How to Learn Effectively

Main Points:
- Providing good examples to refer to when analyzing a new word
- Outlining different tactics to learning how to understand words
- Steps of learning different tactics, and outlines effective ways of teaching the steps

There are many different methods by which people learn most effectively. Some learn by doing, some learn by watching, some learn by repetitiveness, and many by a mixture of all. One underlying factor in effective learning is having good examples to follow. In the text From Kathleen Clark, What Can I Say Besides, "Sound it Out?" Coaching Word Recognition in Beginning Reading, the author underlines the importance of providing good examples. At these stages in a learners development, a good example can provide all the insight a learner needs to go about tackling challenges on their own. If the learner can relate challenges of learning new words to experiences when they were taught how to successfully break down the situation to something understandable, then the 'coaching' and subsequent learning has been successful.

In the text from Kathleen Clark, she breaks down the process that most readers and writers go through when assessing a word. Clark mentions typical steps that are taken, like identifying root words and phonograms, or using context clues to relate the word to a known word. For the stages f readers covered in the reading, word-breakdown is a helpful tactic due to the word banks that most readers posses. In such a breakdown, a reader uses a common, smaller word to help understand a meaning of a larger word. Anagram exercises also use this principle, as smaller words can be built easier, on which the student can add prefixes and suffixes to build larger words.

Clark outlines some methods of breaking down a readers understanding of a word in a table, and includes 5 points. Of the 5 points Clark lists, 3 of them assess a reader's prior knowledge of the word or smaller words that are simpler. This underlines the need for good examples for readers to use and be capable in developing their skills in reading and writing. With a good base knowledge that makes it capable to expand on, the entire processes for learning are easier and more productive.

Discussion question:
If you were teaching children in 1st or 2nd grade what types of topics would you try to include in readings that the kids might have prior knowledge on or might find interesting?

Take a Look, Take a Lick

Main points:
-Difference between phonemic awareness and auditory awareness, phonetics, and phonics.
-Literacy is everywhere
-Reading and writing is one of the most important achievements in life

In the article Letting go of , "The Letter of the Week", I enjoyed reading the idea of teaching off of whatever your students already know. The text gave some examples such as,

• Look at the beginning of letter or letters. Are they like letters in any words you already know?
• Look through the word for familiar chunks. Any you already know?
• Read through to the end. Does the word end with letters that are in words you already know? 

The idea of teaching based on what students already know is smart because they have self confidence in knowing that they are already able to read and write.

The activity above is showing three different ways to familiarize your self with the same word. One being how you read it, one showing how you but the letters together using the color read as vowels and blue as consonants, and the next letting you write it for yourself.

While doing the reading of Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, I came across something that is important to me since I am in Deaf Education. It is that chronic untreated middle ear infections in the earliest years of life will delay language development. If a child has difficultly hearing it will make it impossible for them to learn and pay attention, and could be embarrassing for the child to call attention to.

Discussion Question:
What creative activities could help a child with hearing impairment learn to read?

How to make reading interesting

Main points:

1. Children in literate home environments engage in reading and writing long before beginning formal reading and writing instruction.
2. How to develop interest in reading

When I was learning how to read I learned from my grandmother. She would read to me a variety of different golden books. I remember specifically Goldie Locks and The Three Pigs. I enjoyed being read to, but I never had much of an interest to pick up a book and read it myself. I don't remember reading much until I was in 1st or 2nd grade. When I grew older I do remember being interested in reading my science textbook, books about animal species, and even the occasional book about space.

I enjoyed learning how to write more than reading, I could definitely spell some before I went to school, I guess because it was more hands on. Reading, I feel, would of been more fun for me if I was shown books about things that I would of enjoyed, my parents were not very hands on in that sense and I usually just read the classics or what my older sister had enjoyed. Below I have some ideas that I think would make reading interesting for children.

Ideas:
-Find out their interests and suggest books
-Make reading part of your daily life, I like the idea of reading cereal boxes and street signs                                    
-Read informational readings about real life events
-Set good reading examples- read instead of television
-Be creative, colorful, and have fun!

Discussion Questions:

When you were growing up what experiences do you remember about reading?

How will you encourage students to read?

The more you read, the better you read!

Week 1 Readings 
Main Points: 
1. Teachers need to be exemplary because ordinary teachers won't do the trick (Ch. 1 and Phi Delta Kappan Article)
2. The more you read the better you can read (Ch. 2)    
 In the readings this week discussion of "exemplary" teachers comes up. In the first chapter from Classrooms that Work, the first grade classes who had the exemplary teachers usually showed that the classes were more hands on and had higher levels of engagement. My favorite examples from extraordinary classrooms that stood out from ordinary classrooms were

• books were everywhere and used in a variety of different ways--read aloud by teacher and read and listened to on tape by the children.

and

• classrooms were caring, positive, cooperative environments, in which discipline issues were handled quickly and quietly. 

"Readers are not just children who can read, but children who do read"
     From the second chapter of Classrooms that Work, it is important to create independent readers, children who want to read and that don't just read when assigned to read. Something interesting I found in this chapter was the "Male Reading Models", it says that most elementary school teachers are women and that most of the children who struggle with reading are boys. I love the idea of schools having "real men" come and read books to their class and think it is an excellent strategy to make boys interested in reading. Some more good examples of ways to make reading interesting to your students are: to take time and read aloud to students everyday, include different types of readings to the read aloud (ex. mystery, science fiction, fantasy, animal info, multicultural, chapter books, magazines), schedule time every day for independent reading, accumulate the widest possible variety of reading materials, schedule conferences to talk about students reading materials, and make time for sharing and responding. This last summer I worked in a first grade class and I know what a difference it made when I read aloud to kids opposed to letting them "free read". They enjoyed listening so much and behaved better. 

6 T's
     In the article called, What I've Learned About Effective Reading Instruction, we review the importance of exemplary teacher and the 6 T's. Which are:
Time
Texts
Teaching
Talk
Tasks
Testing
The six T's overlap and its unlikely that you could develop a teaching style that reflects a single t. 
"Important to give kids books they can read and choices regarding which books they will read." 
I believe that it is important for kids to find something they are interested in and reading assigned books isn't the best way for them to find that. I would encourage my students to explore different kinds of readings so they can become interested in something new. Reading extensively is necessary for the development of proficiency in reading, students need to have more reading added to their everyday classroom activities in order to keep expanding their reading capacities.
Discussion Question: How would you encourage students to explore different types of reading materials?