Reading

=__Reading__ =

 Learning to read being's in the earliest stages of childhood development. It begins in the home environment with a child beginning to see signs, print, texts, conversations and rhythm in nursery rhymes etc. Reading enhances imagination, evokes emotion and encourages the exploration of an understanding of what the text means as the child develops. There are stages to reading which develop over time. The main area which i will be focusing on is reading development at school which is broken up into 4 stages.
 * Emergant** - consisting of high frequency words such as at, in, but as well as a match between text and illustration & a simple story line containing a maximum of 50 words.
 * Early** - the length of the text increases, support of illustrations begin to diminish, and the sentence structures are longer.
 * Transitional** - the book explores topics beyond the child's previous experience, fictional texts are introduced and the conceptual load in increased
 * Extending** - the narrative contains a more complex plot, less illustrations and the sentence length and structure vary. (Hill 2004 pp 139-149)

There are many ways in which these levels are determined and implemented in the classroom one being through the sails reading program. I have attached here a report conducted in 2004 by Dr Libby Limbrick regarding the [|Sails Literacy Series Reading Program. I]t highlights the importance of the texts and the ways in which they have been implemented in the classrooms to further enhance literacy skills around the world.

As Hill explains Reading is the process of constructing meaning from print and from other symbols, also known as reading comprehension a relationship between the reader, the text and the activity. A great way to teach comprehension is to have a large book read out to the classroom. After that the students are broken into small groups and must go away and reenact a new ending to the story. From this their personal interest are brought into the text, thier understanding of the text is reiterated and the students engage in the process of the activity of comprehension.

Below is an image of Bella's favourite story where she has changed a few things. 

 There are many ways in which reading can be taught in the classroom environment.
 * Modeled** **-** The teacher reads aloud and alone to the class. The text is usually more complex than that of their own ability but encourages an appreciation of literature. The hear words not used in their everyday vocabulary and begin to draw meaning from them.
 * Shared** - This is encouraged to be a shared experince withthe teacher reading with thier students. The teacher leads the session doign most of the reading but he students may repeat rhymes and common repeated words. The idea of this is to have a whole group work through the problem solving and identification of the texts.
 * Guided** - The teacher works with about 4 - 6 students all reading the same book. After introducing the text to the group the teacher then has the students break away and read alone. The teacher will then assess each child induvidually focusing on problem solving difficult words, self correction and picking up on the areas which prove to be difficult for each student.

Running records are ideal for the correction of children's reading and thier development over time. [|Click here] to view an the Tasmanian Dept. of educations example of a running record and how it works.

Below i have included a clip of max reading his book. media type="file" key="newvideo.flv"