The Cat in the Hat
Does your child enjoy Dr Seuss Books some of the most famous children’s books of all time?
Millions of copies have been sold all over the world. Titles such as:
* The Cat in the Hat
* One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish
* Hop on Pop
* Green Eggs and Ham and many others.
Dr Seuss is the pen name of Theodore Seuss Geisel. Dr Seuss wrote his books by being given a list of sight words from the publishers. His first book, ‘The Cat in the Hat’ had to be written by him using only 236 sight words.
This was to provide material with the words children could memorize. I still find it amazing that people willingly taught children to read this way.
The damage done to the baby boomers from whole language is immense. We still have a huge number of people with literacy issues.
Dr Seuss had a wonderful quirky imagination and his stories are fun, productive and exciting with unique illustrations. Dr Seuss himself, 30 years after publishing his first book, says how he regretted his association with the “look and say-whole word movement.” In June 1981 he said “……………..I think killing phonics was one of the greatest causes of illiteracy in the country.”
1. Read aloud to them daily and consistently.
2. Listen to them talk about their ideas and experiences.
3. Take them to places within the community and have fun.
4. Limit television watching.
5. Write labels for objects in the child’s room and in the house.
6. Teach rhymes and songs. Sing along with them.
7. Play classical music quietly in the background.
8. Encourage lots of scribbling and tracing of letters.
9. Talk a lot about school and how much they will enjoy going and what they will learn.
10. Teach the letters of the alphabet through games and using cut out letters.
You are your child’s most important teacher. Learning to read and write are two of the most important skills your child needs to master. Teaching a child to read can be very rewarding. Teaching reading is not difficult.
Please listen to your child read every day. You will be so glad you did for you will be giving her important gifts. Your time and the gift of literacy – something very few of the world’s children receive.
Show your child how you value reading and writing by reading and writing regularly. Children model what you do not what you say.
Make your time together an enjoyable experience. Remember to praise him for good reading.
Phonics is the name given to the links between letters and sounds.
When a child understands letter patterns in words and the sounds they represent they are able to work out (decode) words they have not seen before.
This is teaching kids to read using phonics. Phonics is by no means the only way to teach a child how to read but it is particularly helpful in the early stages of learning to read when the texts are simple.
Many children work out the link between letter patterns and sounds without being specifically taught but many don’t and need to be taught this clearly and systematically through reading texts that are easily decodable.
Some research findings tell us that progress in learning to read is quicker and easier when a systematic phonics approach is used.
Always keep in mind children, like adults learn best, when what they do is meaningful and enjoyable. This is not to say that the not so enjoyable parts of learning can be ignored.
One of the greatest gifts you can give your child is to support them to learn to read in a fun and knowledgable way.
To learn more about reading and English visit www.superlearner.com.au where there is lots of information to help you.
Be sure to download the free ebook : Help Your Child Read and Write Better-Step by Step. It has a wealth of information and activities to share with your child. You will find it at www.phonicsforkids.net
I clearly remember asking a secondary student why he couldn’t read. I did this kindly because it was obvious he was deeply upset and frustrated by this fact.
He desperately wanted to learn to read – at fifteen years of age.
“What happened in primary school?” I asked. The teacher told me to sit down and read he replied. This was his over powering memory of how no-one helped him.
The fact is most teachers do not know much about teaching reading. University courses do not include the fundamentals that must be taught. Somehow it is believed that young children will catch on as they did when learning to speak. Learning to read is of paramount importance and children know it and it is a skill that must be taught.
When I trained as a teacher there was a three year course called the “Trained Infant Teachers Certificate” and only those doing this course were taught how to teach a young child to read. It was assumed that by the second grade most children had grasped the fundamentals. Primary teachers would not need to teach their students to read.
So how do you teach your child to read? One of the best outlines I have found is in the Teachers’ Manual, The Teaching of Reading to Infants. It was published around 1948 and was “A Guide to the Method of the Progressive Primer” series. It was published by Whitcombe and Tombs.
The teachers of young children were advised to:
- Have a dual approach to teaching reading – visual work and phonics work proceeding in parallel lines each of equal importance.
- Keep in mind from the beginning that the young child is reading for content. At first the idea is associated with a word and later with a phrase and then a sentence.
- Before beginning to read books the child needs to experience activities and ideas associated with the written symbols and spoken words.
- A young reader must realise that reading is the conveying of ideas not sounds and must read for content. Every printed word then must convey and idea.
- Visual work includes recognising individual words and plenty of practise at visualising them.
- As a child becomes more familiar with the look of words phonics prompts are needed to support tackling the reading of a new word.
It is essential however that a reader can “sound out” a new word accurately and quickly so the idea in the sentence is not forgotten. A thorough grounding in phonics (letter sound relationships) is necessary.
Phonics knowledge can be taught through the words a child already speaks. It is known in what order to present the sounds.
Reading and writing relies on the child’s ability to speak and listen. Plenty of stories read to them, writing sentences on topics that interest them and reading books that are at each child’s level of development will ensure achild will learn to read in a happy and joyous way.
If you would like to know more about reading and writing English please visit my website
www.superlearner.com.au Here I outline the process step by step and there is information you can download to support you and your child.
Teaching a child to read can be done by a caring parent who understands how the English alphabetic system and comprehension principles work.
Be sure to download the free ebook : Help Your Child Read and Write Better-Step by Step. It has a wealth of information and activities to share with your child. You will find it at www.phonicsforkids.net
Reading is a complex process. Many processes occur at the same time.
Any person teaching a child to read needs knowledge of how the Alphabetic Writing system of their language works and respect and patience for the young student.
Many people decide to teach their baby to read but need to be very knowledgable about the reading process before attenpting this.
Learning to read is one of the most important skills a young child needs to master. Not doing so limits intellectual development and opportunities.
The foundation reading sub skill is an ability to form connections between speech and print. Specifically it is recognising the individual speech sounds called phonemes and the letter or letters that spell them in print. Most people do not consciously understand that words are a sequence of phonemes. This was one of the most influential discoveries of all time.
It was the recognising of the individual speech sounds that enabled the development of the alphabet.
Another core reading sub skill is the knowledge of which letters represent the phonemes of English.
All languages are made up of phonemes blended into words. The speakers agree on their meaning.
Jeanne Chall, an influential reading researcher, outlines 6 stages of learning to read.
The six stages of reading development:
1. The pre-reading stage. Children notice print around them
2. Recognising that letters represent speech sounds
3. Mastering the letter sound relationships
4. Fluent reading of text allows comprehension and thinking skills to develop.
5. The child is no longer learning to read. He or she is reading to learn.
6. Analytical and synthetic reasoning develop and the reader interacts with the writer’s message
A large number of people are stuck between stages 3 and 4 and do not develop higher order thinking and comprehension skills. Fluent decoding skills enable the development of comprehension and thinking skills.
It has been my experience that when students are given texts that are at their level of reading development they learn to read without stress.
Children who have parents who have read to them since birth have a distinct advantage. They have heard many examples of literature and the language of books.
Early primary school education should help all young children to learn to speak precisely, spell accurately, write proficiently and read fluently with comprehension. This opens up the world of literature and knowledge available to them.
“Civilisation is not inherited; its advance depends upon the ability of each generation to fully communicate and teach its children the recorded wisdom of past ages. Teaching language to children is therefore the highest profession in every age.” Romalda B. Spalding
Reading to your child and hearing them read frequently is one of the most valuable gifts you can give.
If you would like to know more about reading visit
www.superlearner.com.au
Phonics for Kids is about highlighting programs that will help your child develop their reading and writing
in a systematic way. Strivney is such a program. The website is
www.strivney-english.com
It is a resource for you to use as you teach your child to read. A dedicated teacher has placed English exercises online.
Her website, Strivney is a free, interactive, English program for teaching children to read using phonics. It has over 1,000 interactive, animated, online english exercises, presentations and games teach children to read whilst having fun. It is a resource for children learning to read English.
Strivney also offers free ESL resources (English as a second language) for ESL young learners and is proving to be very helpful for children with learning difficulties. The activities are accompanied by free printable writing worksheets.
Pop over and have a look at http://www.strivney-english.com
Here’s another educational infographic on the quality of air.
Air Quality
Source: OnlineCollegeDegrees.net
