1. Reading is an interactive process in which the reader, the text, and the writer participate. And when you're writing, you're likely to read (or even reread) what you wrote to make sure you're communicating your intended meaning to your audience (the reader).
1.1. First and Second Language Reading and Writing
1.1.1. -Very young students are probably still learning to read and write at home or in their first language. Older young learners have probably already learned to read and write in their own language, and when their English proficiency is sufficient, they will be able to transfer those skills to their English reading. All children, whether they are readers in their first or second language, go through the same five initial steps of literacy:
1.1.1.1. Awareness and exploration
1.1.1.1.1. Experimentation with reading and writing
1.1.1.2. Lexical knowledge
1.1.1.2.1. Syntactic knowledge
1.1.2. They have learned that reading and writing can be used for different purposes, and have probably developed a number of strategies for understanding reading and making themselves understood through writing. That doesn't mean there won't be challenges waiting for young learners as they begin to read and write in English.
1.2. Why Include Reading and Writing in Young Learner Classes?
1.2.1. Although reading and writing "are very demanding and require time and patience to learn," they are "extremely important to a child's growing awareness of language and their own growth in language." EYL teachers need to include reading and writing anywhere and as soon as possible, for a number of reasons:
1.2.1.1. Reading and writing can reinforce what is being learned orally
1.2.1.2. Reading expands the sources of input, and writing helps in remembering that input Writing provides a way to consolidate learning from the other skills.
1.2.1.3. Children enjoy reading and writing if the texts are meaningful and related to their experiences
1.2.1.4. Reading and writing help link the EYL class with home, as children bring home writing they have done to share with their families or do homework requiring reading and writing.
1.3. Considerations for Teaching Reading
1.3.1. What Is Reading?
1.3.1.1. Reading is a process of relating written symbols to oral language, of constructing meaning from written text or “making sense and deriving meaning from the printed word. When we read, we interact with the text, bringing our knowledge of the world, language, and discourse or specific text types
1.3.1.1.1. To be able to read, a child has to:
1.4. Approaches to Teaching Reading
1.4.1. When we read, we activate two types of knowledge: what we know about making meaning (top-down processing) and what we know about language (bottom-up processing)
1.4.1.1. Phonics is a bottom-up approach to processing a text. It focuses on the smallest unit of text: the letters. It teaches children the relationships between sounds and letters, how a particular sound is symbolized in print, and how to “sound out” a word, given those sound-symbol relationships. It usually begins with individual sounds or short words that rhyme or share a common sound
1.4.1.1.1. What is the goal?
1.4.1.1.2. The best practices in teaching reading provide:
1.5. Whole language
1.5.1. A whole language approach begins with meaning and then uses language in context for further word or language study. It involves top-down processing, in which children bring their knowledge of the world, their experiences with oral language and texts, and their knowledge of the written language to constructing comprehension of written texts, using four types of clues...
1.5.1.1. Grapho-phonemic clues: referring to expected sound-symbol correspondences
1.5.1.1.1. Syntactic clues: referring to the part of speech that would be expected in a given a place in the sentence
1.5.1.2. Semantic clues: referring to what word(s) would be expected, based on the meaning thus far
1.5.1.2.1. Pragmatic clues: referring to what would be expected given the purpose of the text One early sight-word activity might involve helping children to recognize their own names, especially if their language is written in the Roman alphabet or if they are using English nicknames written in that alphabet.
1.6. Language experience
1.6.1. The language experience story can be a summary, an email to the author of a story the class has read, an invitation to parents to attend a school event, a thank you note to someone who has visited the class, or even a message to a student who has missed an important event. Young students follow these steps....
1.6.1.1. 1. Participate in a common experience
1.6.1.1.1. 2. Have a discussion
1.6.2. At this point, children can engage in a number of follow-up activities to develop their reading and writing skills, as well as their vocabulary (and even grammar). They can:
1.6.2.1. Cut up the copied sentences into sentence strips and sequence them
1.6.2.1.1. Add new sight words to the class word wall or their vocabulary notebooks
1.6.2.2. Play vocabulary games such as Concentration or Bingo with the vocabulary words
1.6.2.2.1. Create a new ending for the story or text
1.6.3. One question that always comes up with this approach is whether to write exactly what children dictate or correct what they say is “good” English
1.6.3.1. Exact words: - Validate the children’s language - making the clear relationship between speech (sound) and print - will not likely lead to other errors or fossilization, A teacher-edited text: - Reflects the differences between spoken and written texts - It May be viewed more positively by parents or administrators
1.7. Activities for Beginning and More Advanced Readers
1.7.1. Children go through stages in their reading and writing. In the earliest stages, before they are able to get meaning from words, they get meaning from the pictures and express meaning by drawing. At this stage, it is important to read aloud to children and engage in shared reading, using picture books and predictable stories so that they can join in.
1.7.1.1. The following activities can be done with individual students; in small, guided reading sessions; or with the whole class.
1.7.1.1.1. 1. Activities for beginning readers
1.8. Pre-Reading, During-Reading, and Post-Reading Activities
1.8.1. 1. Pre-reading activities
1.8.1.1. There are a number of activities that help learners activate their background knowledge and prepare them to read or follow along when someone else reads. These include:
1.8.1.1.1. -Take a picture and walk through the story of a fictional text
1.8.1.1.2. -Talking about what is already known about the topic and the text
1.8.2. 2. During reading activities
1.8.2.1. When reading aloud to children or engaging in shared or guided reading with them, it is important to model good reading strategies for them to use when they are reading independently. These include:
1.8.2.1.1. Visualizing a scene