4.+Teaching+Reading

Teaching Reading...  To effectively teach children how to read teachers need to take a balanced approach in which all types of reading are incorporated. There are many different ways in which we can teach reading, however the three main approaches are as follows; modelled reading, shared reading and guided reading.

 MODELLED READING: The basic concept of modelled reading is that the teacher reads the text to the class. The teachers role is to model how a skilled reader reads. This includes demonstrating fluency, phrasing and intonation and also showing the class their enjoyment when reading the text in order to encourage students rather than hinder and scare them out of it. Learning to read can be a rather daunting task for many students and it is important that teachers provide a supportive and engaging learning environment for the students.

 SHARED READING: Shared reading provides an opportunity for teachers to again model fluent and capable reading. The teacher reads a text much like in modelled reading, however in shared reading, the children have more of an input than before. There are three stages to shared reading, and probably for all reading sessions these three steps should be followed. However they most closely apply to shared reading so I will explain them here.  __Before Reading:__ We, as teachers must first of all choose a text which students will be interested in and is appropriate for the age group and level at which we are teaching. It is always a good idea to choose a text which is relevant to the theme or subject which is being studied by the students at that time. Always talk a lot about the story before beginning reading. Point out specific things such as the cover page, author and illustrator's names, illustrations, title, contents page, index, etc. Also encourage children to make predictions about what they think is going to occur in the story if it's a narrative, or what the book is going to be about if it's a informative text. Perhaps even make a word splash of ideas or predictions about the text so that you and the students can come back to it after you have read and see if you were correct. __During Reading:__ If we are continuously stopping throughout reading, it can sometimes lose the meaning of the text, however it's still vital that teachers engage the children when reading and ensure that students are listening and taking in the information being read to them. Students will drift off or begin to misbehave if the text isn't exciting or engaging, so as teachers we need to be regularly asking questions and actively involving students in the text. Things such as explaining difficult or unfamiliar punctuation or vocabulary and pointing out repetition or common phrases in the text will assist in this area. __After Reading:__ In nearly any classroom activity the whole class will come together at the end to share what they have learnt or what they have been doing. If a word splash has been created before beginning to read, the class could return and see whether their predictions were correct or not. Alternatively, a discussion about the text, the plot (if it was a narrative) or what it was about etc could be discussed between students and the teacher.

 GUIDED READING: This approach involves a teacher working with a small group of students. Each student and the teacher have their own copy of the text and all students read independently. The teacher moves around the group, providing guidance and prompting for each student when needed. When planning guided reading, one must consider the groups that students will be distributed into. Students with similar reading abilities should generally be grouped together, however it has been suggested that a mixture of abilities can also be beneficial. Ensure that the text chosen is appropriate to the students level and is interesting and motivating. A similar approach to shared reading is taken when par-taking in guided reading in that there are again the three steps of before reading, during reading and after reading. Basically the same principle is applied when discussing the text before hand. For example, the teacher should flick through the text and have the children guess what the book might be about. Also introduce any new vocabulary or sentence structures before reading so the students can read more fluently and easily than they would have been able to before. There are many benefits from having students participate in guided reading. For example the main benefit I would say would be that it is easier for the students to learn if they are grouped with children of the same ability as them.