EDU205 The Role of Reading Development and Childrens Literature in Literacy Skills

Reading development is a component of a robust literacy skill set involving writing, spelling, grammar, and oral language. Children begin to read from a young age and progress as they develop through age. The further they mature the more they are involved in the world of text and content. It is vital to continue to grow to understand the benefits of reading development and literature.

What is Reading?

Reading is the action of understanding the meaning written language. This can involve printed or illustrative text, either paper-based or digital. The reader may be only print as in majority of novels, or contain visual features such as illustrations, diagrams, maps, and graphs as in most picture story books and many information books, online texts, magazines, and newspapers. The texts we read are accessible electronically, and often interactively, and cover a combination of screen print, graphic or visual elements, and even sound. Reading is primarily a thinking task.

How do children learn to read?

To teach reading it is crucial an educator understands what identifies as a good reader and to understand what they do to read successfully. They must understand how reading works. Reading consists of four key areas of importance. What these suggest are, the context in which are read, the texts read, the knowledge needed to read, and the skills employed as one reads. By the time children have begun their primary education their ability to read has already developed. They have started to understand what words mean, the way they fit together, the relationships between the sounds and prints of words and the relationship between photo and image. Reading is a difficult process. Learning t oread focuses primarily on being an important life skill that leads to further academic development. Individuals that have yet to gain strong reading capabilities can be at risk of social and financial trouble as well as exclusion. A child must understand the relationship amongst the letters and sounds that make works and phrases to confidently read English. They must understand the links between the roughly 44 sounds of spoke English as well as the 26 letters of the alphabet.

Weaknesses in reading development

Three common weaknesses present during reading development includes poor comprehension, speed, and issues with decoding. Poor comprehension. Decoding is the process that children use to put together the letter and sounds to understand written language. New readers become confused when they determine new words in a text. They slowly develop as they build their vocabulary during reading development and begin to further understand phonics instructions and frequently practise reading aloud. When a new reader cannot identify a new word, they tend to skip ahead in the text making it harder for them to make out what they are trying to read. That why poor compensation can become an issue for reading development as it means a child can have limited vocabulary or can generally just mean they are reading texts too challenging for them. The more a student reads the more times they will come across unfamiliar terms. Usually, a child can understand the meaning of words when they read based off what the text is stating. As a student continues to develop, they then begin to speed up. This can be an issue as they can be processing the content slower than their reading pace. Reading is difficult and can hold so much knowledge in ones mind while they continue to read though a text

Strategies to teach reading

To expand students reading comprehension, teachers should familiarise the seven cognitive strategies of effective readers. The seven elements include Summarising, inferring, monitoring-clarifying visualizing-organizing, questioning, activating, and searching-selecting. Summarising involves putting the understanding of a text in ones own words. This is done by using words that werent used already in the text. Inferring means to put together what is written in a text, what is not written and what was recognised previously to take meaning of a text and turn it into something bigger. Monitoring means to clarify what someone is reading about how and what. This is done both during and after the text is read. Questioning involves simply asking questions throughout a text rather it be to oneself or in a group. Visualizing-Organizing means to create an image of what is being read in their head to make meaning of the text and searching-selecting means to understand the text in further depth. This is done by searching numerous sources to discover answers to question in a text to solve problems and gather questions.

The theory related to reading

Theory is often considered as non-figurative, isolated from the real world, but the reality is that everything an individual does is based on theory. (Whinch, 2001) When it comes to reading development the theory consists of five elements. These elements include comprehension, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and phonemic awareness. Comprehension involves the understanding of what one is reading, the aim of all reading movement. Phonics refers to the connections between the letters and sounds represented in words. fluency is the ability to read text rapidly, precisely, and with correct expression whilst delivering a link between comprehension and word identification. phonemic awareness is the capability to notice, think and manipulate the different sounds represented in words. It discusses the ability to comprehend that sounds in oral language work together to make words. Finally, vocabulary involves all the words set in a language. This is vital to recognise to speak successfully. There are four elements involved in vocabulary which are listening, reading, writing and peaking. vocabulary is significant as readers cant know what they are reading without knowing what majority of the words mean.

Reading development and literature

Children develop as readers diversly and at different paces. Not all children know the same thing at the identical time. As they grow as readers, they develop their knowledge about the structure of a text and in ways of which to read it. This referring to how they function in society, about symbols, meanings, language and sounds of language that communicate to decoding as well as letters. Childrens literature allows them the opportunity to respond and develop their own perspective towards specific topics. This reinforces cognitive development as children are inspired deeper than just the thought of literature. Quality literature does not tell the reader all they need to know but rather lets an individual change their option. One reader can take something completely different away from a text then the next. This perceives two individual perspectives and understandings. students can analyse and evaluate literature as well as recap and imagine about any topic.

Incorporating childrens literature into reading

Children's literature is vital because it offers students with the option to respond to literature; it gives students appreciation about their own cultural heritage as well as those around them; it helps students increase emotional intelligence and creativity; it encourages growth and development of the student's. Picture story books support childrens understanding of the thoughts feeling and motivations of other people and explain them new facts about their world which shows a meaningful role in their spoken, communal, expressive, and knowledgeable development. There are numerous forms of childrens literature, including nursery rhymes, poetry, folk tales, and fables. Picture books are a different kind of literature as they transfer their messages through the communication between the words and the pictures.

A Picture story book that students from the ages 6-10 would be able to use to develop their reading includes Thats when Im happy by Beth Shoshan. They books allows for students to relate to the feelings that it discusses. This can spark conversation within students whereby they are making text to self-connections as they read. As well as being many words to written symbols to read, there is exciting pictures to read where connections can also be made. The written symbols are easy to read with many familiar words. This book demonstrates a story line in both structurally and visually. It can be used for a diverse range of learners and the question asking strategy can be emphasises. After reading the book as a class the educator can simply create a discussion based on students families and when they have experienced the same feelings as those discussed in the story. Not only can it spark conversation about reading it can theatrically enhance other area of literacy such as oral language and writing. this is because students can speak upon their thoughts based around the story line and it can also spark creativeness to enhance a story, they are able to write themselves.

Value of Childrens Literature in reading development

Reading Literature allows people to see the world through the eyes of someone else. It creates flexibility in the mind whereby they comprehend the point of others. It allows individuals to set aside personal views and to understand life further then their own mind. This allows people to learn so much more than what the already know as there is countless reads available for people to continue to learn. without the number of texts readily available an individual would just be trapped within their own thoughts and views rather the seeing life from a different perspective. This development the knowledge of a human and broadens their aspect on education. Reading is considered a source of escapism and can be beneficial for any individual young or old.