The Literacy Annex

I must say that children are amazing little people because they often learn to read at a very young age. This is amazing because of everything that needs to be in place for them to do so. It has been determined that there are 9 aspects of reading that allow a person to read the words on the page and understand what is being said. These aspects or skills cover everything from being able to understand that we read from left to right to understanding that letters make different sounds in different words. Isn't it unbelievable that a five year old can figure all of this out? Well, let's start by looking at the two most basic aspects of reading that we need to consider when teaching someone to read. You'll note that they deal with vision, hearing and perception. I always make sure that a child has no vision or hearing difficulties prior to teaching them to read. I have found that some children needed glasses but it was not diagnosed and that was what was preventing them from

I know this may sound like a silly question but it really is the key to helping someone (of any age), learn to read. So... ask yourself the question: What is reading? In order to answer the question, sit down and think about exactly what you are doing when you are reading a book, a note, an email, a grocery list, a document or any other type of printed word. If you really think about it, you are using your own background information (pragmatic cueing system)  to help you to read the words. You are also using your understanding of how the language is put together to form complete thoughts and sentences (syntactic cueing system). You are using your own knowledge of the sounds letters make to form words (graphophonic cueing system) or you may have already memorized hundreds or thousands of whole words; and lastly you are using your understanding of the context of the language and the meaning of various words (semantic cueing system) to understand the message of the text. Right? Oka

The Language Experience Approach, yes I know it's a long name, is one of the most natural and most enjoyable ways of learning to read. You don't need anything but a stimulus item such as a picture, a book, a tennis shoe or a toy to get started. It's a way to use your child's own language to begin to learn to read and write. Below is a set of directions to get you started. Remember, this is a way to teach reading that costs no money at all and it works! The language experience approach is a strategy that is used to develop oral, written and reading vocabulary. It is easy to use and doesn’t require any special books or materials. Below is a condensed set of directions for using LEA: 1.       Select something to grab the child’s attention such as a picture from a magazine, poster, object, story, song, poem, or video clip that relates to the topic under study or just relates to the child’s interests. 2.    Spend time talking about the stimulus item in great d