Personal Model of the Theory of Reading


Teaching reading is a significant part of being a teacher. As a pre-kindergarten teacher I have the vast responsibility of introducing and preparing my students for the world of reading. I begin the school year by teaching the basics. I continually build upon each step until my students have the beginning knowledge they need to sound out words and read. While introducing the steps to reading I continually focus on vocabulary. The students may not be able to read the vocabulary words, but they are gaining the pre-knowledge they need to use and understand words they will be reading one day. Phonological and phonemic awareness are the main focus of being prepared to read. I begin each year with the goal of my students having an understanding that words are made up of individual sounds and if sounds are learned,  then we are able to put the sounds together to understand and read words. This will ultimately lead to being able to read and understand what was read. With the basics of reading and the continuous addition of new strategies students are better prepared to become confident readers.

Each school year begins with an introduction to letters and their sounds. During large group each week, we focus on several letters at a time and complete an activity that focuses on a particular learning style. For example, we may right the letters in shaving cream or sort out picture cards by what sound they begin with.  I want my students to be successful in their own way so it is very important to encourage all learning styles. During the first half of the school year, we continually focus on recognizing individual phonemes and letter recognition.   We also focus on rhyming words and work our way up the phonological awareness hierarchy as students master each level. This includes rhyming words, blending, and segmenting.  Each of these consists of using our ears to hear the differences and similarities between the words and phonemes. I believe that focusing on phonological awareness and phonemic awareness simultaneously gives the students a more in-depth understanding of the beginning skills of reading. By the second half of the school year, we begin introducing sight words. Students are made aware that some words cannot be sounded out the traditional way so we must have a pre-knowledge of the words so as we read we can recognize the words. This ultimately leads to the weekly reading of emergent readers by the last few months of the school year.

                With the combination of phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, sight words, and vocabulary students are fully prepared to read simple emergent readers and make the journey to kindergarten where they will gain more building blocks to make them excellent readers.

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