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?