Teaching reading in primary school.Sight-reading.

According to the recommendation of Ukrainian Ministry of education and science, the first-grade children in the first term have adaptation to school and we do not teach them to read or write. We play, listen and speak a lot. However, at the beginning of the second term we have to start learning reading and writing. Moreover, it is not a surprise that sometimes we have some difficulties with it. So how can we do it enjoyable and fun? Today we are going to speak about it.

Reading is one of the most important skills you can teach a child. A child’s success not only at school but also in later life depends on this skill. To teach a child how to read, you have to know different methods of teaching reading and apply them. Today we will explain common used methods of teaching reading. To teach your child or someone else, you can use one or a combination of two or more methods.

What is reading?

# reading is a receptive skill

# it is an active, even interactive process

# a reader needs to be able to decode letters, words and sentences

Learning to read is a combination of many skills including:

# Letter recognition;

# decoding skills;

# phonics;

# phonemic awareness;

# memorizing sight words.

There are two types or teaching reading - phonics and  sight reading

Phonics is a method for teaching reading and writing of the English language by developing learners' phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate phonemes—in order to teach the correspondence between these sounds and the spelling patterns (graphemes) that represent them.

Sight reading

Often referred to as a ‘look and say’ method, the whole-word approach focuses on a learner’s ability to recognize whole words. Show your child a word, sound the word and ask him to repeat the whole word. You can use flashcards to teach the child to read

Knowing sight words alone does not mean that a child can read but it is an important step on the path to literacy. You will be amazed how easily your pupils can learn sight words.

What is literacy?

Literacy is the ability to read and write in a language.

The structure of the SB “Way ahead for Ukraine 1” involves two approaches to teaching reading and writing. One of them is a multi-sensory approach that means pupils can see, hear, speak and write at the same time. This approach requires a mastery of perceptual skills. The pupil can interpret what he or she sees in writing and reading. For example, a common and typical mistake when they confuse the letters ‘d’ and ‘b’ and if we do not use the multi-sensory approach and form perceptual skills they will have this mistake for a long time.

The second approach is a holistic approach. According to it, we show the shape of the word and a flashcard or real object at the same time. Therefore, the pupils learn to identify the whole word as an image. This approach is realized through sight-reading or photographic reading.

Slide

Hear a word before you say it.

Say a word before you read it.

Read a word before you write it

What is sight-reading?

# words are introduced without any reading rules

# learners remember the shape of the word and associate it with a certain image and meaning

Sight Words Teaching Strategy

A. See & Say

A child sees the word on the flash card and says the word while underlining it with their finger.

B. Spell Reading

The child says the word and spells out the letters, then reads the word again.

C. Arm Tapping

The child says the word and then spells out the letters while tapping them on their arm.

D. Air Writing

A child says the word, then writes the letters in the air in front of the flash card.

E. Table Writing

A child writes the letters on a table, first looking and then not looking at the flash card.

Correction Procedure

Correct a child’s mistake by stating clearly and reinforcing the right word several times.

Let’s look what benefits of sight-reading we have. It helps to:

# introduce words in a context orally (with flashcards)

# check comprehension of new words

# introduce a written form

 # practise recognizing the word shape

 # allow to read the word

So, how do we teach sight-reading?

We plan the lesson according to three P “Presentation- Practice- Production”

So, let us start with the presentation. The first students have to hear the word from the teacher or audio. Then they have to say the word and, of course, they will need to understand what the word means.  If we say “green” without any pictures, without any references, the children of course repeat after you but they do not understand what “ green” is.

And now let’s look how we present new words according to sight-reading.

I start with presenting flashcards or real objects and naming the word. In our case I took words from the topic  “Animals”:  zebra, parrot, monkey, cat, dog and lion. Then I show the flashcards and name them. After that I show the shape of the word (a word card) and encourage pupils to repeat after me and pick the word under the picture.  I can ask stronger pupils to help me. And pupils look at the blackboard and repeat several times after me.

So the presentation is finished and we start practice. And the first stage of practice is, of course, drills.

Drilling is a teaching technique, which is focused on repeating structural patterns through oral practice.

Why can drills be useful?

• They give learners an opportunity to hear and say words and phrases, improving their pronunciation and intonation.
• If your kids have difficulty in pronouncing some particular sounds, drilling activities can help them to move their tongues in the right way to produce the sounds. With the help of drills children can concentrate on accuracy.
• Drilling activities may provide a secure atmosphere to practise producing the language.
• They help learners to memorise some particular language patterns and language chunks.
• Teachers are provided with a chance to check whether kids have any difficulty in pronouncing new words or not.

The flashcards and word cards are on the blackboard and I encourage pupils to repeat the words in different voices and with different emotions. In our case, I can ask them to repeat words like animals.

After that, I take the word cards away and there are only pictures on the blackboard. I ask them, “What’s this?” Students answer me and I take the word card and pick it on the picture or also can ask stronger pupils to do it.

The next activity is aural recognition. I take the flashcards away and there are only the word cards are on the blackboard. I use "magic hands" and ask two pupils go to the blackboard and swap the words I tell them. They have to do it faster than their opponent does. When the pupil swaps the word right, I pick the flashcard on the blackboard.

The next stage of practice is controlled practice. There are words on the blackboard. I give pupils pictures. For example, three pupils have a zebra, three pupils a parrot, etc. I say a word and the pupils who have the word according to it “read” the word on the blackboard and pick the flashcards on the word. Also, I use matching activities, different puzzles and bingo.