Reading begins early in childhood and usually begins with a child learning to agonize things such as store names, signs, logos, and advertisement images. This form of reading is known as viewing. The child begins to associate the letters, logos, or images With the name Of What they are seeing. This in turn leads to the child to being able to recognize the word or name out of the normal context in Which they are accustomed. This is also used as children enter into school and the use of sight words begins.
Students are shown flash cards with words and the students begin to recognize the letters that form the words on the cards and then begin to recognize them other places such as books or magazines. This helps to build the critical thinking skills that they will need in order to comprehend what they read later, Once the student begins to make the association between letters and words, they begin to understand the sounds of the letters. This is when phonics begins to be a skill the student needs to master.
Learning the sounds of each individual letter, and then how to blend those sounds to make words is a necessary step in language arts development. Parents and teachers need to embrace this time in the students learning by reading with the child as much as possible. Making sure that the books are challenging the student is also important. Challenging material encourages the student to use the critical thinking skills that they have learned to decode the words and gain comprehension. It is important that the material be hard enough to challenge the student but not so hard as to make the student feel defeated by its complexity.
In the classroom, students begin learning to ready by using decidable readers, books that contain early sight words or words that are easy to sound out using their phonics skills. As the student begins to gain knowledge about sounds and meanings, the books will move to longer, more complex sentences. At this point heir comprehension is also expanding. After students master short readers, they move to more complex short chapter books, and then the natural progression to regular chapter books.
At each step, the teacher makes sure to give the students a good foundation to build upon, exposing them to many different types of reading, such as poetry, biography, and fiction. The students learn to take the knowledge that they already have and use the knowledge as a background for new words or concepts that they run into while reading. The next concept is that of writing. It goes hand in hand with reading due to he tact that it a student cannot recognize the letters needed to read a word, they will not be able to reproduce those letters to put them into print.
As a student learns to read, their ability to write using more expressive and colorful vocabulary in communicating ideas grows. Reading and writing can be taught separately or simultaneously, depending on the level of the children being taught, As with speaking, writing is a form of communication that students should become proficient. Teachers should offer as many opportunities as possible for students to practice their emerging writing skills. There are many different ways that this can be done in the classroom.
If the teacher uses learning Centers, then there should be one that incorporates writing practice. In the early years, this can be something simple like a letter tracing sheet or copying spelling words to gain proficiency. In upper elementary grades, having the students write short stories about things that interest them can give a student’s not only writing practice, but can also build vocabulary and grammar skills as well. The important thing is to give students many opportunities to grow their writing skills. Speaking, like reading. S something that begins early in a child’s life.
With the coo’s that express happiness and the cries that let us know they are not happy, babies learn to vocally communicate from birth. As a child grows, their ways of expressing themselves matures. No longer are they making nonsense sounds, they are forming sounds that take the shape of recognizable words, That is why it is so important for parents and caregivers to talk to children as often as they can. The child begins to mimic the speech that they hear and begin to form more complex groups towards and eventually using tulle sentences to convey their wants and needs.
Although a child can speak and not be able to read or write, it is that ability and desire to communicate that pushes a student to learn to read and write, that ability that lets them express themselves in many different aspects of the language arts. One of the easiest ways to help a student learn proper speaking skills is to model those skills that are being taught. A student is more likely to mimic speech patterns and sentence structure from someone whom they respect than they are to simply learn those skills from a book or worksheet Another thing that can help in the classroom is to hue the students read aloud.
This gives them practice with forming words correctly and achieving speaking fluently. This also helps by giving the teacher an immediate opportunity to offer help With areas that a student may be struggling with, always with a caring attitude. Children also have to learn to be active listeners. As their Other skills develop, listening takes on a whole new challenge. Now the student is not just hearing words, but as they are exposed to higher levels Of reading and vocabulary, listening becomes another form of communication.
Listening is more than just hearing what is being spoken; it is the ability to understand what is being said. If a student who only speaks English hears a conversation in Spanish but has no background in that language, there will be little to no understanding as to what is being said therefore no communication. They hear what is being said hut cannot decode the speech patterns or vocabulary. That can also be said for everyday speech. Listening is an activity of the mind, Students have to be taught how to be good listeners. They are told trot an early age to “put on their listening ears”.
By listening, the student learns speech patterns, rhythms, vocabulary, and sentence structure. It is important that parents, caregivers, and teachers model DOD listening practices with the children in their lives. Listening to an adult read can help a student who is struggling with onwards or can help a student who is having trouble understanding other concepts. Listening is harder for some students than it is for others. There are many things that the teacher can do to help students become good listeners. Listening games are one way for students to practice listening.
Games such as Simon Says are a fun way for students to learn about being active listeners. Also having students draw a picture from prompts given by the teacher audibly can help foster listening skills. Or older elementary students, teachers can have the students write a brief summary or review of material that is either read aloud or passages that are heard on tapes or CDC. Viewing is another form of language arts that needs to be properly developed. Viewing is a visual and auditory process. This includes live performances such as dance, orchestra/opera performances, or theater.
This can also include motion pictures, television, and media found on the internet or DVD. Students learn higher level critical thinking skills when they are exposed to this type of information. They learn how to take what they see and hear and gain understanding and learning. This is an easy thing to use in the classroom, Teachers can have students view the movie representation of a recently read book, work on educational website, research topics that interest them, or view a video that corresponds with the days science lesson.
With the vast amount of media that is available to teacher, there is always a way to incorporate viewing into the classroom. Visual representation is the use of pictures, diagrams, maps, or drawings to communicate. Many times in early elementary, reading books for emerging readers will use overdo and pictures to communicate a message. A sentence will e written with words and also have a picture that represents one of the words to help the student with new vocabulary or a word that is hard to understand.
For instance, the sentence may be “The dog jumped over the cat. ” Using visual representation, the word dog and cat may be left out and a picture of a dog replaces the word dog or in conjunction with the word. The same is used for the word cat. This helps the student make the connection With the picture and the written word. As a student becomes more confident, the use of these types Of sentences lessens. Another form Of visual representation is books With illustrations.
Often times, when a student is struggling with context, the use of the illustrations can help the student comprehend What is being read and can also help with understanding new or challenging words. As teachers, it is our jobs to make sure that students have a firm solid grasp of the language arts. As this paper shows, no one area is more important than the others. They are building blocks and all are needed to form a good foundation to reading, writing, and communications skills. As students mature and grow, if they are nurtured in these areas, they will become adults who find enjoyment and ability in reading and communicating.
