Learning+to+read


 * Learning to read**[[image:wormy.gif align="right" caption="(Shiny Media, 2007)"]]

Reading is the process of constructing meaning from print and from other symbols (Hill, 2006 p.139) Learning to read all begins when children are read to from a young age. Children who are read to from an early are far more likely to be early readers and become successful long term literacy learners (Hill, 2006 p.90). During a child’s early years, when attempting to read, they tell the story by looking at the pictures, and then slowly they begin to pay attention to the print (Hill, 2006 p.146). This development in attempting to read can be put into story reading categories. These story reading categories are: (Hill, 2006 p.147)
 * Attending to pictures, not forming stories
 * Attending to pictures, forming oral stories
 * Attending to pictures, forming writing stories
 * Attending to print

When the child is actually attending to the print they use several types of cues to help them read (Hill, 2006 p.141). **Semantic cues** come from their own knowledge and personal experiences. For example, if a child is reading about an ice cream melting they can associate this with their own experiences of melting ice cream. **Syntactic cues** come from the structure and word order of the text (Hill, 2006 p. 141). For example, ‘I went to school’ would sound correct to the reader, whereas ‘I school to went’ would not. **Grapho-phonic cues** are the individual letters and the sounds or phonemes associated with that letter. Patterns of letters have to be recognized by sight and then associated with sounds (Hill, 2006 p.141). For example, a child may come across the word ‘ship’ and have no idea what the word says. However they may be familiar with the sounds the letters ‘sh’ make and are then able to attempt to sound out the rest of the word by also remembering the different sounds that the letters ‘i’ and ‘p’ make.

The stages of reading development at school are emergent, early, transitional and extending (Hill, 2006 p. 148). THE EMERGENT PHASE In the emergent phase children are beginning to read for meaning while attending to directionality, word to word matching, reading known words and locating new words (Hill, 2006 p.148).

THE EARLY PHASE The early phase builds on and extends the emergent phases by gradually increasing complexity of the concepts in the text, word order and the vocabulary used (Hill, 2006 p.154).

THE TRANSITIONAL PHASE During the transitional phase children are moving towards becoming more fluent and they have developed a wider range of problem-solving skills (Hill, 2006 p.156).

THE EXTENDING PHASE In the extending phase children are encouraged to integrate information from multiple sources and to read fluently. At this level children may begin to read silently (Hill, 2006 p.157).

By Ashleigh Smith 700180008