Meaning in Reading Instruction

It is very important for students to have meaning in what they are learning. According to David Sousa and Carol Ann Tomlinson, two experts in educational neuroscience, “the brain’s neural networks are constantly seeking and creating patterns. They do so by analyzing new input to determine if it has some meaningful connection with information already stored in the network” (Sousa & Tomlinson, 2011, p. 48). This means that the best way for students to learn something is if it connected to something they already know. Meaning can be anything from interests to cultural connections. Finding out what the students enjoy, and giving them reading material on that topic. Also, an age appropriate book about a child’s heritage can catch their interest and make them more likely to retain what they are learning.

I think that both the analytic approach and the synthetic approach to phonics are important to prepare students for becoming readers. In the synthetic approach, students learn letters and the sounds associated with those letters (Roe & Smith, 2012). I believe students need to know the basic sounds that letters make and how they blend to create words. In the analytic approach, how letters sound in context of a word. For example, the students learn that the beginning sound in the word dog is the D sound (Roe & Smith, 2012). I feel the analytic approach can help children learn blending and rhyming. Both sets of skills are needed for students to become proficient readers.

My teaching approach is a combination of specific skill instruction and a more holistic approach. I feel it is important to start developing a child’s reading skills with teaching instruction in phonics. Students need the basics before they can start strengthening their skills through meaningful materials. Once the basics are done, then my approach becomes more holistic.  “Holistic education is concerned with connections in human experience—connections between mind and body, between linear thinking and intuitive ways of knowing, between academic disciplines, between the individual and the community” (Swaffar, N.D., p. 2). Teaching by using meaningful connections between students and the lessons helps the student retain more of what they are learning. Differentiation is very important to me, and I feel it is necessary to make sure my students will learn effectively.

   

References:

Roe, B. & Smith, S. (2012).Teaching reading in today’s elementary schools (11th ed.). Wadworth Cengage Learning: Belmont, CA.

Sousa, D. A. and Tomlinson, C. A. (2011). Differentiation and the brain: How neuroscience supports the learner-friendly classroom. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.

Swaffar, Janet (N.D.). Lesson 1: What is Reading? Retrieved at: http://coerll.utexas.edu/methods/modules/reading/01/holistic.php