June 14th Readings

I found the readings over phonemic awareness to be extremely educational. I am not sure I fully understood the concept of phonics until reading the Yopp and Yopp article. The chart that as included in the article provided a great explanation; also, helping to differentiate between commonly confused phrases. Understanding that running speech is a compilation of sequenced sounds is a vital step in phonemic awareness. I was particularly intrigued by the different methods that can be used in phonemic awareness instruction, things such as chats, word play, Dr. Seuss rhymes and even story book time are all contributing factor in gaining a great phonemic awareness. I specifically remember counting my syllables in elementary school, our teacher would have us place our hand under our chin and say the word aloud, each time your chin touched your hand you counted a syllable. Of course this method was not flawless, and you had to REALLY over pronounce your words to get your chin to touch your hand! The article talks about the book, The Hungry Thing, and how to incorporate this into the classroom. I know for me, I am a very hands on learner and seeing examples makes me feel more comfortable and confident. The idea of not only reading the book aloud and allowing the student to guess, but also creating an interactive activity (your own lunch bag) seems like a great idea. So many options for practicing phonemic awareness are provided within the Yopp and Yopp article, it will be a great resource in the future!

                Reading in a process through which readers derive a message, readers are given the task of deciphering the meaning of the word and phrases through the skills that they have been taught. Teachers play a huge role in this, being that the skills are provided by the teachers. Teachers prompt this through coaching and providing instructional cues. There are two types of cues that teachers give: general cues and more focused cues. The general cues are just that, general. They push the child to think and dip into their knowledge of word recognition. Whereas more specific cues draw the students attention towards graphophonic knowledge. This more specific process directs the student to focus on individual letters and sounds. The idea of student coaching is also interesting. Enabling other students to help of their peers when the see a struggle would be beneficial, however I feel it is also important to not let the student read over on another, a little help is good-but too much can be a hindrance.

                The book mentions the importance of children memorizing patterns and understanding them. Knowing without thinking about things such as prefixes and suffixes will enable the child to more easily go through the reading. The book gives many examples and activities used in classrooms to help student better understand letter meanings and sounds, I can see all of these working well in lower grades. As the end of the chapter neared I found myself questioning the importance of teaching and coaching phonemic awareness in upper elementary grades, yet, the end of the chapter reference a Nagy and Anderson study that evaluated books commonly read by grade 3 through 9. The study shows the use of root words in understanding bigger words. I think this is particularly valuable information. Although a student may not fully understand a word, having never used or seen it before, when prompted they will see root words that are used to make up a larger word—this is necessary tool in developing and understanding vocabulary.