Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
Approaches to teaching
reading (EPR 2603)
Word account: 1660
Name: Eiman Yahya
ID: H00202224
Teacher: Maria McMillan
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
Index:
Introduction
Approaches of teaching reading
 Reading approaches, related strategies and activities
 Evaluate reading approaches
 Recommendations for primary – level EFL classroom approaches
Literacy print rich environments
 Ways of creating literacy , print rich environments
 Recommendations for EFL classroom environments
Final thoughts
Pictures and activities
References
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
Introduction:
Many strategies are imaginable to use in reading .Throughout the ESL literacy stages.
The teachers motivate readers and writers to use hundreds of strategies when dealing
with text and learning. Reading a text in another language is in many means very similar
to reading a text in our own language. It is an active method in which you bring as much
to the final result as the text does. You use in the first instance any knowledge you have,
and any similarities you can find between English and Arabic. These are called bottomup strategies, because they go up from the words of the text towards the meaning.
Secondly, and just as importantly, and even more so when you are a beginner, you use
your previous knowledge and assumptions, both about the world and about the way
texts are constructed, as an forming principle into which the new text information is
slotted. (This is why it is much easier to understand a text when it's about a subject you
know well.) Using previous knowledge and assumptions is called a top-down strategy,
because you are going down from more general knowledge and meanings to the specific
meanings of the text.
In my teaching practices I observed many types of reading strategy, for example reading
aloud, guided reading and shared reading. In this essay I will discuss about to two
approaches of reading. The first one is reading aloud and the 2nd one is guided reading
Approaches of teaching reading:
During their time children work through a variety of reading structures including a range
of genres such as fiction, nonfiction according to different levels. The teacher will inform
and teach the students Reading Book the level at which students is reading. In my essay
I will discuss many strategies that can help us, also including some activities that help
our learning.
 Reading approaches, related strategies and activities
Guided reading is an important approach in literacy education. Guided reading is a
strategy that supports pupils become good readers (Literacy Guide for Secondary Schools:
2012-2013). The teacher provides support for small groups of readers as they learn to
use innumerable reading strategies (context clues, letter and sound relationships, word
structure, and so forth) (2004-2009 Saskatoon Public Schools). Although guided reading has
been usually related with primary grades it can be modified and used successfully in all
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
grade levels. For example, older students may need to learn new strategies to
understand how to read an information book in a way that is going to give them access
to the information they are seeking. “In primary grades children are learning to read and
in upper grades they are reading to learn." Anonymous”. (2004-2009 Saskatoon Public
Schools)
As I saw in RAK academic the students in KG the teacher make small groups in order
make them read some books with each other. The teacher makes a group of 4-5
students and makes them read the book and flow the steps on order make them read it
easier , not only read it but also to make them understand the words. This enables the
students to enjoy the story because there is not a difficult amount of words that
interfere with comprehension. Students focus on the meaning of the story and
application of several reading strategies .As in my observation in RAK academic, the
guided reading is an effective way in reading for the beginners, and they start likes
reading in that way.
 Evaluate reading approaches
Reading is the basic academic skill for a student to master in order to be tutorially
successful. Because the mastery of reading is so important to a good learning base,
teachers need to be aware of the basic approaches to teaching students how to read.
(Online Resources: Digests ,November 2000)
During the years, teachers have debated the importance of the rote learning of phonetic
sounds in the manner of learning to read.( Isabel L. Beck and Connie Juel )This system
usually begins with the short vowel sounds, and then moves to the long vowel sounds.
After these are understood, blends are formed by joining the vowel sounds with various
consonants. In a typical phonics learning program, the sounds are learned at first in
isolation from actual words.( David J. Chard and Jean Osborn)
As I saw in my observed classes, the teacher used the bottom-up model, because the
students need to know the sounds and the alphabet before start reading. The learner
memorizes the sounds, and then they are introduced in words that are familiar to the
emerging reader's listening vocabulary.
In the recants weeks, I have become aware that this resulted in gradual changes in
method to teach reading as I observe in RAK academic. The teacher was focusing how to
teach the class. The EFL students have a difficult letter and words identification skills,
also they get letters confused. So she tried to teach them the basic for reading and she
start with the phonic. They are taught the order of the alphabet, how to say the names
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
of the letters so they can write down words that is spelled to them. They are also shown
how to write lower and upper-case letters.
A key element of phonics is Phonemic Awareness which research has regularly shown to
be one of the best analysts of progress for beginning readers. Phonemic Awareness is
simply the ability to spot and work the phonemes (or individual sounds) that make up a
language. Those learners, , who are unable to classify and manipulate sounds, are
invariably poor readers as they are less successful at mapping sounds on to letter
patterns (Kruidenier 2002). Activities used to test or develop phonemic awareness
include blending (where individual sounds are combined to make words and segmenting
(where words are separated into constituent sounds. When students have a mastery of
sounds, then it is much easier to map graphemes onto those sounds in reading.
Research supports the importance of Phonemic Awareness, particularly for young
learners.
The teacher make daily review on phonics, she start making sound of a beards how want
to speak, then she start the sound and the action of the letters starting with (s).
 Recommendations for primary – level EFL classroom approaches
Reading is very importing thing in education. The students must learn how to love
reading, also how to care about the books. As the teacher we must start our reading
model as the level of the students. We have many models in teaching reading, like
bottom-up, up-bottom and reactive. The teacher must aware of the students level
before she start reading or teach them reading, whale the teacher teach the students
reading she must include some activity that help the student understand the story or to
chick there understanding.
Literacy print rich environments
Literacy-rich environments, as recommended by the International Reading Association,
have a important impact on what goes on in the classroom and set the stage for
relations with a wide variety of kinds (Judith A. Langer and Sheila Flihan). A literacy-rich
environment not only supports the standards set by the Shared Central, but also
provides a setting that encourages and supports speaking, listening, reading, and writing
in a variety of ways. As I approve in RAK academic, the class environment have plenty of
literacy rich. After I have been around the field of early childhood education for a time I
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
started to hear the words print rich environment. A print rich environment can be
simply definite as a classroom where young children are given many different chances
to interact with many different forms of print. One way, to present children to the
reading and writing process is by giving them many chances to view print at home or at
school in ways that are important to them.
 Ways of creating literacy , print rich environments
The literacy rich environment highlights the importance of speaking, reading, and
writing in the learning of all students. This involves the selection of materials that will
simplify language and literacy opportunities; reflection and thought regarding classroom
design; and intentional instruction and facilitation by teachers and staff (Snow, Burns, &
Griffin, 1999). Because literacy-rich environments can be adjusted to meet student's
needs, teachers are able to create both independent and directed activities to improve
understanding of concept of print and word, linguistic and phonemic awareness, and
vocabulary development. All of this occurs in a real setting giving students with
infirmities multiple opportunities to gain the skills necessary to participate in the
general education curriculum. For example, books, technology, manipulative materials,
art projects, and explorative activities can be used around a central theme.
 Recommendations for EFL classroom environments
The students must feel that they are in safe environments in order to learn. They must
feel prude that they come her and the others like their works, so the teacher must feisty
make a roles of the class and plan her lesson, because without planning, there are no
mangling in the class. Then she must start make the students proud of their works, as
she pout they works in the class walls.
The teachers must organized her work, and try to make teaching easer for her and for
the students. So she wants of the students to like reading, so she must make reading
environment for the students, and take them weekly to the library, also she can make
them read a story of their level and then try to retell the story.
Final thoughts
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
We have shown that the repeated interactive technique is a research-based approach to
comprehension and vocabulary development in preschool and kindergarten. The
literacy-rich classroom serves as a means to build the basic skills necessary for literacy
development by demonstrating to students with disabilities the function and utility of
language in an intentional, purposeful, and intensive way.( Alaska State Board of Education
Endorsed March 18, 2011) While many students come to school with exposure to literacy
in their everyday lives, students who may not have access or exposure benefit from the
instruction and intensity provided by teachers and staff in this setting. Given the support
of this environment, students are better prepared to work on other literacy skills
including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan
Eiman Yahya
H00202224
AE4
References
Adams, Marilyn Jager, 1990. Beginning to Read. MIT.
Copple, C. & S. Bredekamp, 2006. Basics of Developmentally Appropriate Practice. NAEYC,
Washington DC.
Gambrell, L.B. Malloy, J.A., & Mazzoni, S.A. (2007). Evidence-based practices for comprehensive
literacy instruction. In L. Gambrell, L.M. Morrow, & M. Pressley (Eds.), Best Practices in Literacy
Instruction, 3rd edition (pp. 11-29). New York: Guilford Press.
McGee, Lea M., & Schickedanz, Judith A. (2007). Repeated interactive read-alouds in preschool
and kindergarten. The Reading Teacher. 60(8), 742-751.
National Assessment of Educational Progress Report. (2002). 1992-2002 NAEP Report.
Princeton, NY: Educational Testing Service.
National Association for the Education of Young Children, NAEYC Early Childhood Program
Standards and Accreditation Criteria. NAEYC, 2005. Washington DC.
The Access Center, (2007). Literacy-Rich Environments. Retrieved February 1, 2008, from The
Access Center website: http://www.k8accesscenter.org/training_resources/literacyrichenvironments.asp
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Language Arts D, EPR 2603
Maria McMillan