I teach literacy students, but, it would also be correct to say that every day, they teach me. They teach me something about themselves and about myself. I use my mindfulness techniques to check in on my body and relax (see my last blog here). I draw on the well of patience and compassion I have for my students, understanding their individual needs and recognizing that they are all unique and very precious. They get personal. They get vulnerable. More than any other classes, foundation classes can uncover a student’s limitations and assets. As they are working at a basic level, I get to see which students may have a sight issue or a hearing issue, or problems with memory. These things are needed to navigate the world effectively, and I always try to walk in their shoes.
I try out lessons and tasks in the classroom, and figure out where the hiccups are before teaching students coping strategies to the best of my ability. This requires reworking of lesson plans and sometimes materials, but, if they are having issues, I do my best to adapt. If it requires my material to be large-print, I will adapt it to my student’s needs. I even hand out business card magnifying glasses to students who require them.
Explicit teaching helps, so does breaking down language into digestible chunks that the students ultimately comprehend and do well with. Consonants and vowels are discussed, showed, circled, and identified in worksheets that I developed from various sources on the Internet. My premise is that the earlier they are introduced to the concepts and able to identify them, the more readily we can get to work on how they are used in words. That’s why I found phonics in the foundation literacy classroom so valuable. In addition to teaching them vocabulary using pictures, I feel that they should be able to sound out any word and read it. Of course, through their vocabulary-building work, they get to recognize familiar words on sight, but while we’re getting them there, it’s good to have them become familiar with sound-symbol relationships and some spelling rules. This work is done with minimal-pairs or lists of words that have something in common and an element that is different, like “pat” and “bat” or “ship” and “sheep”. Then through examples, I teach them ways that words can differ and be read. I also send links for relevant YouTube videos as follow up to the lesson.
Of course, the flip side of the literacy coin is writing. This takes effort and experience. I have my students write in different contexts to expose them to words that appear in writing. Every morning, they copy a quote. This gets them familiar with sight words such as “the”, “a”, “an”, “and” or “is”. Reading natural speech along with the teacher gets them into the rhythm of the language and phrasing, they may even repeat passages like a song or a chant, like a parrot, in essence. This is helpful for when they are reading on their own to remember the rhythm of the language.
Writing can be challenging because the students are careful to write within the lines and to shape the letters appropriately, which is why tracing shapes and letters can be helpful at this stage. They still rely on pencils and erasers and write very carefully, but I think they eventually have come to realize that my focus is on helping them remember the letters they trace.Sometimes we encounter memory issues, but I ask them to copy the words in their notebooks, three times, and cover the first words with their hand to see if they can remember it. Then I have them copy the word next to an image on a kind of scavenger hunt, so they apply their knowledge. There is some frustration that can come with this, but I am quick to reassure them and show them the good work they have done in other examples. I even have a checkmark stamp that I use in order to make things a bit more fun.
We all get to this point one way or another and along the way find reading and writing challenging at times. When I reflect on my own journey, was it reading things I really enjoyed that got me familiar with the structure of language or was it figuring things out for class, or going to that dictionary, or having to write to deadlines? They have a long way to go, but I make sure that I give them a good, clear start, and hopefully ingrain some learning strategies that they can use to decode any text later down the line.
I hope I can instill in them a love for reading and writing. It can be a very peaceful experience.
Submit a Comment