Teaching Children to Read “Speaking is a normal, genetically-hardwired capability, reading is not. No areas of the brain are specialized for reading. In fact, reading is probably the most difficult task we ask the young brain to undertake.� David A. Sousa, 2004.
What should the goals of early reading instruction be?
Automatic word recognition (fluency) Comprehension of texts Love of literature
Instructional components Phonemic awareness Letter names and shapes Phonics Spelling Vocabulary developement Comprehension and high order thinking Appropriate instructional materials
Working systematicaly on components Recognizing words quickly and accurately
Daily Literacy session
(Decoding) Reading fluently (Automaticity)
Comprehension
Intensive reading in the classroom
•Literature circles •Reading at home •Work at the library
Terminology letter names and shapes segmentation
graphem e print awareness diagraph
phonic s
alphabetic principle
phonemic awareness blending
CVC words
phoneme cluster
Approaches to phonics Synthetic Analytic Tactile-Kinesthetic
Cracking the Code
Early childhood literacy experience affects successfully reading acquisition. Children who cannot read by the end of third grade can be considered at risk of failure; this is why we strongly believe that it is necessary to design a good quality reading program from kinder to the primary grades, including not only explicit work on the instructional components but also deep work on literature to ensure success at reading and at becoming lifelong readers who can enjoy and discover the pleasure of reading a story.