some may be better readers, some better spellers.  Some will rush through their reading books making mistakes that shouldn't have been made, and others will read slowly taking in the words and context of the text.  As a teacher I feel it is important to recognize all literacy skills weak and strong regardless of how minor they may seem. 

Beverly A. DeVries' book "Literacy Assessment and Intervention for K-6 Classrooms" recognizes three models for teaching reading.  They are the part-to-whole approach, the whole-to-part approach, and the comprehensive approach.  I consider myself to be a phonics based teacher and recognized much of myself in the part-to-whole approach, which is considered to be the phonics based approach.  I recognized many of the skills that I introduce such as taking individual sounds and putting them together to make a word, the use of patterns with onsets and rimes, and the introduction of sight words.  However, this approach as with many phonics based approaches is often taught independent of other literacy skills.  I may teach sounds and skills in individual lessons as expected with this approach, but I expect my students to use those sounds and skills in their reading and writing.  Through the use of guided reading and shared writing I encourage the students to use what they know to help them. 

The debate over the best way to teach reading continues on.  Growing diversity in classrooms, growing research, and new teaching theories continuing to evolve will only add to this everlasting debate.  For me phonics is at the core of teaching reading.  With phonics comes the ability to easily decode unfamiliar words, and build fluency skills.  However, I do not believe that phonics can or should be the sole ingredient in a reading program.  Phonics itself is simply drills to recognize varying sounds.  In order to give it more meaning and make it more interesting phonics needs to be put into use.  When a student is reading a book and recognizes and deciphers a new sound or word that's when the skills learned in the daily phonics lessons become relevant for the student and the teacher.  I give my class ample opportunities to use the phonics skills they're taught in reading and writing. 

References

DeVries, B.A.,2008, Literacy Assessment and Intervention for K-6 Classrooms Second Edition. Holcomb Hathaway Publishers. Scottsdale, Arizona.