Philosophers and scientists have been debating for centuries over the way children learn. The old debate of nature vs. nurture divides those who believe we learn because of our biological or natural processes against those who believe that we learn through experiences or nurture.
Recent advances in medicine have boosted our ability to see into the brain and comprehend the process by which children develop their reading skills.
The Science of Reading
Reading, like talking is not something that is something that we’re equipped to perform. When we begin to learn how the art of reading, we are compelled to change the way our brains work. We connect letters with sounds and create a whole set of brain-based Whole Language Approach processes that help us to read words, and then read them to understand.
If we’re proficient decoders that we are, we have access to any kind of content. Reading is no longer just an instrument for learning it has become a constant source of pleasure.
However, not all are the same way equipped to read by Mother Nature to become readers. While some children can read quickly, other children consider it the most difficult thing they’ll ever do.
As per NAEP, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) NAEP roughly two-thirds of children between 4th and 8th grades aren’t proficient readers. They are unlikely to be able to build rich vocabulary, and background knowledge or become critical thinkers or problem-solvers.
Despite the information we have about the brain that reads, however, research hasn’t made an appearance in classrooms. Teachers still employ practices that predate the scientific method.
The Whole-Language Approach
People who support the whole-language teaching approach believe that reading is a natural skill for children. They believe that students are most effective when they’re engaged in diverse literary traditions and languages. They encourage the creation of reading spaces in classrooms and allow children to read books independently.
Whole language teachers stress the importance of comprehension in reading as well as the process of writing, and students’ motivation and involvement. While these are all vital, they aren’t able to contain the more crucial ability to read the printed word.
Whole-word method teaches students to recognize whole words by repetition. Students are asked to remember the sight words on a list. They’re given cues to aid them in recognizing words. They will rely on images and context to decide whether a word is meaningful.
As the last resort are they instructed to examine the word in its entirety and how it’s pronounced. According to experts in the field of whole language, the focus on a word distracts children from the work of forming meaning.
Structured Literacy
Literacy that is structured, however, on the contrary, doesn’t let learning to chance. The experts at the center focus on the importance of words, language, word recognition, and decoding, as well as the underlying process of phonology that supports the reading process and spelling. They will discuss how these domains collaborate to create a proficient reading.
They won’t impart techniques in isolation. Students will be taught to decode and recognize words, while also mastering the meaning of words and higher-level thinking abilities.
A structured literacy program can help every student improve their reading abilities, but it’s particularly beneficial for children who have difficulty reading. Students can be able to read better by being taught using its systematic, explicit, and cumulative methods.
Structured Literacy Approach
They’ll begin by learning basic abilities, such as phoneme awareness, which will help their brains learn to deal with letters and symbols.
They’ll then move to correspondences of sound symbols–the relation of the alphabet’s letters with the sound they create–and master the letters one by one. They’ll learn in a sequence that goes from the simplest and often encountered sound-symbol patterns up to more complex ones that draw in French, Latin, and Greek.
They’ll be more aware of the meanings of words, as well as how we can use prefixes, roots, and suffixes to make the meaning of words more precise and effective.
Students will continue to examine sentence structure and discover how to use words in conjunction to create logical connections between ideas, facts, and concepts.
Each of these abilities is taught in a diagnostic way. The teachers will be able to monitor each student’s progress, and alter or adjust the speed in which they introduce new abilities, make adjustments in the way they teach these skills, and also alter the amount of training.
Every lesson is planned to get children closer to mastery so that they can read more easily and comfortably, all while focusing on the significance of the text.
