It’s interesting to think about how the human brain
works. We read a paragraph the
other week in class that basically said that letters don’t need to be in the
correct order for us to read and understand what the word is:
“Aoccdrnig
to rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the
ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat
ltteer be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll
raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey
lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe.”
We can predict what a word says because we recognize the
first and last letter. Although
the letters are not in the correct places, we can unknowingly put them in the
right sequence to form the word.
We often say, “sound it out” when children are struggling to say a
word. I was doing a puzzle game
with the kids at Harmony the other day.
It required them to look at a picture, figure out what letter the
subject of the picture started with, and to match the picture with the correct
letter (For instance, nail starts with an N). I kept telling them to sound it out but reading the first
page of chapter 4 in Catching Readers
Before They Fall, it makes sense why we shouldn’t tell them that. We have so many words in the English
language that do not sound like they should. I realized that I constantly have to be correcting them or
telling them different rules like why “th” sounds the way it does and so forth.
We have discussed comprehension every single day in both of
our E339 and E340 classes. And we
have concluded that comprehension includes putting meaning to the text. So when students put meaning to what
they are reading, they should easily be able to “solve a word” if need be. When you have fill in the blanks, it’s
always nice to have options (or so I thought when I was in grade school). If students understand the material
correctly, there should be multiple vocabulary words that pop into their heads
when they need to solve for a word.
However, I think this skill varies from student to student. This goes back to how often students
read. The more they read, the
better their language and vocabulary will be—the easier it will be for them to
do this specific task of solving words using additional information.
There will be days at Harmony where a kid will pull out a
book on his/her own. I usually
proceed asking if they would like me to read that book to them and I usually
get a yes. But every now and
again, the child will grab my hand, lead to me to the couch, and open the
book. Instead of reading (given
that they are only 3-6 year olds), they begin to look at the pictures. This is an example of how children will
use the pictures and their own background knowledge to come up with a story or
infer what is going on in the book.
I think it’s fascinating to listen to the stories they come up
with. Often times the kids will
understand what the pictures are implying and proceed with the correct
storyline (usually the older ones) but there are the other kids who interpret
the pictures completely different and their imaginations run off the
pages. It’s amazing! But then I start to wonder, should I be
teaching them how to read these words or just continue with their
storytelling? Well, how do I even
begin to teach them what that word sounds like?
In field experience this past week; I was conducting a
reading conference with one of the sixth graders (not my case-study
student). He came across the word
“kaleidoscope” and didn’t recognize it—didn’t know how to pronounce it. He looked up at me and I said the word
slowly. He looked at it and
repeated. I then asked if he knew
what a kaleidoscope was and he said no.
So I explained. Immediately
after, he realized he knew what it was he just had never put a word to it. I guess my main point of this story is
that I believe it’s important to put meaning behind a word—make sure they know
what it is! If you tell a student
to sound it out, what good is that doing if they don’t truly understand? They will sound out the letters until they reach the end
goal, which is pronouncing the word correctly. In other words, their full attention is not on the word,
it’s on the phonetic component of the word. There must be a balance
of meaning, structure, and visual information of words. I think Fountas and Pinnell, authors of
Teaching for Comprehending and Fluency
say it perfectly, “Prediction provides a forward motion, which enables the
reader to spend much less attention on letters and word parts” (56).
[Quick Self-Reflection: side comment] In the past few weeks
of beginning the reading and writing cluster for my elementary education
degree, I’ve found myself reflecting on my own experiences with reading and
writing. I was never really big on
the whole literary aspect of school—but I got through it. But as I entered college, I don’t think
I was fully prepared for the reading content. Looking back, I was quickly frustrated with words that I
didn’t know in the materials that I was reading. I felt like I was falling behind in the class work, reading
slower, and ended up struggling to write a page or two of what I had just read.
On page 56 of Catching
Readers Before They Fall they mention how this can be problematic for
readers. When a reader takes the
time to examine each word, they are usually reading too slow and lose meaning
of the text. Now I realize that my
example is a bit different than a 2nd or 3rd grader learning to read, but it
has the same concept. Using
meaningful and structural information simultaneously from the text is most
beneficial for readers. It can
help them choose correct words that make sense with the reading. Maybe using such information can also
guide them to make an educated guess of what a word might mean. This process seems to become quite natural
when readers actually comprehend the material.
