| During the course of my Kidwatching Journal
(KWJ) experience with an emergent reader, I have learned a great deal of
things. Not only have I advanced in my basic knowledge of how people learn
to read, but I have also learned firsthand how to assess what a reader
is having difficulty with, and what kinds of strategies I can show them
to further their understanding of texts. In the course of our meetings,
my young reader, Savannah, has gone through several stages of thought.
As a result, I was able to put my newfound knowledge to use by showing
her several strategies modeled in class and in the course reading materials.
SAVANNAH
During out first meeting, Savannah displayed some
interesting, yet fairly characteristic qualities of an emergent reader.
She was familiar with the parts of a book, such as the cover, where the
title is, where print begins, and so on. She was not, however, capable
of distinguishing between capital and lower case letters, or between periods
and commas. Savannah shared that her mother occasionally read with her
at home, and that her mother was teaching her to read by sounding words
out. As we began to read together, Savannah was determined to sound each
word out. Conversely, she seemed determined to reject any strategy I might
suggest that strayed from her pattern. Because her sight word knowledge
was limited to only a few words, the process of sounding every word out
did not lend itself well to a focus on meaning.
As our meetings progressed, Savannah proved to
be adept at remembering stories almost word for word after they were read
to her, though her focus began to move from phonics to picture cues. She
could tell a whole story in a reading-like manner without referring back
to the words. In one meeting, I asked Savannah to pick a book for us to
read. She chose a picture book that had a few words on the first and last
pages. I faded out after reading a portion of the first page with her.
She continued the story, explaining each drawing in depth. When she reached
the last page, Savannah exclaimed, “We forgot to read the words!” She flipped
back to the front page and searched every page for text, and when she found
none, reread the last page.
SAVANNAH’S STRENGTHS
Until almost half of our meetings were finished,
I was worried about Savannah’s abilities as a reader. After some thought,
I came to a new conclusion. Savannah already has a great many strengths
for being an emergent reader, especially considering that she has rarely
been read to outside of school. In the beginning, she was very focused
on using phonics to understand print. Though many people who boo-hoo focus
on phonemic awareness, it was a strength for Savannah in that she knew
it was a tool she could use in order to read independently. This is an
important step towards fluency. Until they know that they can acquire strategies
to derive meaning from text, emergent readers cannot really begin their
process of learning. Savannah was testing the usefulness of phonics by
using them. She did the same with the discovery of picture cues. As she
learned a new strategy, she focused on it, and tested its viability while
reading with me.
STRATEGIES
When I realized that Savannah was in a process
of testing strategies, I began to help her develop confidence in her successes.
I also tried to combine her current strategies so that they could complement
each other rather than being used somewhat unsuccessfully.
After the meeting when Savannah noticed
that she “forgot to read the words,” I began using oral cloze techniques
in simple text. It was quite a success. Savannah had trouble at first,
but began to see that the words she already knew could help her figure
out the words she was not sure about. She began to request that I cover
more words in each story with Post-it notes so she would have more opportunities
to guess was words could fit in each spot.
Once she was familiar with this idea, I
introduced a combination of graphophonic and semantic cues. In reading
a new text, we looked at the sound of the first letter in a word she was
unsure of, then read the sentence with that sound in place of the word.
Next, we looked at the picture and talked about what kinds of things we
saw. When she tried the sentence again, Savannah said the word without
pausing. She looked up at me, amazed that she figured it out on her own.
WHAT LIES AHEAD
I can only hope that Savannah will continue
to grow in her confidence and ability to read independently. Her self-stated
goal this year was to be able to read chapter books. I trust that her teachers
will continue instruction to her her reach that goal. One thing I learned
in the process of working with Savannah is that not everything is what
it seems on the surface. It takes quite a bit of attention to decipher
what each child’s needs are when it comes to reading instruction. This
means that, when I have my own class, I need to stay conscious of what
is happening as children read. I have seen how this can be facilitated
in small group guided reading, as well as in one on one instruction. I
hope that I will be able to provide the necessary help when the time comes. |
