Early+Years+Readers

‘Learning to read and write is developmental – but not in a lock-step, step-by-step progression. Each child’s experiences with language and literacy prior to school will have an effect on their later literacy development. This is because language and literacy are generative processes – the more the children talk, read and learn, the more they can talk, read and learn’ (Hill 2006, p.5) .

All students are individuals and as a result need suitable texts geared towards their reading level which for the children we interviewed ranged from a VELS level 1.5 through to 2.75.

__Texts __ There are six phases in literacy development which are; beginning, early-emergent, emergent, early, transitional and extending. As students work through these levels at their individual pace they learn new ways of reading and relating to texts. From all the interviews done for this group the students fell between the early phase and the transitional phase.

In the early phase students will use processes such as:
 * Reading word-by-word
 * Using multiple sources of information
 * Self correction
 * Adjust reading style to the type of text

While in the transitional phase students will use processes such as: (Hill 2006, p.6) Demonstrating this the PM reading scheme is a level booked scheme, were depending on the level of difficulty in the book it is marked at a different level. Students can then be assessed to what level they are at and using the books in that level they can develop vital reading skills before moving onto the next level. This program is aimed for 4-11 year olds and includes over 800 fiction and non-fiction books (Thornes 2011). Through the interviews conducted we learnt that some students may try and go for a text that is lower than there reading ability and this is due to feeling comfortable with the text. This is not a bad thing as it allows the student to gain confidence in their abilities.
 * Reading with more fluency
 * Reading silently
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Can retell main ideas
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Uses a variety of strategies to comprehend the text

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 21px; line-height: 115%;">Fluency __

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0pt;">Fluency plays a major part in the reading of a text; it can mean the difference between keeping on track and understanding where the story is at, to forgetting the line read before due to there being no flow to the story.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">A reading fluency rubric (see figure 1) can help to make judgement about where a student is situated whether it be Level 1, were little awareness or variation is used or Level 4, were full attention to detail is used. When looking at our group of students it can be seen that the majority fall into Level 3 on this rubric demonstrating these qualities; attention to rate to suit the text, mixture of word-by-word reading and phrasing, attention to punctuation and layout of print, attention to emphasis on appropriate words to reflect meaning and consistent expressive use of tone, pitch and volume. But there were also differences that could be seen between the students. For instance students C and D where placed into Level 4 for phrasing and also pausing showing that they were paying full attention to punctuation and could read in larger meaningful phrases compared with the other students. Overall attention was payed to most sections, but full attention and variation was not used enough to place students in Level 4. Running records can be used to asses many things including fluency and comprehension which ‘helps teachers find books at an appropriate learning level for the child’ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">(Hill 2006, p.). <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 120%;">Figure 1: Reading fluency rubric (Hill 2006, p.170)

__<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 21px; line-height: 115%;">Comprehension __ <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">Lastly ‘comprehension is the act of simultaneously extracting and constructing meaning from the text’ <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">(Hill 2006, p.207) <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;"> being read. The three elements of comprehension are; the reader, the text and the activity. From our interviews with the early year’s learner it can be seen that they are all different and enjoy different things, therefore they perceive the world in different ways. Take child A for example, they enjoy spending time with their family and heading down the beach, while child C enjoys playing football and basketball with older family members. Each child’s funds of knowledge are different and therefore influence all aspects of their life and way of thinking.

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px; line-height: 115%;">To gather a student’s understanding of a text, comprehension questions can be used. The three types are; literal, interpretive and inferential. In our interviews after they had read the story, we all asked our early year learner a set of these questions about their book. While some students answered all types of questions perfectly such as Child B and E by using a range of strategies and discussing main ideas found in the text others found it more difficult. Child A answered literal and inferential questions without any problems but when it came to the interpretive they struggled and needed prompts to help work out meanings. From this the differences between individuals can be seen.