Reading – not so simple
READING is a ‘skill or activity of getting in formation from written words’ according to the Cambridge dictionary while Wikipedia defines reading as ‘the complex cognitive process of decoding symbols to derive meaning.’ Pretty simple to understand isn’t it? Not really.
According to readingrockets. org, in order for ‘reading’ to be successful there are 3 requirements for it. First is to identify the words in print which is called word recognition. Next step is to construct an understanding from them and this is a process called comprehension. The last step is to coordinate identifying words and making meaning so that reading is automatic and accurate – an achievement called fluency. These are just the requirements and all of these should be met in order for a student to be called able to read.
To develop word recognition however, a student should first know how to break apart and manipulate the sound into words and this is called phonemic awareness. It involves knowing the sound of the letters they are reading. Then the student should be able to recognize that certain letters are used to represent certain sounds which is called alphabetic principle.
An example of this is s and h make the /sh/ sound. The student should also be able to apply their knowledge of letter and sound relationships to sound out words that are new to them – a process called decoding. The student should also be able to analyze words and spelling patterns in order to become more efficient at reading words and is called word study. Lastly the student should expand the number of words that they can identify automatically which is called sight vocabulary. That’s a lot and it’s just the first requirement. This is not doable overnight. This needs time, patience and guidance. It needs to be reviewed every now and then for it to be ingrained into any child in order to move forward to comprehension.
Fluency is considered the walls and roof of reading if you think of reading as a house since without roof and walls, even if you have a good foundation and support, it would not be protected from the elements and incomplete. The foundation and support may even wither if there are no walls and roof since fluency in reading needs a child to develop a high level of accuracy in word recognition, maintain a rate of reading brisk enough to facilitate comprehension, use phrasing and expression so that oral reading sounds like speech, and transform deliberate strategies for word recognition and comprehension into automatic skills.
Teaching reading in class needs to effective as possible. It is never good enough to just hand the students a text with a set of questions, ask them to read the text and answer the questions, and think that we are actually teaching something. Any learning that takes place in such lesson will only be incidental, may only be attributed to luck, and absolutely not because of teaching.
Planning lessons has always been an essential, and needs to be made sure that aims are clear and the texts and tasks are appropriate. This has never changed.
To develop word recognition however, a student should first know how to break apart and manipulate the sound into words and this is called phonemic awareness. It involves knowing the sound of the letters they are reading.