“Reading as Skill/Skills”

A Comprehensive Report in

MSC 7-05

(Developmental Reading)

“Reading as Skill/Skills”

  

           

Reading Skills Ladder

By Grace Goddel

·         Covers mainly reading activities as these happen while students are in school

·         Cover a lifetime’s endeavour to use reading not only as a tool for school learning, but a tool for work and leisure in the professional world.

Learning Outcomes

·         Acquaintance with the reading skills ladder. 

·         Ability to apply the skills ladder in lesson planning.

·         Motivation to see the skills ladder as a pedagogical challenge to teacher.

Reading Skills Ladder

1.    Basic sight words

2.    Using phonetic analysis

3.    Using structural analysis

4.    Using contextual clues

5.    Vocabulary building

6.    Finding the main idea

7.    Finding the supporting details

8.    Interfering meanings, drawing conclusions

9.    Classifying and organizing facts

10. Using parts of the book

11. Using the dictionary

12. Using the encyclopedias and other reference books

13. Borrowing library books for research and enjoyment

14. Starting your private library collection

15. Exposure to reading from mass media

16. Reading from the Internet

Basic sight words

The Dolch words are the 220 most frequently found words in books that children read.  Many of these words cannot be sounded out because they do not follow decoding rules, so they must be learned as sight words.

a	as	again	about	any	These words are usually learned in first and second grade; students who learn these words have a good base for beginning reading. One way estimating a primary student’s reading level is by having the student identify the 220 Dolch Basic Sight Words. The number of words recognized is the basis for assigning his/her equivalent reading level. The scale is as follows: # OF DOLCH WORDS RECOGNIZED ESTIMATED READING LEVEL 0 - 75 Pre-primer 76 - 120 Primer 121 - 170 1st Year 171 - 210 2nd Year Above 210 3rd Year +
all	away	ate	after	better
am	be	over	always	both
an	black	but	around	bring
and	brown	cold	ask	carry
are	by	cut	because	clean
at	came	fast	been	could
big	did	first	before	done
blue	eat	five	best	don’t
call	fall	fly	buy	draw
can	find	four	does	drink
come	for	give	far	eight
do	get	goes	found	every
down	going	from	full	hurt
funny	have	got	gave	know
go	her	green	grow	light
good	him	had	hold	myself
he	his	has	how	never
help	if	hot	just	own
here	into	its	keep	pick
I	laugh	long	kind	right
in	let	made	much	seven
is	live	many	must	shall
it	may	new	now	show
jump	my	not	off	their
like	no	of	once	them
little	old	open	only	then
look	on	please	round	there
make	one	or	sleep	these
me	put	our	small	think
out	saw	pull	take	those
play	said	read	tell	together
pretty	she	start	thank	use
ran	sit	say	that	very
red	some	sing	they	want
ride	stop	six	this	warm
run	three	soon	too	wash
see	today	ten	try	went
so	two	upon	under	what
the	was	us	walk	when
to	will	who	well	where
up	work	why	were	which
we	yes	wish	white	would
you	yellow	your	with

Ehri's Four Phases of Development in Sight Word

Pre-Alphabetic Phase

Beginners connect visual attributes of the word & its letters to pronunciations & meaning of the word. For most students, this first phase occurs through paired associates learning. As such, the cue is paired with the pronounced word & stored in long-term memory, rather than learning letters with their associated letter sounds.

Partial Alphabetic Phase

Children begin to learn that certain letters are associated with letter sounds. Children begin to use phonological awareness skills to associate certain letters in the word to pronounce the word. They would use partial cues because they had not yet mastered all phonemes & graphemes.

Full Alphabetic Phase

Children become more proficient with letters in words & their associated phonemes. As children encounter familiar & new words, they are able to apply their phonological awareness skills to segment the word into letter sounds & blend these sounds back together to pronounce the word. They can correctly discern between similarly spelled words.

Consolidated Alphabetic Phase

Children are able to pronounce words by recalling word parts or letter patterns. They use their knowledge of word parts when they encounter multisyllabic words in their reading. Spelling becomes part of the reading process. Research has confirmed that spelling instruction improves students' abilities to read & decode words.

Using phonetic analysis

Phonetic

Study of speech sounds

Relating to the sound of a word or to the sounds that are used in languages

Phonetic Analysis – also called phonics, is the study of sound-symbol or phoneme-grapheme relationships.

Using Structural analysis

The process of using familiar word parts (base words, prefixes, and suffixes) to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. Breaking down unknown words into prefixes & suffixes, then into syllables.

"By fourth grade, most of my students are already skilled at letter=sound associations," she says. "But they're now dealing with harder words, and even when they've pronounced a word correctly, they might not know what it means. So we focus on context clues and whatever meaning clues the word itself might contain."

Be sure your students understand that many prefixes and suffixes have more than one meaning, as in inactive and inroad, and that even when they know the correct meaning of an affix, they might still come up with an incorrect definition. Emphasize the importance of checking a word's context to see if their guessed meaning makes sense.

Using Contextual  Clues

Hints that the author gives to help define a difficult or unusual word. The clue may appear within the same sentence as the word to which it refers, or it may be in a preceding or subsequent sentence.

Types of context clues

·         Synonym-word with the same meaning, is used in the sentence.

My opponent’s argument is fallacious, misleading – plain wrong.

·         Antonyms- word or group of words that has the opposite meaning reveals the meaning of an unknown term. 

Although some men are loquacious, others hardly talk at all.

·         Explanation-the unknown word is explained within the sentence or in a sentence immediately preceding. 

The patient is so somnolent that she requires medication to help her stay awake for more than a short time.

·         Examples- Specific examples are used to define the term.

Celestial bodies, such as the sun, moon, and stars, are governed by predictable laws.

Vocabulary Building

According to language expert W.B. Elley, "a rich vocabulary is a valuable asset and an important attribute of success in any walk of life." In other words, your vocabulary plays a large role in determining if you will succeed in life or not.

7 steps in building vocabulary

·         Step 1: Read, read, read

The more reading you do, the faster you will reach your goal of building your vocabulary. You can read books, or websites on how to build vocabulary. Each time you run into a new word while reading, remember to write it down so you can learn its meaning later. 

·         Step 2:    Repeat words several times

Saying a word several times a day for many days is a surefire way of making you remember it. We will be teaching you tips on how to make repeating words even more effective. 

·         Step 3: Look at words with the mind of a child

Young children learn words very quickly. Children under 10 years can actually learn more words in one week than the typical adult can learn in one year. Find out how you can approach vocabulary-building like a child.

·         Step 4: Have fun by playing word games

The next time you hang around with your family, instead of just sitting on the couch and watching TV, invite them to play word games. This is a great tool for building your vocabulary, and it's loads of fun as well.

·         Step 5: Make it personal

Making words personally meaningful to you will make them stand out, and you will retain them better. There are many ways to add personal meaning to words, and we will show you examples. 

·         Step 6: Use your imagination to create images of the word

This technique is used most often for concrete rather than abstract objects. Just use your imagination to create a corresponding image for the words that you are studying. 

·         Step 7: Practice using elaboration

Elaboration is a technique a lot of people use to remember words. It involves expounding on a word's meaning to remember it better. Once you get the hang of it, eminent psychologists suggest that a 670% recall of new words is possible. 

Finding the Main Idea

The main idea sentence of a paragraph tells what the paragraph is about. It is the "key concept" being expressed. Understanding the topic, the gist, or the larger conceptual framework of a textbook chapter, an article, a paragraph, a sentence or a passage is a sophisticated reading task Textbook chapters, articles, paragraphs, sentences, or passages all have topics and main ideas.

Three types of paragraphs: 

·         Introductory paragraphs tell you, in advance, such things as the main ideas of the chapter or section; the extent or limits of the coverage; how the topic is developed; and the writer's attitude toward the topic.

·         Transitional paragraphs are usually short; their sole function is to tie together what you have read so far and what is to come - to set the stage for succeeding ideas of the chapter or section.

·         Summarizing paragraphs are used to restate briefly the main ideas of the chapter or section. The writer may also draw some conclusion from these ideas, or speculate on some conclusion based on the evidence he/she has presented.

Finding the supporting details

Details, major and minor, support the main idea by telling how, what, when, where, why, how much, or how many.

Interfering meanings, drawing conclusions

Drawing conclusions refers to information that is implied or inferred. This means that the information is never clearly stated. Inference is just a big word that means a conclusion or judgement. If you infer that something has happened, you do not see, hear, feel, smell, or taste the actual event. But from what you know, it makes sense to think that it has happened.

Classifying and organizing facts

Classifying is separating various things on the basis of some criteria

Organizing facts are how to classify the facts and how to use that classification to arrange those facts in a particular rational order.

Using the parts of a book

·         title page

It has the information about when and where the book was published. It will give you the name of the author. It will tell you the copyright date or the date the book was written or published.

·         table of contents

It will help you to find the names of the chapters of the book and the page number where each chapter begins. Each chapter of the book will have a name and usually has a chapter number.

·         glossary of a book

It will give meanings to words used in the book. Vocabulary words or new words in the book will be here. The glossary can help you to understand your reading and will make it easier for you to learn and study the information.

·         index of a book

It is very valuable to learners. You will find a listing of each topic in the book, names of people, maps in the book, or any other information in the book listed here. This listing will be in alphabetical order and will have the page number in the book where you can find the information you are looking for. This is very helpful to learners.

Using the dictionary

It also called a word reference, wordbook ,lexicon, or vocabulary) is a collection of words in one or more specific languages, often listed alphabetically (or by radical and stroke for ideographic languages), with usage information, definitions, etymologies, phonetics, pronunciations, and other information;  or a book of words in one language with their equivalents in another, also known as a lexicon

Using the encyclopedias and other reference books

It  is a type of reference work – a compendium holding a summary of information from either all branches of knowledge or a particular branch of knowledge Encyclopedias are divided into articles or entries, which are usually accessed alphabetically by article name.

Borrowing library books for research and enjoyment

Give the importance of reading in the library not only for academic use but also for enjoyment because there are section of a library where you can find books that are entertaining but still educational books intended for the needs and wants of the students. Aside from it, teach the pupils/students on how to borrow books and other references from the library through the use of library cards and with the aid of authors card, title card and subject card in order to asked for the right book/s from the librarian.

Starting your private library collection

Reading of books and other references will encourage children to create and start a mini library of collection of books from his/her past years in learning and also to other references that he/she is reading. It will encourage them to read more as well as his/her siblings and parents at home. “the family that reads together stays together”

Exposure to reading from mass media

The mass media are diversified media technologies that are intended to reach a large audience by mass communication.

 Forms of mass media

·         Broadcast

·          Film

·         Video games

·         Audio recording and reproduction

·         Internet

·         Blogs (web logs)

·         RSS feeds

·         Podcast

·         Mobile

·          Print media

a.     Book

b.     Magazine

c.    Newspaper

Reading from the Internet

Reading from the Internet is the most and easiest way not only for the children but also to the adults to gather information from a certain topic but always teach children to examine if the article or information that they are reading is based on facts or not. Try to teach also the do’s and don’ts in using the Internet. Only view and surf educational sites and not the sites that is not suitable for their ages.