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Effective reading and viewing requires techniques and the ability to comprehend in decoding, text use and text analysis. The ability to comprehend these skills uphold strong importance, but these skills has a common ground. These skills are the central focus of meaning making in literacy progress; teaching of reading.

According to Hill, “Teaching reading is a process that involves finding out what young children’s strengths and capabilities are and adjusting teaching to maximize learning.” (Hill, 2012, p.196)

This literature conveys a strong message as the concept of reading becomes essential when considering its diversity. This includes supporting children’s literal and inferential interests, engagement and enjoyment with books that they read and view.

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This formative literacy assessment might involve a classroom teacher checking how many letters and sounds the child know. The progress of word awareness happens through oral wordplay, including word exploration and the engagement through print. This assessment tool offers knowledge on connecting relationships between home early literacy experiences and children’s print awareness skills. The child will access the context of reading, as well as decoding letter and words.

This is supported by Freebody and Luke statement, which states that “teaching and learning literacy, then involves shaping and mastering the repertoire of capabilities called into play when managing texts in ways appropriate to various contexts.” (Luke & Freebody, 1990, p. 2) By matching words to print, children will be able to view patterns and relationships in words.

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“Reading aloud to children provides a powerful context for word learning.” (Biemiller * Boote, 2006; Bravo, Hiebert, & Pearson, 2007)

This assessment tool offers an example of how a child’s vocabulary can be extended by reading aloud. Similarly, the assessment tool provided will be access using a picture book.

The child will select words from the book they are unfamiliar with. While reading, the teacher will get the child to stressed on the ‘new word’ and get the child to repeat the word. The teacher will explain the meaning of the ‘new word’ in everyday language through a variety of examples in different context.

After the child has equipped the new word, the child will be using the word with their own examples.

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Teaching Strategies for Early Childhood Education

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Strategies for Reading Aloud to Young Children

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This assessment tool offers a series of poems that will allow the child to make personal connections with poems. The child will extend to decoding the words from poem.

The child will also be guided to group the words into meaningful sentences and, to make the words come alive when reading orally.

Hill mentioned that, “Reading influences children’s writing in several ways, as children tend to produce structures and language feature of the texts they read.” (Hill, 2012, p.319) The use of phrasing and expression will assist the child to construct meaning from printed words.

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Reading fluency “is important because it frees the child to concentrate on the meaning of the text.” (Hill, 2012, p.193) Kai read two poems: “Good Books, good Times!” by Lee Bennett Hopkins (1990) and “What I told Mrs. Morris when she asked how I was feeling today” by Ken Nesbitt (2007). “What I told Mrs. Morris when she asked how I was feeling today” will be the focus of the reading analysis. Kai selected it because she had heard a portion of it before and wanted to know what happened next. Nesbitt creative and inventive words such as “scummy” and “crummy” could provide an interesting challenge for a competent and confident young reader.

Freebody and Luke (1990) states, “that the role of a reader, meaning maker, read to understand.” A fluency of reading rubric (Hill, 2012, p.194) was one strategy to assess Kai as she read “What I told Mrs. Morris when she asked how I was feeling today”. Kai read 43 words in 30 seconds, which gave her a fluency score of 1.4. However, it must be noted that Hill recommends this test to be conducted with a familiar text and Kai had never read this poem by herself before. Because of that, it could be assumed that her fluency rate with a familiar text would be higher.

Comparing Kai’s score of 1.4 with Hill’s reading fluency rubric (Hill, 2012, p. 194) , definitely indicates that it is not a true sore for her ability. Using this rubric, Kai would be classed at level 2.5. The text indicated in the following table (see attached) represent Kai’s abilities. Kai performed a mixture of word-by-word and phrased reading. As Kai reads, most words and phrases flowed, but she stumbled over a couple of words (such as “thesaurus” for example). She demonstrated an awareness of syntac with her smooth reading and attention to punctuation.

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According to the NEL literacy framework, “children need experiences with oral language and a variety of texts (e.g. rhymes, storybooks and charts) to develop the following early literacy skills which help them in learning to read. (Ministry of Education, 2013, p. 7). This means that reading fluency requires quality and quantity. As such, Kai will:

1. Use rhythm, phrasing, intonation, naturalness, and use of voice (for different characters/moods) – targeting on Kai’s quality of reading

2.  Read a variety of text according to accuracy (number of errors comparing to number of correct words read) and the rate. (number of words read per minute) – targeting on Kai’s quantity of reading.

The State Government of Victoria, Australia (2019) implies that, “in the case for fluency, it is an important goal for children to become accurate, efficient and therefore fluent readers.”

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Kai needs to improve on her expressive interpretation, but this would be easier with a text that she is familiar with. Hill (2012) defines reading as fluent if the “words are read together in meaningful chunks… there are few examples of word-by-word reading (and) there is attention to syntax and punctuation.”

By this definition, Kai reads fluently. She only mispronounced one word: “cranky” as “crany”. This was the only phonological stumble she had, and it occurred in a lyrical, alliteration-rich sentence, “crusty, crummy, cruddy, crabby”. The next step is moving towards a higher level to understand more complicated text without struggling to decode words or meaning.

This resource offers teachers an overview mechanics of a Reader’s theatre. It supports the role of a teacher, and facilitating Kai. Strategies are provided, as well as techniques on other types on reading and viewing. The video is a good platform on how this provided activity can work in a classroom setting.

In reader’s theatre, teacher can assign reading portions to each child. The child will read their assigned parts orally and aloud for practice. Kai is encouraged to re-read the assigned parts several times, which helps in her fluency skills.

Lev Vygotsky’s social constructivist theory states that, “Human development is socially situated, and knowledge is constructed through interaction with others. (Vygotsky, 1978) Hence, reader scripts involve the usage of dialogues.

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Language Arts

Reader's theater lesson plans (with scripts):

Reader's theater scripts:

Math

Teachers can use reader's theater as an instructional technique for mathematical word problems. This example could be used for a reader's theater about 100's day and the concept of 100 .

Social Studies

Here are reader's theater scripts about America in varying reading levels.

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Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue.

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Comprehension is understanding meaning. “Reading comprehension is the act of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning from the text.” (Hill, 2012, p. 215) Comprehension assessment can be attained using different types of questions. As such, it is essential to promote discussion in reading. According to research, “reading is vital in increasing children’s long term oral language development, scaffolding of children’s emergent literacy and greater enjoyment of books. (Hill, 2012; Ministry of Education NEL, 2013)

Kai was asked questions about the text before and after she read. Some literal probing about the story had Kai confirm some basic facts about the story. Kai interpreted the story as being about “a few people who joined a race and someone will win”. Inferential questioning about the direction of the story allowed Kai to explore the possibilities of the text without reading beyond page 5.

Kai inferred from the title that the people in the race plays a crucial role in the story. When probed further about why and who will win the race, Kai decided that the boy, ‘Will’ would win the race because he came first in the first round of competition; “Will wins.” This demonstrates Kai’s own knowledge of the conventions of a narrative; that there has to be a problem and resolution, and character(s) develop and change. A critical question asking what Kai had learnt so far from the story garnered the response; “that not all who wins the first round will win at the final race!”

In terms of the AusVELS curriculum benchmarks, Kai would be placed at progression point of 2.5, working towards level 3 achievement standard. The following examples are evidence of her placement at this level. She was familiar with the conventions for a narrative. Kai was able to demonstrate this by inferring that someone has to win the race in order for the story to develop. By answering question, Kai was able to self-correct and know when she made a mistake. For examples, her eyes skilled ahead to the next line and she corrected her mistake by reading from the beginning of the sentence again.

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According to the Victorian framework, “Early childhood professionals use integrated teaching and learning approaches to: use intentional teaching strategies that are always purposeful and may be pre-planned or spontaneous, to support achievement of well-considered and identified goals.” (VEYLDF, 2016, p.15) As such, Kai will:

1.    Model “word awareness” through rich language experiences

2.    Engage in words that will enhance the meaning of what Kai is reading and important for her to know

3.    Teaching word meanings by using examples, synonyms and definitions before creating sentences.

Supported by Hill (2012), “encouraging children’s awareness of their pronunciation, enunciation, tone and expression as they read is essential for understanding fluency.” Hence, children read at their own pace and most importantly, model fluency.

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According to the MOE English language syllabus, “The EL Syllabus 2001 advocated: That the development of listening skills is as important as the development of reading and writing skills.” (English Language Syllabus, 2010, p. 20)

Using Ehri’s (2005) phases of reading, Kai’s literacy stage would be extended. She reads confidently and fluently, with this behind her, she is beginning to use intonation and expression. She reads silently, can summarize a text, and her knowledge of the mechanics of language has freed her up to read more creatively and expressively.

To paint a true picture of Kai’s literacy level, she would need to be tested on a variety of text-types, not just narrative. Kai’s placement in the extended literacy stage for narrative will need to be demonstrated by her ability to construct more complex pieces that contain more than just a few sentences. This includes the maturing use of punctuation, such as colon and commas.

According to research, “typical schools uses new technologies are well documented, as the mind-sets characteristics of how schools generally take up new technologies (Lanksherar & Knobel, 2003; Oppenheimer, 2003). Bulfin & North, 2007, p. 248) This resource offers a series of sight words games allowing Kai to explore a series of sight words through interactive social play. The games ranges from classic to traditional board games, with guided lessons and lessons plans to guide the teachers on how the games are played. This will help Kai in acquiring logical and reasoning skills, boots critical thinking and gaining spatial reasoning, helping her in her learning and communication skills.

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Smash some sight words in this silly game that stars Roly the cat. In Sight Words Demolition, first graders will knock down a building by identifying high frequency words. First, they will listen to the instructions, then find the sight words mentioned in the narration. If they get it right...boom!

Grade

Subject

View aligned standards

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Sight Words Bingo Game | Game | Education.com

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Smash some sight words in this silly game that stars Roly the cat. In Sight Words Demolition, first graders will knock down a building by identifying high frequency words. First, they will listen to the instructions, then find the sight words mentioned in the narration. If they get it right...boom!

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According to Clay, she explains that teachers who have an understanding of what aspects of print their students are attending to can introduce students early on to print conventions through experiences in both reading and writing—especially through focused instruction in the first six months of school (Clay, 2000, p. 24-25). This highlights an important key point; it is a step to building phonics and spelling skills which provide reference support for Kai during reading activities.

Funds of knowledge refer to the idea that every person acquires a wealth of skills and knowledge that are “essential for household or individual functioning and well-being”. (Moll, 1992) Kai’s funds of knowledge were conducted with her and her parents, as well as comments from her siblings. Understanding a child’s history is instrumental in developing successful assessment, as well as creating a nurturing and caring environment in a primary classroom.

My assessment notes reveal that Kai’s word analysis skills were spotty and uncertain; she was able to produce all of the consonant sounds, but many only with great difficulty and some in a distorted, guttural form. According to research, “Reading is a precise process. It involves exact, detailed, sequential perception and identification of letter, words, spelling patterns and large language units.” (Goodman, 1967, p.1) She was unable to isolate short vowel sounds and unable to read unfamiliar short vowel words, slient “e”, double vowel, and r-controlled vowel words accurately. Kai’s pronunciation picture miscues paralleled her word analysis errors, a few single vowel words were pronounced correctly, but those with double vowels (trcuk for truck) were not.

Kai’s word recognition miscues involved guesses based on the first few letters of a word and its overall shape, again with much uncertainty about vowels: snake for snap, dog for dough, at for it. However, he was able to use the context to monitor and self-correct some of her mistakes. Her self-corrections did not affect his scored mastery level, but they did slow down her reading and make it appear very labored. Using an assessment similar to the Diagnostic Assessment of Reading (DAR) (Roswell & Chall, 1992), although she mastered GE 4, her GE word recognition was not fluent, it contains several self-corrections, hesitations, and repetitions.

This provided website for assessment, "literacy information and communication system" is a free public domain instrument created by Sylvia Greene, Greene's Informal Word Analysis Inventory is included in this document for the use as an initial screener. After giving this test to a Kai, the teacher is able to tell which Word Analysis principles are known and which need to be taught or reviewed. Greene's test uses lists of real words that contain the different phonic elements.

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In preschool, children can explore their environment and build the foundations for learning to read. As hill mentioned, “reading involve understanding that the print relays a message and that printed words are read the same way each time, as well as knowing the difference between a word and a letter.” (Hill, 2012, p.164) As such, Kai will:

1. Understanding that print carries a message through books, including big books and model reading behaviors.

2. Engage in reading attempts by talking about letters through name and sounds.
3.Identify name letters and make letter-sound matches through a literacy-rich environment.

Halliday and Matthiessen emphasized that “Language is a natural part of process of living: It is also used to ‘store the experiences built up in the course of that process, both personal and collective. It is (among other things) a tool for representing knowledge – or, to look at this in terms of language itself, for constructing meaning. (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2015, p.3) Hence, this benefits children repetition and memory skills.

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Social constructivist theories of Dewey (1964) and Vygotsky (1978) believes that, "learning is a social, collaborative and active process." As a strategy to building classroom community and literacy the children can have opportunities to play with their names.

Early letter and word study can begin with important words, the children’s names: How many letters are in your name? What is the first letter? What sound does that letter make or what is the first sound you hear in your name? How many claps (syllables) are in your name? Is it a long name or a short name? This helps in sorting out names in their classroom by the number of letters, by the number of claps, by first letter, and to chant their names from a chart or word wall.

As the names of the children word wall expands, children can include little words they see from the books. The children are able to learn about the concept of word – that words have first and last letters and sounds, that they are separated by spaces on the page. Also, the left to right directionality holds true in reading words as it does in moving across a line of print: letters represent the sounds in words in left to right sequence.

Gambrell (2011) also emphasized that, “To engage reluctant readers, allow them to have access to wide range of reading materials, make choices about what they read and to allow social interaction.” As young children chant words from the word wall in classroom group or large settings, find them in a big book, or to stretch them out by training their accuracy of word wall words, they also learn that no matter the font or age layout, the sequence of letters for each word will always be the same.

This resource offers a series of physical games that will help in recognizing their names in the classroom context. This could be used as “circle time”, an opportunity to recognizing not only the child’s name, but the names of their classmates as well.

According to the NEL literacy framework, there are four components of letter knowledge (Bradley & Jones, 2007) that children should develop:

1) Letter-shape knowledge – ability to distinguish letters based on visual features (i.e. lines, curves, direction)
2) Letter-name knowledge – understanding that a letter is a symbol and that it has both an upper case and lower case form
3) Letter-sound knowledge – understanding that letters represent sounds
4) Letter-writing knowledge – ability to write letters of the alphabet

Hence, it could be derived that children’s names are the first word they understand and can identify with – so they connect print with something very meaningful in their developmental milestones. This interlinks with Hill’s statement as she mentions, “at these early years, children attend to word matching, directionality, known words and locating new words. (Hill, 2012, p. 171) It is an important step to help Kai in understanding the use of segmenting. (i.e, word, syllable, and sound segmenting)

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Name Games are designed to help participants learn each other's names, begin conversations, and set everyone in the group at ease. It is always best to do a couple of these activities first before beginning other ice breakers or team building activities.