ASSIGNMENT 1: REPORT

EDU30068 – Teaching Early Reading

Maddison Edebohls - 102906427

Word Limit: 2000 +/- 10%
Weighting: 40%
Due: Friday 2nd September 2022 – 5pm
eLa: Clare Jenkinson
Executive Summary

The purpose of this report is to critically discuss and evaluate the key components of teaching
early reading, shared reading as a teaching strategy, and running records as a form of
assessing reading. The major points of the report include why Oral Language and Concepts
of Print, Phonological and Phonetic Awareness, Phonics, Vocabulary, Fluency and
Comprehension contribute to children's early reading. It also provides an evaluation of why
Shared Reading and Running Records should be implemented into the classroom and
recommendations are given as to how this implementation should occur.

Introduction

Children learn how to read in many different ways throughout their schooling, but early years
reading is extremely crucial as it builds the foundations to their success in reading and
language as they begin to grow older. In this report, the key components of teaching early
reading will be explored, which include oral language & concepts of print, phonological &
phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency & comprehension. Modelled Reading as a
teaching strategy will be discussed, along with Running Records as a form of assessment.
Theoretical approaches and models will support the critical discussions within the report and
recommendations towards early reading within the classroom will be shared.

Discussion

Key Components

When teaching reading, one must understand that reading is a process in which you are
constructing meaning from text, whether it is paper-based or digital, written, or graphic
(Winch et al., 2020). Good readers must be understood in order to be able to educate new
readers with the right skills. A good reader uses a literate thinking process during which they
will both bring meaning and take meaning from a written text in a social and cultural context
(Winch et al., 2020). There are 5 key components of reading that are critical for teachers to
know and understand how to embed in order to be able to successfully implement early
reading teaching strategies and procedures. The key concepts for reading include Oral
Language and Concepts of Print, Phonological Awareness and Phonemic Awareness,
Phonics, Vocabulary, and Fluency and Comprehension.

Children’s oral language is a large and crucial part of what they bring to reading as it is the
main resource, they embody to allow them to make sense of text (Winch et al., 2020). Oral

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language is different to written language, even though it does seem they go hand in hand.
Oral language is not a precursor to comprehension though, as children are not required to
have full pronunciation of words before they can comprehend what they are writing. But as a
reader, word recognition and understanding are much more dominant in allowing a reader to
understand that what they are reading makes sense (Winch et al., 2020).

Phonemic and phonological awareness is the ability to recognise, segment, and manipulate
sounds of speech (Winch et al., 2020). Performing these skills confidently allows a child to
extend their oral language and word recognition within their reading. A child who is
phonemically aware would be able to recognise that the word ‘mat’ has 3 sounds, and the
word ‘carpet’ has 5. It is also important to note that they would be able to explain that the
word ‘mat’ and the word ‘sat’ are different due to them having different consonants at the
beginning of the word (Winch et al., 2020). Teaching phonemic awareness is important as it
extends the child’s abilities to be able to confidently read, broaden their vocabulary and in
turn, allow them to be successful in both written and oral language.

Phonics is the educational term for teaching students to read and write by using the
relationship between sound and symbol (Winch et al., 2020). The teaching of phonics allows
children to recognise a symbol and relate the sound that it stands for. In early reading this is
important so that a child can segment words in order to try and pronounce them. Sounding
out or segmentation of words gives children the skills to further broaden their vocabulary,
which in turn allows them to have a wider variety of speech skills (Dahl & Scharer, 2000).

Language and reading go hand in hand so it’s naturally expected that vocabulary education be
seen as extremely important in regard to teaching early reading. Research has shown that
students and teachers who have spent more time in academic activities demonstrated stronger
vocabulary and decoding skills by the end of grade 1 in comparison to those who had not
(McDonald Connor et al., 2005). The broader a child’s vocabulary is, the more word
recognition they will have, which means they will be able to perform reading at a higher level
as word recognition will be a skill they do not have to learn, as apposed to a child who has
very little in their vocabulary.

In relation to reading, comprehension means the ability to understand written text (Winch et
al., 2020). As readers, we read for a single main purpose which is to gain meaning from the
text, to understand, and comprehend the written message from the writer (Winch et al., 2020).
Repetition of reading the same or similar texts is common and intentional for early readers

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and this allows them to build confidence and produce fluency in what they are reading.
Having a take home book for a week at a time allows the child to read the words, read the
meaning, read and understand the words and furthermore read, understand and comprehend
the information. Fluency is important in early reading as children who are fluent readers are
able to just read and comprehend without having to say the sounds, blend the sounds, say the
word and then continue that same process for every word or every few words in their text,
whilst then being expected to understand and comprehend what they are reading about (Stahl
& Kuhn, 2002).

Strategy

One of the most commonly used strategies to teaching early reading is Shared or Modelled
reading. This involves the teacher and children all enjoying a book together as a whole class
or sometimes a smaller group, where the teacher is the reader. It is the teacher’s job to
explicitly show good reading habits and to model what a good reader would do, think, or say
throughout the reading (Winch et al., 2020). During each shared read session, the teacher
should select a teaching point for that day, and only focus on that one point throughout the
entire read. Teaching focuses include predictions, inferences, and selecting a particular
digraph (maybe the one they’re currently working on in spelling) and show how this digraph
is used in words. For example, the /th/ digraph is used in the word ‘this’ and ‘that’ and point
them out throughout the text. The teacher would stop at the end of a sentence or page and
inquisitively question about what they think might happen next or what the author may mean
by what they wrote. This is where students are able to raise their hands and mention what
they believe is going to happen or what was meant by the authors words or the expression it
was read in. Despite there always being multiple different ideas, this is how the shared
reading strategy encourages the skill of predicting and inferring which are both
comprehension strategies (Winch et al., 2020).

Due to a teacher supporting the children during a shared reading session, they are able to
access texts that are higher than their individual reading level. Shared reading is where
students are encouraged to think critically about what they are reading or listening to be read
aloud and questioning the author’s point of view and purpose (Winch et al., 2020). The
shared reading model is a strategy that supports the Foundation to Grade 2 Australian
Curriculum literature and literacy strands of literature and context, and texts in context

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(Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA], v.8.4, 2018).
Shared reading as a teaching strategy can be limited as it may not always be inclusive of
students who struggle to sit on the floor and stay engaged for periods of time, such as a
student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder or a Foundation student who is still
learning the expectations around sitting quietly on the floor. A benefit of shared reading is
that all of the children will learn from each other by listening to each other’s ideas and
questions about the text.

Assessment

Assessment is the process of identifying, gathering, and interpreting information about

students’ learning (Winch et al., 2020). A form of assessment that is well known to teachers
teaching reading is called a Running Record. A running record is where a teacher takes a
physical record of the student’s reading of a particular passage of text. The reading
behaviours exhibited are recorded beside each word in the text, including any segmenting or
blending to try and work out a word, errors, and self-corrections. The text each student reads
is selected at an instructional level for each child, as the text needs to be challenging enough
that the student makes some errors, but not so many that they lose interest or understanding
(Winch et al., 2020). Important information can be gained from the results of a running
record and can be used to forward plan for each child’s individual reading goals for the short
term and long-term future. A full analysis of the record should be seen as crucial as there are
multiple parts to a running record that all contribute to the final percentage that becomes the
data of reading skill and comprehension understanding (Goodman, 1997).

Running records are a beneficial assessment resource as they are a physical pen to paper
assessment that can be safely kept to reflect back on at times such as parent teacher
interviews and reporting. They are also an assessment resource that can show progressive
growth for children of all reading levels and skills and it’s something a well-trained or
experienced integration aide can help with in the classroom. A limitation to running records
is when assessing children who are struggling or still developing in speech. This can be a bit
of a roadblock if the teacher does not fully understand what sounds the child can pronounce
proficiently and which sounds they cannot. As the students are marked on each word they can
recognise and read soundly, speech impediments may cause a child to get a lower mark than
they should, simply due to the way the sounds come out when they attempt to annunciate.

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Recommendations

The below recommendations have been made in regard to teaching early reading in a Year 1
classroom.

The first recommendation for teaching early reading in this classroom is to implement as
many shared reading sessions into the literacy blocks throughout the week as possible.
Choose to look for the spelling sound you are currently working on with the children in
spelling/ word work, so that students begin to recognise the graphs, digraphs, trigraphs etc. in
a context outside of their spelling activities (Winch et al., 2020). Stick to one teaching focus
for the week and use it in shared reading and independent reading consistently throughout the
week, for example – inferring, the students can practice in a collaborative whole group task in
the shared read how to think and talk about inferences and then as they go off into their
independent reading session they are equipped with knowledge and confidence to try this
skill on their own (Laal & Ghodsi, 2012). This allows students to feel a sense of autonomy
within their learning (Boud, 2012).

The second recommendation would be to consistently use Running Records as a form of

assessment and provide your classroom aide with this training to upskill them to assist you
with this job. Not only will this provide the aide with workplace autonomy, but it will also
foster greater relationships and connection between students and aide (Wiener, 2004) and will
allow the classroom teacher the time to spend face to face with students whilst the records are
being completed within the background. Collecting data from running records will assist
with forward planning for both individual and whole class reading education (Zembal-Saul et
al., 2000).

Conclusion

Early reading can be taught with many different approaches, models, and theories to support
it. The most important part of teaching reading in the early years is to ensure that the key
components are always kept in the forefront of the teachers mind and that they become sound
in whichever strategies for teaching and assessing that they choose. This report has critically
discussed and evaluated the 5 key components to teaching reading, along with the teaching
strategy of shared reading and the assessment strategy of running records with
recommendation included to be implemented within the classroom.

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References

Winch, G., Johnston, R., March, P., Ljungdahl, L, Holliday, M. (2020). Literacy: Reading,
Writing and Children’s Literature. 6th Ed. Australia: Oxford University Press.

Dahl, K. L., & Scharer, P. L. (2000). Phonics Teaching and Learning in Whole Language
Classrooms: New Evidence from Research. The Reading Teacher, 53(7), 584–594.
http://www.jstor.org/stable/20204844

McDonald Connor, C., Son, S., Hindman, A., & Morrison, F. (2005). Teacher qualifications,
classroom practices, family characteristics, and preschool experience: Complex
effects on first graders' vocabulary and early reading outcomes. Journal Of School
Psychology, 43(4), 343-375. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2005.06.001

Stahl, S. A., & Kuhn, M. R. (2002). Center for the Improvement of Early Reading
Achievement: Making It Sound like Language: Developing Fluency. The Reading
Teacher, 55(6), 582–584. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20205100

Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority [ACARA]. (2018a). Australian

Curriculum: F-10 curriculum: English v.8.4.
https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/english/

Goodman, Y. 1997. Reading diagnosis: Qualitative or quantitative? The Reading

Teacher 50(7), 534–8.

Laal, M., & Ghodsi, S. (2012). Benefits of collaborative learning. Procedia - Social And
Behavioral Sciences, 31, 486-490. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2011.12.091

Boud, D. (2012). Developing student autonomy in learning. Routledge.

Wiener, J. (2004). Do peer relationships foster behavioral adjustment in children with

learning disabilities?. Learning disability quarterly, 27(1), 21-30.

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Zembal‐Saul, C., Blumenfeld, P., & Krajcik, J. (2000). Influence of guided cycles of
planning, teaching, and reflection on prospective elementary teachers' science content
representations. Journal of Research in Science Teaching: The Official Journal of the
National Association for Research in Science Teaching, 37(4), 318-339.