R E 5100: Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing

Kristin Wahl

R E 5100: Teaching Beginning Reading and Writing

Forsyth M.A. Reading Education

Fall 2008

Final

Question # 1

a)John is in the phonetic or letter-name spelling stage. He is able to identify the initial consonant sound in six of the words. John begins ‘step with a ‘sd’ and the word ‘dress’ with a ‘jr’ because that is how beginning readers sometimes hear those sounds. John is able to identify the final consonants in some of the words. For example, he identifies the /c/ sound in ‘back’ and the /d/ sound in ‘side’. John is beginning to identify some medial consonants as well. In the word picking, he adds the ‘k’ before the final consonant. John can also identify the long vowels but he does not know the short vowel sounds yet.

Sue is at the pre-phonetic spelling stage. She has some knowledge of beginning consonants, but still confuses several letters and sounds. Sue successfully identifies the beginning sound in back, picking, and peeked. She does not identify the correct letter at the beginning of the word ‘feet’. She uses the letter ‘c’ to represent the /s/ sound. Sue does not have any vowel knowledge because there are not any vowels present in her spelling. She is also unable to identify the blends at the beginning of the word ‘step’ and ‘dress’.

Hannah is at the vowel transition spelling stage. She is able to identify the beginning consonants and consonant blends. Hannah is able to identify most of the medial and final consonants. She doesn’t know the ‘ed’ and ‘ing’ endings yet. Hannah successfully identifies most of the vowels in each word. However, she is inappropriately placing the letter ‘e’ in the words ‘side’ and ‘feet’. She understands that long vowels are often marked with a long /e/ sound, but she is uncertain as to where the letter ‘e’ should be placed.

b)Given the John’s level of phonics, I would offer him instruction in short vowel word families. He has only used the short ‘a’ correctly in the word ‘back’. Words that include other short vowels are not correctly identified. Given Sue’s level of phonics, I would offer her instruction in beginning consonant sounds. She has identified very few beginning consonants correctly and includes few medial and final consonants in her spelling words. Given Hannah’s level of phonics, I would offer her instruction in long vowel patterns. She understands that more than one vowel can be used to make different sounds, but she seems unaware of the specific rules and patterns.

c)Hannah probably has a larger sight vocabulary than John because she has incorporated the silent ‘e’ rule and vowel digraphs into her spelling words. John on the other hand is aware of long vowel sounds, but he does not include the silent ‘e’ rule or vowel digraphs. She has most likely picked up on these rules while reading.

Question # 2

a)Phonics instruction should be offered in a small-group session as opposed to a whole-group context because students need different levels of phonics instruction. If a teacher does a phonics lesson in a large group context, the objectives for that specific lesson might be too hard for one student and too easy for another student. Small-group phonics instruction allows the teacher to adjust the level of instruction to meet the needs of each individual student.

b)Children find vowels more difficult to master than consonants because vowels can make several different sounds. Short vowels are especially hard for children to learn because they do not sound like any other letter in the alphabet. Children also struggle with learning vowels because it is difficult to distinguish between the vowel and consonant sounds. The theory of co-articulation promotes the idea that when people speak, they blend the consonant and vowel sounds together at the same time.

c)The basic short vowel pattern, CVC and CCVC, are so important in phonics instruction these vowel patterns make up the majority of words that primary students read. These vowel patterns are commonly found in multi-syllabic words as well.

d)Teacher judgment holds a high importance in the developmental process like learning phonics because only a teacher can determine if a beginning reader is prepared to move to the next level of phonics instruction. Often times, teachers use the basal readers to instruct their students phonics development instead of their own judgment.

e)The coherent content of teaching phonics in the primary grades includes four stages. These stages include learning the beginning consonants (including blends and consonant digraphs), short vowels (CVC and CCVC pattern), high frequency vowel patterns (r-controlled (‘ar’, ‘ir’, ‘or’), ‘ai’, ‘ee’, ‘ea’, ‘ai’, ‘oa’, and ‘ight’), and low frequency vowel patterns (‘ou’, ‘oi’, ‘ui’, and ‘au’). Each stage of this phonics content must be met before moving onto the next stage.

Question # 3

The most important concept that has influenced my thinking about beginning reading in the primary grades is the emphasis placed upon spelling in order to determine a student’s reading level. Before this class, I used writing samples, running records, and observations while students read as ways to identify my struggling readers. I never understood how examining a child’s spelling could indicate his/her level of reading. Now I am able to examine a student’s spelling and determine which phonics skills he/she has mastered and which ones need to be taught next.

I am currently working with one of my struggling ESL readers, who began the third grade at the end of a first grade level. I have worked with her one-on-one in our county-wide phonics program called Fundations, an offset of the Wilson Reading Program. The program requires teaching specific rules everyday and reinforcing previous skills that we have already learned. The program also calls for dictation activities, where the student writes words and sentences that incorporate the rules that we have studied. It was amazing to compare the knowledge that I have gained from this class to what I saw her doing during these activities. I categorized her in the phonetic or letter-name spelling stage. She was able to hear and dictate the consonants and blends, but the short vowels caused her problems. I am now able to clearly identify her level of phonics and which skills should come next in her instruction.

Another concept that has influenced my thinking about beginning reading is how to teach reading in kindergarten and first grade. I found the language experience stories in kindergarten to be the most interesting. Taking a shared experience and using it to practice letter names and sounds, high frequency words, and concept of word makes learning to read meaningful and interesting for each student.