Week 6

Task 1:

-print awareness

It was fun to take the tests to see how much a understood about print awareness. Thankfully, I did better on the post test than I dis on the pretest. It was amazing to watch Mera spell her own name and to go shopping with her mother. It really looked like she understand the connection between the items on the list and the things that they were buying. This was especially interesting for me because I have a daughter about this age and if I would focus on showing her printed things and the parts of a book, she could be that much more prepared for reading. There are many opportunities that can arise during the day to show my daughter about print and it will be to her benefit if I take advantage of these opportunities.

-the sounds of speech

Once we know how to read, write, and spell, we take for granted the fact that each speech sound must be heard and identified in order to properly understand what is being spoken. Students who don't speak English as their first language or who have slight hearing problems may not hear the difference between spoken sounds. Some students can hear the difference but are not able to articulate it. Phonemes are speech sounds. Students need to know the difference between phonemes and letters in order to read successfully and they need to recognize the connection between the letters and phonemes.

-phonemic awareness

The ability to pick out sounds in spoken language is directly related to understanding how to read. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and identify different sounds in particular words. When a child knows that sounds make up words and when you change the sound, a new word will emerge, then he is ready to read. There are many activities that teachers can do with students to develop their phonemic awareness. Some activities include changing letters to form new words, isolating sounds in a given word, and blending a few sounds to make a word. Students usually enjoy these activities and at the same time they are learning vital skills. I enjoyed taking the tests; I found them informative, while challenging myself to think.

-phonics

Students must understand the relationship between sounds and the written letters that make these sounds. Phonics is the understanding that there is a clear, logical and predictable way to know which specific written letters make their specific sounds. This is generally taught in Kindergarten or first grade with explicit and systematic instruction. Explicit instruction is precise instruction for learning letter-sound relationships and systematic instruction is teaching about this in a logical and organized sequence.

Task 2: Mary read the first reading list with 90% accuracy, resulting in independent reading level. She read the level two word list with 80% accuracy which is on the instructional reading level. Examining students' reading levels by using these word lists, helps the examiner understand the level that which the students should begin. We were able to see that Mary needed to begin with level two because that is where she can read on the instructional level.