Learning+to+read+and+phonics

Learning to Read Learning to read begins in the very early stages of a childs life and is supported and enhanced by the development of speech and language. There are many different stages in the development of reading, which include Early Emergent, Emergent, Early, Transitional and Extending, however the Emergent stage has several stages within. Early Emergent - learners begin by attempting to read their favourite books. At this stage, they focus more on the pictures to make meaning rather than the written words. "The way they read also changes from sounding like story telling to sounding like reading" (Hill 2006, p.146) Emergent - learners start to focus more on the written text and begin to understand features of writing such as the directional flow, reading familiar words, recognising characteristics of words and letters. They begin to read the text for meaning rather than telling stories from the pictures. Early - at this stage the characteristics of emergent readers are further developed and they begin to understand how print works and use strategies to make meaning from texts. "Print concepts include understanding what a word is and what a letter is, directionality of print and the terms first, last, top and bottom, which are used in explaining print layout and placement." (Hill 2006, 154) Transitional - The reader becomes more fluent when reading and develop a range of problem solving strategies to make sense of the text. They also use cues such as symantic, syntactic and graphophonic. Extending - Readers develop fluency and may read silently however if the text becomes difficult they may revert to reading aloud. They draw on information from a number of sources such as images and text.

Phonics Phonics can be described as a method or strategy for teaching word identification, spelling, reading and pronunciation of words. It focuses on sound-letter relationships and an understanding of the alphabetic principle, which is the idea that letters in words usually stand for specific sounds. Even though there are only 26 letters in the alphabet, these letters can be represented by 44 phonemes or sounds and it is important to understand and learn the correct sounds of letters

This video sourced from http://www.teachertube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=338aba648d1a13936743 demonstrates a kindergarten student reading to the class. This is an example of an emergent reader. media type="custom" key="706675"