I need help completing the assignment in the attachment.
R1 – What is Reading?
Objective: Learners will describe themselves as a reader, the meaning of “reading,” and strategies they employ to ensure comprehension.
Go to your text, First Year Teachers Survival Guide > Read “Strengthen the Skills that can Make a Difference for your Students” – pp. 227 – 229
Reflect on your reading as a child and then consider where you are now. Over the years, you have read a variety of book genres and discovered which are your favorites. We tend to like books that we can relate to, that are interesting and exciting. You also learned how to compare and contrast stories and writing styles. As adults, we also realize the importance of reading to gain knowledge. Through experience, we have developed as readers.
Many students don’t like to read or don’t have the skills or experience needed to read the material at their grade level. As a teacher, the challenge for you is to help students gain the skills necessary to develop and become lifetime readers.
What is Reading?
READING is the process of constructing meaning from written text. For a student to read or recognize words, they must think about themselves as a reader.
In 1991 a bipartisan Congressional coalition acting on the literacy field’s request for a federal office focused solely on literacy created the National Institute for Literacy (NIFL). The Institute serves as a focal point for public and private activities that support the development of high-quality regional, state, and national literacy services.
The
National Institute for Literacy defines reading as a complex system of deriving meaning from print that requires all of the following:
· The skills and knowledge to understand how
phonemes, or speech sounds, are connected to print
· The ability to
decode unfamiliar words. (Decoding is the ability to translate a word from print to speech, usually by employing knowledge of letter-sound relationships; also, the act of deciphering a new word by sounding it out.)
· The ability to read
fluently
· Sufficient background information and
vocabulary to foster reading comprehension
· The development of appropriate active
strategies
to construct meaning from print
· The development and maintenance of a
motivation
to read
Retrieved from:
What is Comprehension?
Comprehension involves identifying words on a page AND understanding the thoughts and ideas conveyed by those words.
Kids who struggle usually have problems sounding out words.
Difficulties in decoding and word recognition are at the core of most reading problems. Poor readers have difficulty understanding that sounds in words link to specific letters and letter patterns. This concept is called the ”
alphabetic principle.”
Many poor readers don’t attain the alphabetic principle because they haven’t developed
phonemic awareness — being aware that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes (Lyon, 1997). When word recognition isn’t automatic, reading isn’t fluent, and comprehension suffers.
So what’s the point?
All teachers are reading teachers, regardless of their content area. You may be the one teacher that makes it “click” for a child for a child with your intentional focus on reading and teaching comprehension.
Assignment Reflection:
Think through these questions that will describe YOURSELF as a reader and your personal approach to reading.
1. Describe yourself as a reader.
2. Do you like to read? Why or Why not?
3. How much time, on average, do you spend Reading per day?
4. How did you learn Reading in school? What strategies did your teacher use?
5. What do you actually do when you read to be sure that you understand what you are reading? Describe how you know you are reading.
6. What have you learned to do as an adult reader that you couldn’t do before?
7. When you teach, you will assign students to read. What specifically, do you want them to do when you say “I want you to read…”?
