#KINDERGARTEN READING FULL#
#KINDERGARTEN READING PROFESSIONAL#

But IвЂ™ve since learned that science tells us to avoid promoting any guessing strategies that take kidsвЂ™ eyes away from the text itself, as theyвЂ™re not really вЂњreadingвЂќ if theyвЂ™re not looking at the words themselves. IвЂ™ve even included them in information letters to parents. Cute props abound online: In my own classroom I have used вЂњEagle EyeвЂќ (look at the picture) and вЂњLips the FishвЂќ (make the first sound) to help kids remember what they can do if they canвЂ™t decode a word.

The three cues are context, or trying to figure it out by thinking about what might make sense based on the meaning syntax, or what sounds right in the sentence and visual information, the length/shape of the word, first letter and accompanying illustrations. For example, the three-cueing approach, which is outlined in the Ontario curriculum as a method for teaching reading, encourages kids to guess at unknown words rather than sounding them out. My discovery means that some of the tools IвЂ™ve used in the past to teach kids to read need to be tossed away-and I have to bring in some new approaches. In fact, it was a relief to understand why reading wasnвЂ™t clicking for some of my students-and to have concrete steps to follow to help ensure better results moving forward. While the term вЂњstructured literacyвЂќ was new to me, the components certainly made sense, especially the more I found out about how the brain learns to read. This is done alongside developing vocabulary and language comprehension-both very important aspects in learning to read. In structured literacy, phonemic awareness (that is, working with the sounds of spoken words) is developed as a pre-reading skill, and phonics is taught explicitly and systematically, with much less focus on memorization of sight words and using clues other than the letters themselves to figure out the words when reading. Today, whatвЂ™s called вЂњstructured literacyвЂќ is instead being promoted by experts in fields like linguistics and neuroscience as an effective way to teach all students, beginning in kindergarten, and as a must for struggling readers.

#KINDERGARTEN READING FULL#

The backstoryДЇor decades, education experts and educators have debated what works better for teaching kids to read: an instructional approach called вЂњwhole language,вЂќ where kids learn whole words as they appear in context, or phonics, a method where kids are explicitly taught letter/sound combinations.ДЄs more and more research supporting phonics instruction began to emerge throughout the вЂ™80s and вЂ™90s, many whole-language supporters, from teachers to college faculty to educational publishers, added some phonics to their existing programs, under the name вЂњbalanced literacy.вЂќ This approach was in full swing when I became a teacher in 2000 and is still extremely common today, despite all the issues IвЂ™ve uncovered. The ways IвЂ™ve been teaching reading are deeply ingrained in our schools and our curriculum. The strategies I was using arenвЂ™t just my strategies, though.

I was shocked and mortified to find that a bunch of the things I was doing in my classroom are called out by researchers as scientifically unsupported no-nos.

#KINDERGARTEN READING PROFESSIONAL#

I was a veteran teacher with 20 years of experience, including five years as a kindergarten teacher, when I fell down the вЂњscience of readingвЂќ rabbit hole-first online, then from books and professional development sessions as I was drawn in further. When I tell parents, вЂњTheyвЂ™re just not ready yet,вЂќ is it the truth? Will they catch up? And is there anything I could be doing differently to get them where they need to be?ДЇeeling like something was missing from my literacy program, I threw myself into researching best practices for teaching early readers, and boy, was I embarrassed by some of my findings. But some kids just donвЂ™t seem to be able to grasp some of the basic skills, and it worries me. Others take longer, but I know theyвЂ™re on their way when I send them to grade one. Some sail through and become masters before the year is over. They donвЂ™t know it, but this is the year theyвЂ™ll start learning to read: learning the letter sounds, sounding out words and eventually reading sentences. Every September, my class of kindergarten kids look at me in excitement.

Kindergarten reading