Teaching Reading and Writing

In the past reading specialists argued that the best way to teach reading was in a bottom-up methodology.  Teach symbols, grapheme-phoneme correspondences, syllables, and lexical recognition first and then comprehension would be derived from the sum of its parts.  Now, research is telling us that both top down and bottom up processing are important for a successful teaching methodology.  A reader continually shifts from one focus to the next from predicting probable meaning to checking whether that is really what the writer says.  I found it interesting that the use of teaching students strategies for how to read helps them more than just enriching their environment with materials for them to use. Linked to that, students also need to read extensively on their own.  Whenever you are teaching a reading technique, make sure students know their purpose in reading something.  The purpose in reading needs to be addressed.  The orthographic rules need to be taught and explained for language learners.  Sometimes it’s difficult to connect spoken word to written word with all of the rules in English. 

            The portion that talks about pre-reading, during-reading, and after-reading phases were helpful because this is something that can easily be forgotten about.  Before you read, there should be some time spent encouraging skimming, predicting, and activating schemata in order to ease into that chapter.  During the reading students need to know what their purpose is and what they’re looking for in the reading.  Finally, after reading is not only a great time for comprehension checks but also for discussing the author’s purpose and critically examining the article. 

            Process writing is also really interesting.  It allows students to discover their own voice and engage in meaningful writing.  Students aren’t going to get everything correct right away.  It’s all the steps and progress along the way that will help them develop into a better writer.