Reading - more than just "cracking the code"

Introduction

There are many skills that children need to acquire in their journey to becoming an independent adult and one of them is becoming literate - being able to read, write and understand written language. Reading is more than just “cracking the code. A child may be able to read well, but not know what he has read, which impacts problem-solving in Maths (story sums) and being able to learn or study.?

?Word decoding, or accurate and rapid reading of words, and comprehension, or understanding the intended message of a written passage form the building blocks of learning to read fluently.

Stages of reading development:

There are six stages in the development of reading, which spans from birth to adulthood.

?Stage 0: pre-reading (approx 6months - 4 years)

Children pretend to read. They are generally able to retell stories they have heard by looking at the pictures associated with different parts of the story.

?Stage 1: Initial reading, writing and decoding (4 - 7 years)

Children learn that there is a relationship between the letters/symbols and sounds; between printed and spoken language. The child is able to read simple stories that include a number of high frequency words, as regular words, i.e. those words that can be read by using common letter sounds.?

?Stage 2: Confirmation and fluency (7 - 8 years old)

Children can read simple, known stories with increasing fluency. Consolidation is achieved by basic decoding elements, knowledge of sight word vocabulary, and understanding the meaning of the story.?

?Stage 3: Reading to learn the new (9 - 13 years old)

This stage is characterized by using reading to learn and gaining new knowledge and studying a diversity of reading materials such as, textbooks, newspapers, magazines, reference books, and literature. The child will gradually move on to reading more complex texts as their reading ability progresses.?

?Stage 4: Synthesizing information and applying perspective (14 - 17 years old)

The ability to read widely from a large variety of reading materials is characteristic of this stage. The reading material becomes more complex and the child reads and understands the reading material from different viewpoints.?

Stage 5: Critical literacy in work and society (from 18 years)

Here, reading is used for personal growth on both a personal and professional level. New knowledge gained from what is read, can be linked to personal prior knowledge and enables an integration of the old with the new.?

Stage 6: In the high school, Stage 4 becomes very important, as now reading to learn is the ultimate goal and the extraction of information -- for meaning, entertainment, wisdom, etc. As students read for information, their abilities to read actively, to form and compare concepts, and to use strategies to increase comprehension become paramount.

Students are asked to interpret sentences and passages for meaning and what they have learned, they must depend upon their abilities of higher order thinking. They need to grasp the concepts involved in reading and compare and contrast ideas while reading, and knowing the difference between fact or opinion (social media and fake news).

Students can also make use of active reading strategies to enhance their understanding, such as forming inferences, or rephrasing text into own words. Also being able to self-monitor own comprehension so as to be aware of how well he/she understands what has been read.

Also in the older grades, independent studying becomes important. The students need to be able to read longer passages and understand more complex texts, have sufficient mental energy to read lengthy passages and be able to pull out the most important details and concepts, and recognize when he/she doesn't understand what's been read.

?Not everyone develops a love for reading, for some, reading becomes a chore or a task to avoid at all costs and this often, therefore, affects their studying ability. The student either goes to his room to “study” with the best intentions but fails dismally or doesn’t even attempt to study, knowing that he won’t be successful anyway. They will avoid the task and procrastinate causing tremendous anxiety for themselves and their parents. There is a small percentage of students who have the capacity to tackle the task of learning for tests or exams really well and without too much undue effort.

TIPS AND TRICKS TO HELP PREPARE FOR EXAMS

Preparation is key:

• Draw up a special study schedule.
• Sleeping at least 8 hours every night, eating properly and drinking plenty of water are all important things you need to do for your brain. Studying for exams is like strenuous exercise, so you must be physically prepared.
• Study in 50-minute blocks, with 10-minute breaks.
• Select fixed study-times for every day, including a time slot over weekends if needed.
• Practice study skills and strategies regularly to ensure they become study habits.
• Break up topics into manageable sections.

Design a plan:

• Decide when you are able to work and concentrate best, i.e. early morning, afternoons, or evenings.
• Pick a place where you're most productive i.e. at home, at the library or at school. You might decide that having music while you study can help or hinder you.?
• Select an area where you can work undisturbed with a table, chair, uncluttered work space and good lighting. Put your phone away during the 50min periods.
• If you work well with others you can arrange with a friend to be your study mate.
• Know how you best remember information? Seeing, hearing or through an action like writing, drawing a mindmap, etc. Some people have different preferred learning styles but it's best to use them all depending on the subject you are studying for.
• Make your studying active by using study methods, writing, drawing, summarizing, chanting, going through and practicing on past papers or teaching your study buddy.
• Avoid last-minute cramming.

During the exam:

• Read and make sure you understand the exam instructions.
• Preview the question paper and allocate your writing time appropriately.
• Tackle each question systematically.
• Write down something for every question.
• Set out your answers clearly.
• If you feel you're unable to answer a question, don't panic and allow anxiety to affect how you answer the rest of the paper.

Here are 6 tips to create enthusiastic readers (for parents)

1. While reading make stories interactive, stimulating, exciting, and educational: let your child take part in the reading of the story – if they can't yet read, ask him/her to tell you what they can see in the picture(s) if there are any,
2. Try to read to your young child daily and select age appropriate stories that will interest your child that are filled with colourful and thought-provoking pictures (fiction and non-fiction),
3. Be an example - if your child sees you reading, they might imitate your behaviour and see reading as a part of life,
4. If your child has a favourite story and wants to read it all the time, let him, or read it to him, NEVER discourage reading,
5. Try to always have books available, within easy reach and teach your child to treasure them, look after them and treat them with respect – keeping them clean and in good condition (discourage writing in books),
6. Encourage your child to write his own story and illustrate it if he wants to, and then let him read his story to you and ask you questions about it…..make sure you listen ??

Here are 5 tips to create enthusiastic readers (for teachers):

1. Encourage students to perceive chunks of letters within a word when reading, i.e., several letters together at once, rather than one letter at a time, for example, seeing the letters ‘th’ as a unit, or the syllable ‘ing’ as a unit, when reading the word thing.?
2. Give students opportunities to build their vocabularies, e.g., do pre-reading activities in which students share what they know about a topic, thus activating their vocabulary related to the topic. Immerse students in reading materials to expose them to as much text as possible (Read, Read, Read!).?
3. Provide opportunities for students to develop reading fluency and encourage students to reread books they’ve read previously that are “easy” for them; have students read along with a book-on-tape or read along with you, etc.?This helps to build their reading confidence.
4. Focus on building students’ ability to recognize sight words, words that are taught as whole units because they are quite common, have unusual spellings, or cannot be sounded out, e.g. have, said, the, of, etc.
5. Provide reinforcement by having students practice sight words in isolation, e.g., using flash card drills, and in context (circling sight words in their reading).

No child should be excluded or disadvantaged in any way, because they struggle to learn in the conventional way and might need a different approach. Our objective as Education Services, is to ensure that no child should be prevented from achieving their true potential because of the way they learn.?

Education Services has developed a dyslexia checklist available here for primary and high school students. It can be completed by teachers, parents or the child.

Dyslexia checklist for the primary school child

Dyslexia checklist for the high schooler and adult

If a parent or a teacher is concerned about a child’s reading ability, remedial assessments can be arranged which can identify underlying learning barriers.?

Additional resources:

www.raisesmartkids.com

www.readingrockets.org

www.ldonline.org

https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/tips-success

https://wcedonline.westerncape.gov.za/documents/Matric/book/eng/TipsForSuccess.pdf

?References:

Literacy-Development-Milestones-new-logo1.pdf (letstalkcambridge.org)

Microsoft Word - Chall’s Stages of Reading Development.docx (learner.org)

Parlindungan, Firman. (2019). Understanding Children Development from Literacy Perspective: Critique of Competing Theories. ResearchGate Conference paper.

Stages of Literacy Development — The Literacy Bug ?

Stages of Reading Development (nads.org) ?

STAGES OF READING AND WRITING DEVELOPMENT (ecasd.us)