Learning to Read and Learning to Teach Reading

The National Curriculum for Initial Teacher Education in English is specific and detailed about the knowledge expected of primary teachers. Shulman (1987) argued that teachers transform this sort of subject content knowledge into something accessible and meaningful to their pupils and this knowledge is described as ‘pedagogic content knowledge’. Medwell et al. (1998) found that effective literacy teachers only knew literacy in the way that they taught it. The research project underpinning this article aimed to explore student teachers' conceptions of the teaching of reading in order to find out what they thought they were teaching when they taught reading. It was thought that the personal reading histories of the students would impact on their developing conceptions of teaching reading. This article traces one student, Gordon, through the year of his PGCE course. In the form of dialogue between Gordon and the researcher developing understanding is articulated. Three different types of reading are described: decoding, making meaning and engaging. Reading is seen as a transformative process, where the reader is both within and outside the text. This has implications both for the conception of reading contained within the curriculum and the way it is implemented within the classroom. A teacher can only introduce children to experiences and ways of reading that are known to herself. It is argued, therefore, that student teachers need to extend the boundaries of their own reading and so appreciate the wide range of ways in which meaning is constructed and readers are created.     

Learning to Read in the Digital Age

ABSTRACT—The digital age offers transformative opportunities for individualization of learning. First, modern imaging technologies have changed our understanding of learning and the sources and ranges of its diversity. Second, digital technologies make it possible to design learning environments that are responsive to individual differences. We draw on CAST's research and development on universal design for learning to suggest the potential of digital reading environments that are designed to support learning and engagement by addressing the diversity in learners' representation, strategic and affective networks. Optimal customization depends on continued advances in the digital tools of the neurosciences and the design and enactment of digital learning environments.     

The Role of Pictures in Learning to Read

The one constant aspect of children's books is that they include pictures. It is known that pictures can hinder some aspects of the development of reading skills in young children. Yet, in other ways they may serve a supportive function. The situation is not a simple one since what is seen as unsupportive in one approach to teaching reading may be supportive in another. When and where pictures might provide support is considered.     

培养小学生识字能力浅谈

识字教学,是小学低年级语文教学中的重要内容之一,是汉语言教学的基础工程。新教材不仅侧重于识字的训练,而且科学地编排了利用学生自学识字的内容。因此,教师要根据教材内容特点,教给学生科学地识字的方法,培养他们自学识字的能力。下面谈谈几点做法。一、看图拼音识字结合法小学低年级语文中凸现了看图拼音识字这一教材内容。如看图学字、学词、学句,注音课文,图文并茂等。根据这一特点,教学时要看图、拼音、识字紧密结合。具体做法:1.以拼音为识字拐杖。引导学生运用拼音,自行学会生字的读音,学会依拼音读词句,读课文,增加识字量。2.以图…     

Word Frequency as a Factor in Learning to Read and Spell

ABSTRACT

The authors investigated the effects of an intervention developed to enhance student motivation in the first years of secondary education. The intervention, based on future time perspective (FTP) theory, has been found to be effective in prevocational secondary education (T. T. D. Peetsma &; I. Van der Veen, 2008, 2009). The authors extend the previous studies by focusing on all levels of secondary education and investigating the effects of the intervention over a longer period. In addition, they investigated the feasibility of teachers performing the intervention. A total of 766 students completed questionnaires 5 times during the first 2 years in secondary education, measuring FTP, goal orientation, and self-regulated learning. The authors randomly selected 65 students for the interventions. The results showed positive effects of the intervention on self-regulated learning and performance-approach in all levels of secondary education. Interventions performed by trained teachers were equally effective as those performed by the researchers.     

Research on Learning to Read and Spell: A Personal-Historical Perspective

Ehri delivered this presidential address at the annual meeting of the Society for the Scientific Study of Reading, March 1997, Chicago. Ehri provides a glimpse of her experiences conducting research on word-reading processes in beginning readers for more than 20 years. At the outset, she proposed a theory that the spellings of individual words become bonded to their pronunciations in memory, and she conducted studies to obtain evidence for this theory. This led her into various controversies with other researchers over issues such as whether phonemic awareness is a cause or consequence of learning to read and to what extent beginning readers use visual cues or alphabetic cues to read their first words. The disagreements proving most fruitful were those that spawned additional research. Disputes considered unproductive and even harmful were those involving dogmatic views not open to empirical evidence and maligning appelations intended to implant prejudice. This recounting of her career underscores the value of a systematic line of research as well as intensive discussion with other researchers.     

浅谈小学生识字兴趣的培养

在识字教学中,教师要注意结合小学生的心理特点,以灵活新颖的形式,培养学生的识字兴趣,完成识字教学任务。     

Student Responsible Learning: Getting Students to Read Online Discussions

Designing courses for optimal level student learning is dependent upon student participation. This study examined one way to encourage further student participation in online discussions. Of specific importance was how to encourage students to read their student-colleagues' online discussion responses: not just a minimum number of responses but the majority of the responses. Results illustrate that the method utilized, Thematic Analysis, is effective in increasing reading rates among students. But possibly even more interesting are the students' reports that the use of this learning tool encouraged them to think critically and that their learning occurred primarily through many of the tenets of social constructivist theory. Furthermore, students reported enjoying this process of learning.     

Synthetic Phonics and Learning to Read: A Cross‐language Perspective

Arguments about how to teach initial reading are once more in the news. Proponents of “synthetic phonics” argue that there is only one effective way to teach a child to read. In this anniversary issue, it is worth taking a step back from the polarisation of the “synthetic” versus “analytic” phonics debate, to consider the evidence base for reading acquisition across languages. Most children will eventually become competent, indeed skilled, readers of their languages, but in some languages this happens much faster than in others. There appear to be two key factors. One is the phonological complexity of the spoken language, and the other is the spelling consistency of the written language. A thorough understanding of cross‐language similarities and differences in the key developmental processes for literacy acquisition is required if teaching strategies are to be optimised in different languages.