Learning to read

You probably know that in Germany and Finland, formal reading instruction begins in G2 whereas in the UK and the US it begins in K. The fundamental consideration here is not student capability vis-a-vis reading per se, but philosophy re teaching and learning for children aged birth to 7. The important thing is that neither view of reading is right or wrong, nor is it the final answer. Both must be a part of an holistic view of education. In mine, reading starts in the first year of PK or around age three.

I am a believer in Developmentally Appropriate Practice ("DAP") which I take to mean students should do things or learn things when they are ready and not according to a birthdate or curriculum objective. This means I also believe in individualzed or personalized approaches.

In a perfect world, a teacher with 24 students would be running 24 programs which is of course impractical, although I do think it reasonable to expect teachers to manage three levels or programs in his/her class. Any student above those three should be accelerated and any below retained, although because the negative effects of both acceleration and retention, a tranfer to a different school with a different three levels would be preferable.

In terms of reading, I believe it should begin with "pre-reading" in the PK-3 class with letter, number and symbol recognition, and with high-frequency and important word recognition. These would parallel the pre-writing program, tracing, connecting dots, coloring etc, which would be focusing on fine-motor development.

I would have students labeling their pictures or creations ideally with target vocabulary or high-frequency and important words, which at this stage is likely to be copying from a teacher model. Again, this is fine-motor development plus attention to detail, completing and finishing, and short-term memory development with pre-reading as a subliminal goal.

Daily circle-time should include big book reading along with some reading aloud, some prediction, some association, some high-frequency and important word identification, the rules of left to read, top to bottom, periods and so on. The technology center would include listening to read texts while following the words on the screen. The reading corner or classroom library would change with every unit so students constantly have new and attactive books to look at. The individual-work center would have printed tasks or cards with words, letters and ymbols to allow for and increasingly to require students to decode them.

The school would be swimming in written ttexts for example class displys, hallways and play areas would prominently feature signs and labels which would change where appropriate. Staff members would model reading, even non-teachers like cafetaria workers would be asked to have a book handy and visible. Everywhere students wait, eg the principal's office where a parent might have a quick chat about a lost sweater. would have a box of books to occupy their time.

In my experience, with these approaches. nearly all girls and most boys become independent readers by or during K because reading is not treated in isolation, is normalized and not presented as a challenge or something extrinsic, and because it is appropriate to the students' development.

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