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The ABC of reading
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Thirty per cent of the children at schools need guidance in reading
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Reading lessons Tricia C. Frank
Tricia C. Frank, a teacher for 32 years and who has been teaching teachers on reading, is clear that if a child requires help to read, attend to it immediately. Working as a literary coach in Saudi Arabia, Tricia who visited Kochi recently, explains
that 30 per cent of the children at schools need extra supervision and guidance in reading. This has little to do with a disability of any sort, but with those who may be slow in responding to words.
Teaching methods
The National Reading Panel, convened by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, USA, to evaluate the effectiveness of methods used to teach children to read, came up with five points on reading instructions. These are phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and text comprehension and offer guidelines on which classrooms need to function.
“Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Phonemes are the smallest parts of sounds in a spoken word that make a difference in the word’s meaning. Like ‘m’ in mat when replaced with ‘p’ becomes pa.
“Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent readers read silently, they recognise words automatically. Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively and plays an important role in how effectively a child may be able to read. And text comprehension is the ability to comprehend or understand what they read. If children cannot do this, then the purpose is defeated.
“About 70 per cent of the children take to reading automatically and without any difficulty. It is the remaining, who may struggle with it. As teachers and parents it is our duty to screen them and assist them with it.”
For this, Tricia explains that there is the need to use words that rhyme, or by segmenting or breaking words up. “For example, if children cannot recognise the difference between two rhyming words, they would need assistance.” She substantiates that it can be deciphered by simple procedures such as a game. However, she says, if it is an extreme case, it could be a hearing problem.
“This extra effort is much needed as children are so much more confident when able to read to one hundred percent capacity, so it must be made early enough. Four-and-a-half to seven years is the ideal age to work with children to correct or assist them, after this it gets tough.” She adds that often when children are not confident about reading they may withdraw, leading others to believe that the child is dumb or unintelligent. This does not have to be true; they just require extra help especially with sight words and phonics.”
TANYA ABRAHAM
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