INTRODUCTION TO EARLY GRADE READING AND THE IMPORTANCE OF
READING INSTRUCTION
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
At the end of this session, Student Teachers should be able to:
Reflect on their personal reading experiences
Understand the reason for this course
Summarize why reading is important
Articulate the characteristics of good readers
Define the components of high-quality reading instruction
WHY THIS COURSE?
BRAINSTORMING: MY READING AUTOBIOGRAPHY
Step 1: Spend five–ten minutes answering the following questions in your journal.
1. What is your first memory of reading?
2. Can you read in more than one language? If you can, is one language easier to use for
reading than
3. the other? Explain your answer.
4. Name some favorite books that you read when you were a child and some of your favorite
books now.
5. Who influenced your growth as a reader?
6. What is your experience sharing reading with others?
Step 2: Turn to your partner and spend five minutes discussing your answers. Step
3: If
time permits, the Teacher Educator will ask pairs to share something they learned
about
each other.
This course has been developed in response to a need for high-quality reading
teachers.
This course is to increase your knowledge about reading instruction in the primary
school.
WHY IS THE TEACHING OF READING SO IMPORTANT?
1. Pupils must be able to read so they can learn.
Pupils who are good readers do better in school.
2. Reading needs to be taught.
If pupils are not taught to read, they will not learn to read.
3. All teachers need to be reading teachers
Pupils must be able to read for all subjects: for Social Studies; for Science; for Math.
4. A low percentage of pupils in Nigeria finish six years of school.
Pupils who do not learn to read by P3 are more likely to drop out of school
5. Many pupils in Nigeria go to school but they do not learn to read.
Pupils must learn to read when they are in school. Teachers must teach them to
read.
6. All teachers benefit from learning how to teach reading.
Teachers must know how to teach pupils to read.
7. The Matthew Effect:
The “Matthew Effect” is a term coined by Keith Stanovich, a psychologist who
has done extensive research on reading and language disabilities.
The “Matthew Effect” refers to the idea that in reading (as in other areas of life),
the rich get richer and the poor stay poor.
When children fail at early reading and writing, they begin to dislike reading. They
read less than their classmates who are stronger readers.
WHAT IS SKILLED READING?
Understand the alphabetic Alphabetic knowledge means that good readers know
system the letters of the alphabet and the sounds those
to identify printed words letters represent.
So, when a pupil sees “c-a-t” written on a page, they
know that is read as cat.
Have and use background Background knowledge means that readers bring
knowledge and strategies what they know about the world to their reading in
to obtain meaning from order to comprehend.
print
Read fluently Fluency is the ability to read a text quickly,
accurately, with expression, and with comprehension.
Fluent readers recognize words automatically.
Fluency is important because it provides a bridge be
tween reading words and understanding the message
Read actively in order to Skilled readers think actively as they read.
comprehend. They know when they do not understand what they
are reading, and they know to stop and use strategies
that help them understand.
5+2 COMPONENTS OF READING INSTRUCTION
The five components of reading originally introduced include phonological awareness,
phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
The ‘plus two’ components of concepts of print and writing serve to enhance the
success of the five main components.
Phonological This is a broad skill that includes hearing, identifying and
manipulating words, syllables, and smaller parts of words
through word play, rhyming games, and sound/picture
matching activities.
Phonemic awareness is a very specific kind of
phonological awareness, and refers to the ability to hear,
identify, and manipulate individual phonemes (sounds) in
spoken words.
Concepts of Young children do not automatically understand that print
Print carries meaning and is used to communicate, teachers and
parents need to help young children recognize the ways in
which print ‘works’ for the purposes of reading, and how
books ‘work’.
Phonics Phonics instruction begins with correlating the letter names
and letter sounds, and then
teaching pupils to decode (blend sounds to read words)
and encode (write the letters that represent each sound)
based on the sounds each letter represents.
Reading When pupils memorize the sounds that the letters
Fluency represent and spend time practicing decoding, they
eventually begin to build reading fluency.
Pre-teaching key vocabulary words helps build fluency
because the pupil already knows how to read the word and
what the word means.
Vocabulary When young children begin reading, they depend on their
oral vocabulary (the words used every day in speaking and
listening) to understand texts they read.
Over time, pupils will develop reading vocabulary - words
recognized or used in print.
Writing The ability to put ideas in written form also plays an
important role in learning to read, since reading and writing
are interrelated processes.
Research has shown that when pupils receive writing
instruction, their reading fluency and comprehension
improve.
Comprehension The ability to read a text and understand its meaning is
dependent upon the other six components. Comprehension
is the ultimate goal of reading—without comprehension,
reading is not happening!
REFLECTIVE JOURNALING
The most effective teachers are reflective practitioners—professionals who reflect on their
practice and learn from their own misunderstandings and mistakes. Reflective journaling is a
way for teachers, Teacher Educators, and Student Teachers to summarize what they have
learned or reflect on how effective a lesson has been.
REFLECTIVE JOURNALING
DATE TOPIC # TOPIC
Reflective Journal
Answer questions assigned
Add any personal responses and experiences beyond those required.