After reading Weaver's text, chapters 12 & 13:
Where does phonics instruction fit within a comprehensive literacy program? When and how would you teach phonics?
Phonics fits within the reading instruction of the comprehensive literacy program but is not taught in isolation. Chapter 13 in our text puts emphasis on how phonemic awareness promotes learning to read and learning to read promotes phonemic awareness. Weaver says "phonemic segmentation is not a natural task, nor one normally needed for reading, beyond the ability to separate an onset from a rime. This fact is important to understand because in some schools, readiness for first grade-or kindergarten!-is being assessed in part by measures of phoneic awareness"(p.307). I would agree with this because I don't think that phonics needs to be taught explicity for a student to become a proficient reader. I also am coming from an upper grades level of teaching so I don't have as many students who struggle with phonemic awareness. Phonics can be brought into instruction through shared reading or read-alouds. I think shared reading is where I would focus on phonics teaching because I can model myself working through unknown words to demonstrate for my students how they can do it on their own in sustained reading time. In chapter twelve's description of shared reading Weaver writes "using letter-sound knowledge along with other cues to identify words (also, teachers can make a not of readers who overuse letter-sound knowledge without also using meaning and other cues)" (p.293). This goes back to what we have learned in previous chapters that reading for meaning is most important to making a student a proficient reader. We shouldn't focus so much on letter-sounds and focus on students gaining meaning from their text. I think it's important to show how we can use previously learned words to help decode unknown words through read-alouds and shared reading. I don't think I need to teach specific rimes and onsets in order for my students to read upper-level text. Having more exposure to different types of text is the best way to help students with phonemic awareness. The comprehensive literacy program is to build students overall literacy competency and skills are to be incorporated into reading groups or writing practice. The skills shouldn't be taught and drill practiced for effectiveness.
Lisa, I agree with your comments about the value of shared reading. As a high school teacher, I can definitely relate to your point about not explicitly teaching phonics or phonemic awareness, but instead focusing more on comprehension/meaning of text and context. I also think shared reading is valuable because it gives students the opportunity to hear what fluent reading sounds like (which will help students with intonation, punctuation, and syntax) as well as to hear what strategies good readers utilize in order to remain engaged in the text (such as visualizing, predicting, and judging). As you stated, phonics should be embedded into other lessons or practices such as guided or shared reading, not taught in isolation.
ReplyDeleteLisa,
ReplyDeleteI really like your statement that phonics does not have to be mastered in order to be a proficient reader. I definitely understand the feelings of teaching phonics and onset and rime in the upper grade levels. I always think of these as basics and foundations taught in primary grade levels. I could see these being beneficial in the upper grades for ELL and special education students. I like how you connected this issue to previous chapters as we have become to know reading as the ability to gain meaning from the text, not individual letters and sounds.
As a first grade teacher, I am often teaching tons of phonics skills. However, I am with all of you! Phonics skills build upon one another, and are often like building blocks. Students do not benefit by teaching phonics skills in isolation. For example, if you prompt a child saying, "This is a non-sense word. Can you read this word for me?" They will then segment the sounds and blend them together to form a new silly word. The trouble I have seen, is that often times children got confused. They didn't understand the purpose of reading only non-sense words. The idea of if you can decode a silly word, you can decode a real word, didn't transfer into real world application. By integrating phonics instruction through shared reading, and reading and writing workshops, students are exposed to many contexts. They are able to broaden their schemas, and have discussions. Not only can the teacher model appropriate strategies, but they can model and guide one another. In order to master the art of reading, students need to be placed in a print-rich environment. They need constant motivation and the time to practice their skills.
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