31 October 2010
Developing Reading Skills in children at 9-11 years of age!
Children in infant grades usually read aided by the use of pictures to match the words below the pictures.When they are in juniour grades the use of of picture is no longer for every word and more content to be read is a little bit more as they are expected to recognise a wide variety of words without pictures besides. Also their vocabulary is now being enriched quiet well. Remember the use of pictures speaks more than 1000 words!
Therefore the teacher of this juniours need to find out how good or how weak their reading levels are, in order to be given the needed assistance. The levels is measured by number of words the child can read with asking for assistance in a specific passage.
Lets consider that they are poor readers at this grade and the assumption should not conclude them to be stupid. There are many factors which we should consider why they are poor in reading ,for examples it may be previous badly taught,lack of reading materials exposed to them or social background such as violence,hunger and general social unrest are some causes which lead the capability in children to be backward in reading skills.
The teacher should now strategically use assessment and own knowledge of children's reading to group them in small groups to assist each other. The groups can be set according to their ability or in mixed grouping.
When grouping the children ,the teacher should note the following:
Children should not be kept in this groups for too long the grouping can be change varied ,if it is mixed ,can be changed to ability .
The progress of pupils must be noticed and move them to different groups strategically and accordingly.The slowest group need to be motivated and helped a lot so that they feel your efforts for them to not feel dejected and condemned to permanent backwardness.
Therefore the teacher of this juniours need to find out how good or how weak their reading levels are, in order to be given the needed assistance. The levels is measured by number of words the child can read with asking for assistance in a specific passage.
Lets consider that they are poor readers at this grade and the assumption should not conclude them to be stupid. There are many factors which we should consider why they are poor in reading ,for examples it may be previous badly taught,lack of reading materials exposed to them or social background such as violence,hunger and general social unrest are some causes which lead the capability in children to be backward in reading skills.
The teacher should now strategically use assessment and own knowledge of children's reading to group them in small groups to assist each other. The groups can be set according to their ability or in mixed grouping.
When grouping the children ,the teacher should note the following:
Children should not be kept in this groups for too long the grouping can be change varied ,if it is mixed ,can be changed to ability .
The progress of pupils must be noticed and move them to different groups strategically and accordingly.The slowest group need to be motivated and helped a lot so that they feel your efforts for them to not feel dejected and condemned to permanent backwardness.
Development oral skills in the teaching and learning of a Language.
Human beings the only animal species with the capabilities of producing different sounds which decoded into words to mean something when the encoder express or describe anything. Children after they attained two to 15 years do more of talking and listening than reading and writing.The teachers of this age group should therefore prepare language lession to use spoken words in real life situation as it was theorised by chomsky.Teaching children to read and write before they can understand and say is against teaching children to develop the language naturally or depressing the Language's communicative skills. Acquired Device which Chomsky suggested is in every human being which help to acquire any language when exposed to such environment where the language is frequently spoken.When speaking people speak sentences ,facing each other as they interact in words,phrases ,exclamations or gestures.When we teach language its not its structural system but how we communicate through a language. In other words we reinforce normal and acceptable communicative acts of which communication is very important.Chomsky argued that children should allowed to speak naturally and then the teacher help them to express them correctly witthout grammatical errors and correct pronunciation. In other words the teacher can help in developing oral skills should be in context with the activities done in the local environment speaking correct vocabulary ,for instance dribbling in playing football, worshiping in church etc.Children should be able to express themselves in different situations functionally for a specific purpose at a specific occassion.
True meaningful language should satisfy grammar rules ,true sentences supported by experience ,feelings and following of a particular incident.Basically language is taught for its structural forms and the meaning for communication.Drills should be modified,sentence patterns to be inline with learners' needs and conveying the accuracy in language spoken.
The teacher as a role model is of great important in all aspects of the target language.Children should learn to speak to be able to be understood and and understand others in any communication set up.
Learning to speak is essential in habit -forming process .The duty of the teacher is to know areas where children are affected most as it can be forestalled mostly by mistakes of being a good model and introduction of teaching aids in lesson presentation.
True meaningful language should satisfy grammar rules ,true sentences supported by experience ,feelings and following of a particular incident.Basically language is taught for its structural forms and the meaning for communication.Drills should be modified,sentence patterns to be inline with learners' needs and conveying the accuracy in language spoken.
The teacher as a role model is of great important in all aspects of the target language.Children should learn to speak to be able to be understood and and understand others in any communication set up.
Learning to speak is essential in habit -forming process .The duty of the teacher is to know areas where children are affected most as it can be forestalled mostly by mistakes of being a good model and introduction of teaching aids in lesson presentation.
Comprehension and Remedial Techniques
Reading for understanding help children not to pronounce words fluently or even word attacking but it also motivate them to have basic knowledge ,apply what they read and critically analyse the passage. This can only be possible because of technically constructed questions which test the five basic skills ,that's knowledge,application ,comprehension,analysis and evaluation.
When the teacher is constructing comprehension questions from the text ,should avoid stick to questions printed in the textbook, focus on literal factual questions which are close ended ,but rather the questions must promote divergent thinkers instead of convergent thinkers.
The target questions are helpful when asked before the children read the text.In case of difficult passage oral questions can be asked to enlighten children after each paragraph.However it may be monotonous to the fast readers as it breaks off the flow of the reading,although the weaker readers benefit immensely from grasping the meaning whilst reading from one section to the next.Because this system makes them to understand the whole passage as they identify the sequence and assisted through discussions.
The comprehension questions should be of general theme and short factual which involve in two or more parts of the passage.The other questions must be inference ,using the passage information as a basis.The questions must relate to the passage and children 's experience.
Full written questions are unnecessary to the juniours than to the infants. Oral answers are enough to improve listening and pupils should be allowed to write short answers during oral questioning session.
Remedial is not only done to examinable subjects only. Every subject taught can be remedied. Remedial generally is how the teacher revisit the areas the learner spotted to have difficulties.In most schools around Zimbabwe remedial committe formed by the members of staff is given the task to carry staff development courses to equip other teachers on the techniques of carrying the remedial work.Remedial reading is normally done after the normal teaching period.During remedial exercise the teachers are encouraged to regards individual children.
The professional remedial record book should show the progress of those being remeded.
Teachers are needed to take note of the point that textbook are not effective in remedial reading ,it is necessary to use simpler books which are lower to their grades.Some schools may have problems of reading materials so the teachers should improvise own booklets,reading cards ,using felt pens ,manilla ,newsprint and pictures from magazines and pamphlets.Phonic instruction is the strong element that benefits children during remediation.
In conclusion teachers should not turn blind eye to the backward readers merely by not attending to their problems. The teacher can only do so because there is a special teacher who can give those children who need special help so that they education may be effective.
When the teacher is constructing comprehension questions from the text ,should avoid stick to questions printed in the textbook, focus on literal factual questions which are close ended ,but rather the questions must promote divergent thinkers instead of convergent thinkers.
The target questions are helpful when asked before the children read the text.In case of difficult passage oral questions can be asked to enlighten children after each paragraph.However it may be monotonous to the fast readers as it breaks off the flow of the reading,although the weaker readers benefit immensely from grasping the meaning whilst reading from one section to the next.Because this system makes them to understand the whole passage as they identify the sequence and assisted through discussions.
The comprehension questions should be of general theme and short factual which involve in two or more parts of the passage.The other questions must be inference ,using the passage information as a basis.The questions must relate to the passage and children 's experience.
Full written questions are unnecessary to the juniours than to the infants. Oral answers are enough to improve listening and pupils should be allowed to write short answers during oral questioning session.
Remedial is not only done to examinable subjects only. Every subject taught can be remedied. Remedial generally is how the teacher revisit the areas the learner spotted to have difficulties.In most schools around Zimbabwe remedial committe formed by the members of staff is given the task to carry staff development courses to equip other teachers on the techniques of carrying the remedial work.Remedial reading is normally done after the normal teaching period.During remedial exercise the teachers are encouraged to regards individual children.
The professional remedial record book should show the progress of those being remeded.
Teachers are needed to take note of the point that textbook are not effective in remedial reading ,it is necessary to use simpler books which are lower to their grades.Some schools may have problems of reading materials so the teachers should improvise own booklets,reading cards ,using felt pens ,manilla ,newsprint and pictures from magazines and pamphlets.Phonic instruction is the strong element that benefits children during remediation.
In conclusion teachers should not turn blind eye to the backward readers merely by not attending to their problems. The teacher can only do so because there is a special teacher who can give those children who need special help so that they education may be effective.
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