Chapter 3

Reading Process

The reading process consist of different procedures. For reading, the first stage is Prereading. Prereading is getting any book/novel by understanding the gist of the story. The person usually finds a reason to read the story using aesthetic or efferent reading purposes. Once the book is chosen, the person prepares to read the story by look at the pages for difficulty or length of book. I usually do the prereading before checking out a book from the library. It helps me not abandon the book. The second stage to reading is READING. Within reading, five ways to read is possible. A student can use shared reading, guided reading, independent reading, buddy reading, and reading aloud to students. In first grade, I recall participating in guided reading. The teacher would us as we took turns reading stories. The third stage is Responding. Responding is a way to focus on what happened in books. Writing in logs or even class conversations may occur. I always enjoyed writing in logs for my teachers. I was able to state what I thought on subjects and later could view my work. The fourth stage is Exploring. Exploring consists of rereading, scrutinizing the work, finding vocab, having the chance to work on minilessons. In fourth grade, I remember my teacher having us reread chapters of different books. The teacher was trying to teach us to reread texts when we did not understand something or missed the point of the plot. I have continued today with rereading. I have reread Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen at least three times. Austen is one of my highly thought of authors. Each time I reread her books, I find certain occurrences I did not notice before. The last stage of reading is APPLYING. Applying is the chocolate icing on the celebration cake. Once a story is finished a student can show what the story was about by using different means of expressions. One expression is to write down the main points of the story. Often projects may arise from stories. In second grade, I did a poster illustration with a summary over a book called, The Magic Finger by Ronald Dale. In fact, I still have the project today.

Writing Process

The writing Process also contains five stages. The first stage is PREWRITING. Prewriting is the way for writers to place a topic down on paper and coming up with ideas. Having an idea who the audience is can help. I like to prewrite by making an outline of my thoughts. The second stage is DRAFTING. Drafting is like a Sloppy Joe that the paper consumes. The focus is to throw ideas out for the paper's catching. The draft does not need to be perfect. Drafting is beneficial when given a difficult topic to accomplish for a turn in assignment. I like to write drafts. It helps clarify my thinking. The third stage is REVISING. Revising is a way to reread the Sloppy Joe draft, have others read your work, revise from others, and talking to the teacher about the work. At times, I will have others view my writing work to enhance my clearness. The fourth stage is EDITING. Taking a break by placing a finished paper/story/poem off for two days will strengthen the editing process. The mind will become lighter towards the material due to the rest. Editing is finding the errors and correcting mistakes. I do find that when I edit papers, I take pleasure in knowing I truly care. I still have a LOOOOOOOOONG way to go before becoming an effective writer! It will take much practice and learning. The last stage is PUBLISHING. Writing that is published is like a sweet song. Music that fills the air gives joy to all listeners. Published writing can sprinkle some magic to all who read or listen to passages read aloud. Students may go about sharing their finished product by reading it to the whole class, having it on display, turning it in for a contest, or simply sharing it to family members.

Personal Writing Experiences

During my senior year of High School, I was fortunate to have a wonderful English teacher. My teacher made English a challenge. He had us read all forms of literature from pros to poetry. We would reflect on our work by writing papers. I went through the five processes in writing for most of my papers. The teacher would also give us a class period to write an essay that was due before leaving his class. He did this time writing to us a few times. At first, I was stressed when knowing I only had the class period to start and finish my paper. The more we did timed essays, the easier they got. I would try to look at the timed essay as a game. I still did an outline, and draft. When the draft was done I looked for mistakes. I did not have time to write another draft so I worked with what I had. In whole, I am grateful for the way my teacher stressed writing.
Furthermore, during my first semester of college, I was challenged by another English teacher. We had to write numerous assignments each week. I felt like I was standing on egg shells from all her assignments. The teacher focused on writing rules, methods, strategies, and types of writing. I had a blast in her class. My High School teacher prepared me so well that I was not afraid of my professors writing assignments. I have learned the secret to writing is rewriting.

Blog # 2

Chapter 4

Heading 1-‘FOSTERING YOUNG CHILDREN’S INTEREST IN LITERACY’(p.161)

Children get their first taste of language at home prior to stepping in a classroom. Metalinguistics is the skill of being able to speak about ideas from language. Reading and writing practice channels ways for children to think metalinguistically. Children are observant about their environment in that they can read signs like the red/white bulls eye means Target. Children usually know the logo of Dairy Queen or even McDonalds. At times however, it can be challenging for children to read the true spelled out word for Target, Dairy Queen or McDonalds. A way for teachers to incorporate reading and writing for children is with play centers.For instance, the game “Book Store” requires reading material such as books, magazines, or newspapers. An employee will help a customer find the reading material that he/she wants to purchase. In turn the student who plays the employee and the student who plays the customer is both practicing on reading. The cashier student practices on reading money and looking at the written material when scanning it for check out. Children who are starting to learn to read/write use phonological, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic systems. I recall as a child using Sling Lang in language arts. My teacher would call on students to spell a word, for example; lets say the word is dog.A student had to put the letters together from the board that makes up the word dog. Then say the word dog to the class and spell the word dog with two fingers in the air. When I was in first grade, I saw this as a game. I had no clue the teacher was emphasizing on reading/writing/spelling/pronunciation. English language has around 44 phonemes with the exception of c, q, and x. Phonics helps students identify sounds in our English language. Rhythm found with songs or rhymes can strengthen children’s understanding of phonics. Phonics has some rules to help narrow down the confusion. In our textbook on p.177, Tompkins has provided a list of eight rules to distinguish phonics occurrences.

Heading 2-‘YOUNG CHILDREN EMERGE INTO READING'(p.178)

When children are trained to read, they travel through three periods of development. Children scratch at emergent, then beginning to fluent readers (p. 178 Tompkins). Emergent readers tend to be approached with share reading. Teachers will take turns reading with students. Books that have repetition, cumulative sequences, rhymes, and sequential patterns make share reading enjoyable. I always like to read repetition books. When I was younger, one of my favorite books reading with Mom & Dad was the book called Horton Hatches An Egg by Dr. Sues. Through the pages it repeats, “I meant what I said, I said what I meant, an Elephant is faithful 100%.” Dr. Sues placed rhythm in the elephant’s words. Big books are incorporated in teacher’s curriculum. Big books make it easier for students to practice reading. I recollect in first grade making a big book. The title was People. Everyone in the class had a chance to read the People book. Another way to practice reading with children is having older students and younger students as reading buddies. Older students and younger students get a chance to spend time together while reading. Older students can guide their emergent readers by showing them how to approach difficult words that are troublesome for their young buddy. Teamwork is incorporated in a non-threatening way. The school I went to had fifth graders paired with second graders and forth graders paired with first graders in reading. I liked being paired with students to practice my reading. Teachers can also have traveling bags of books. The bags can contain different books that children can read with their parents. The reading bags are a means to have parents participate in their child’s reading journey at home. For the Language Experience approach, teachers write what students want to say. In Kindergarten, I remember dictating to my teacher as she wrote what I felt from her different activities. From my past observations in Kinder, Mrs. Gayle showed me how to hold a utensil and the proper way of writing left to right.

Heading-3‘YOUNG CHILDREN EMERGE INTO WRITING'(p.188)

Just like learning to read, writing takes place from the same type of stages. In the earliest stage for students with their writing involves scribbles. One time I was playing with a four-year-old child I was watching, who scribbled all over her notebook page to represent words.She than gave me her paper and said it was my food order. Invented spelling words become the next stage children go through with writing. The last stage is fluent writing. Fluent writing allows for students to write in a way to communicate with others in an orderly fashion. Writing is a chance for students to articulate their vocabulary or concepts on paper. As time passes, students realize that drawing and creating words are two dissimilar entities of stating one’s self. Teachers can work as a partner with students on how to properly write using special techniques. Interactive writing occurs for the students when they participate with others using different writing materials.

What it means to me

To me it means that learning to read, and write is a process. I struggled at reading. I did not learn how to officially read until during my first grade summer. My Grandma sat me down and taught me how to read. We read all of the ABC books and many other fun stories. Throughout the years, I think reading and writing make learning wonderful experiences. Imagine if there were not a way for people to transfer information down on paper from their own thinking, we would not have books. I think everything overlaps with one another in learning process with reading and writing.

How it applies to the classroom

As a future teacher, I hope to implement the hidden techniques from this chapter into my classroom for students. Spending time one on one teaching students to read sounds exciting. I want to apply using the interactive writing so students can learn how to sharpen their word forming. I think having reading buddies with older/younger children is a great idea. I want to encourage students to use traveling bags filled with books from classroom to home. I liked that idea.