Exam question: Tom, Tania and Nilem

Nilem doesn’t scaffold Tom she just corrects him quickly in order for him to continue reading the story and follow the meaning of the story. Whereas if she kept stopping him and asking him to sound it out he may lose the plot of the story and he will be reading for no reason. It may also be that there are many children in the class that she needs to get through and so instead of spending lots of time on each child scaffolding them on each word they cannot say she just corrects the word and allows them to continue, this may also help with their self-confidence because if they are constantly being stopped by the teacher and having to sound out words in front of other children it may make them feel like they are not a good reader and make them uncomfortable in front of the class. Nilem also does this with Tania where she just corrects or finishes off the word for her. However Tania seems to be responding to this in a way of learning the words, as later she says “trus (.) ty assistant” all on her own. This may be just because she had said it soon before and so it was still in her head and it may not be guaranteed that she has learnt it and she may need help with it again next time she is exposed to it. This links with Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Devlopement.

Nilem also does not allow Tom any time to try and pronounce the words. She models the word “again” when Tom says “ag” this may be that she already knows that he does not know how to say that word however the fact that he began to say it suggests that he is trying to figure out to pronounce it suggesting Skinner’s idea of negative reinforcement is taking place.

Tom says “every will” instead of saying “everyone will” this appears to be a miss cue but it could also be a performance error as he is reading ahead and may have just had a slip due to the fact that he is already reading ahead in his head and his mouth isn’t quite working as fast as his brain.

Alice in Wonderland extract

"What a curious feeling!" said Alice, "I must be shutting up like a telescope." It was so indeed: she was now only ten inches high, and her face brightened up as it occurred to her that she was now the right size for going through the little door into that lovely garden. First, however, she waited for a few minutes to see whether she was going to shrink any further: she felt a little nervous about this, "for it might end, you know," said Alice to herself, "in my going out altogether, like a candle, and what should I be like then, I wonder?" and she tried to fancy what the flame of a candle is like after the candle is blown out, for she could not remember having ever seen one. However, nothing more happened, so she decided on going into the garden at once, but, alas for poor Alice! when she got to the door, she found she had forgotten the little golden key, and when she went back to the table for the key, she found she could not possibly reach it:

Curious: in this context means odd or strange but after this period of time it went through a stage of meaning finding something intriguing however it has now returned back to meaning odd. It went through semantic change but still returned to the same meaning that it began with, now it has a shared meaning and the audience has to interpret which meaning was intended due to the surrounding context.

Shutting up like a telescope: telescope is not as commonly used now as it used to be and so it may not be used in modern context in a form of a simile like it is here.  We will more likely say, now, something like “shrinking like a deflating balloon” to try to recreate the same imagery that was created in this however it does not give the same effect.  “shutting up like a telescope” to me almost sounds painful maybe a bit jolty due to all the different sections of a telescope that need to be closed up it also seems like it might take a little while until it is completely shut possibly suggesting that it is a long process for her to shrink, whereas a deflating balloon sounds smooth and instant.

How children learn to read:

Synthetic phonics is where you teach a child the sounds of the letters they will be reading and then eventually you blend the sounds together to form the word. It is a method of teaching young children how to read. The children are taught the phonemes associated with the letters. It focusses on decoding and the pronunciation of words only and it is based on the accuracy of the reading instead of the speed that the children read it.

Children are taught in steps beginning with gaining a straightforward understanding of pronunciation eg. The “k” in “cat”, once they have gained that knowledge they then move on to the more complicated pronunciations eg. The “k” in “school”.

Synthetic phonics focusses on the sounds made from the words instead of the spelling of the words. Some may argue that not knowing how the word is spelt then the child may not be able to read it they may only be able to say it after an adult or a more advanced reader has modelled it for them. This may suggest that synthetic phonics may not be the best way to teach children how to read.

Reading schemes are used in primary schools to help children develop their reading skills. There are ten different stages in the reading schemes and children are categorised into these stages due to their own individual ability. Each stage gets more complex as the child progresses through the stages.  

Some may question how practical reading schemes are as they may cause children to become self-conscious of their own reading ability if they are in the lower stages for a longer time period than their peers. This self-consciousness may be a cause for the child to act out or refuse to progress in the reading scheme, therefore not allowing their own ability to improve.

Children also associate words with images. If they are reading a book that has a lot of pictures in it they can decipher what the story is through the imagery instead of actually reading the words, therefore not developing their reading skills. However when they start to associate specific words with the images on the page they may begin to develop their reading skills and start to read more books with less images and where they have to focus more on the words written on the page and try to gain a deeper understanding of what the words are, how to link them together to form a sentence and what they mean.

Bibliography:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_phonics

http://www.oxfordowl.co.uk/home/reading-owl/expert-help/what-is-synthetic-phonics

http://www.theschoolrun.com/school-reading-schemes-explained