Reading and Writing
What Do We Do when We Read?
Reading is a complex task. As we read, we are constantly problem-solving and making decisions based on our knowledge of the topic including the context, the grammar (our knowledge of the English language), and the letters used to spell words within a written sentence. When competent readers read, we simultaneously process these three main types of knowledge.
First, it is the meaning. We read to learn or be entertained. If we read and don’t comprehend or understand what we read, there is little point in the process. We draw on our present knowledge of a topic or genre and as we read we add more information to add to or clarify what we already know.
Second is the Structure and grammar of the language we are reading. This is often dependent on our competency with oral language. We make predictions that a word will be a noun, verb, or adjective depending on its place in a sentence.
Thirdly we use the visual letters and their sounds to tell us what word could be in the context and the position.
Letter and Letter Sound Knowledge
One of the building blocks of reading and writing is letter/ sound knowledge.
Initially we learn the shapes of the letters – abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
And the most common sounds for each letter.
However there are 44 phonemes in the English language made up of combinations of the 26 letters.
The most common sounds associated with the letters such as the short vowel sounds can help us read predictable words like – cat, mop, bet, cup, dig,
Then it gets difficult.
Vowels a,e,i,o,u are associated with different sounds – a for example has 5 common sounds.
Sound 1 – ‘a’ as in apple – short vowel sound
Sound 2 – ‘a’ as in snake – long vowel sound
Sound 3 – ‘a’ as in father – broad sound
Sound 4 – ‘a’ as in ball – o sound
Sound 5 – ‘a’ as in many – e sound
– e is associated to 9 different sounds
– i is associated to 6 different sounds
– o is associated to 7 sounds
and – u is associated to 9 sounds.
And that doesn’t take into account the combined sounds (diagraphs) such as au, ee, ai, etc
On top of that we discover that consonants are not consistent, c for example makes two sounds in cent and cot. When a consonant is paired with another letter then there are many more options.
These are consonant diagraphs – (meaning two letters to make one sound) sh, ch, th, wh, and ch makes 3 sounds – ch in cheese and ch in anchor and ch in chef.
Then we have to get a grip around tri graphs/ or quadgraphs e.g. igh, dge, tch, ough, augh,eigh,.
For a someone learning English there are many rules to remember.
And if someone has a memory issue then this is even more difficult for them.
That is why it is important that we can draw on other sources of information besides just sounding out.
Before I expect a child to read a text I will brainstorm with them the words that they are likely to find in the text. – see fishing example.
Meaning - Drawing on past knowledge and experiences
When we know something about the topic we are reading about it is much easier to read. When we are faced with a word we don’t yet know sounding out only helps us to a point. It is then that our knowledge of the topic will help us choose a word that makes sense.
For example: I caught a fish with my rod and bait.
The word caught is very hard to sound out and require knowledge of the trigraph augh , therefore understanding the word is much easier if the reader has actually caught a fish.
Reading the word fish is reliant on the reader’s knowledge of the diagraph ‘sh’. Unless they are familiar with the act of fishing.
And there needs to be knowledge of what rod and bait actually are.
Before I expect a child to read a text I will brainstorm what they already know about the topic.
We create a bank of words that they know from their experiences and then learn to read them automatically, by sight.
We may play with the phonics of known words..
e.g. fish, wish, dish
Then we create sentences based on the child’s knowledge of the topic which are typed and then read.
All the time increasing the child’s confidence and their knowledge of sounds and letters and words.
They develop writing skills and reading skills at the same time.
Grammar - Drawing on our knowledge of how English works.
As native speakers we learn grammar through speaking the language , we develop a deep understanding of how the language works because it just sounds right, we may not be able to explain rules yet we know how it works.
Let’s look at the sentence
I caught a huge fish with my favourite rod and fresh bait.
If we are familiar with the structure of language we know that ..
I – is a pronoun for the person fishing and telling the story.
caught– is a verb and less knowledgeable readers might want to say catched.
huge, favourite, fresh– tell us something about the nouns fish , rod and bait respectively.
People learning to speak English practise repeating grammatically correct sentences. Children who are brought up speaking English have an intrinsic understanding of how it all works. However children with language delay either in understanding or expressing language have a disadvantage with both reading and writing.
Speaking, listening, reading and writing are reciprocal and competence in one will effect the competence in the other skills.