EPR 2603

Coursework- Essay

Fatima Ali
H00283481

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Content page

Topic
Description
Analyzing
Recommendation
The attachment
References

Description:

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Page
3
3-4
4-5
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My MST used shared reading in her session. Shared reading is an interactive

strategy , which appears when students are joining, engaging and sharing the
reading by using a big book with enlarged print and illustrations with providing
students appropriate supports and guidance by the teacher "share-book reading is
an interactive reading experience that takes place when children join in or sharebook reading while guided and supported by a teacher" (Dorothy, 2002)According to
Dahl, who mentioned that "one of the most effective ways to get young children
involved with print is through the use of shared reading of enlarged texts." (Shared
Reading, 2015). I will provide a clear description of how she conducted a shared
reading strategy in her lesson. This description will be divided into three reading
stages: pre, while, and post.

Pre

In this stage, the teacher introduced the story *see the attachment page 6* ,
talking about the title, author and describe the cover page , In addition, She
engaged the students by asking them to make predictions regarding what they
think the story might be about. This made students excited and arouse their interest
.

While

During this stage, the teacher pointed to each word while she read. Moreover,
asked students to follow along with their eyes. Also, she paused a while to give
students chances to predict and say their opinion. Furthermore, she modeled the
skills of proficient readers, including reading with fluency; model the realistic
reaction to the text and use voice intonation.

Post

In this stage, the teacher asked students open-ended questions to help them to
build connection to the text by activating their prior knowledge to the main idea
of the book.
Analyzing:
The teacher used two approaches while reading, "top- down and bottom up
approaches". I will provide a detailed description of how she used these
approaches:

Top down approach:

Top down approach is trying to understand the big picture of what you are
reading from few clues and pictures so, it will help the readers to fill in any gaps
in their understanding. In both stages( pre and while), the teacher applied that
when she asked students to look at the title ,describe the cover page and
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predict what will happen . This helps students to activate the topic they are
going to read about before they get started. Also, the teacher used a whole word
approach where students are taught to read words as whole units rater rather
than breaking the word into its parts for example, students read this phrase "on
Wednesday, he did the experiment ", they read some words quickly such as the
days of the week, high-frequency words like, on, he, and the without breaking
it.So, top down and whole word approaches is an effective way to help learners
to enjoy reading "when the focus is on meaning children enjoy reading and
writing more" (Stearns, 2003).

Bottom- up approach

Bottom up approach is starting the smallest units of language such as, letters,
chunk, clause and trying to understand what they mean before fitting them into the
larger text. Through reading the story ,the teacher was focused on the two vowels
"oi and oy". She taught the student the differences between the two vowels and
asked them to pronounce them. This follows a bottom-up approach (phonics
instruction). Phonics is an instructional method that teaches students the
connection between sound and letter. After making sure that students are
pronouncing these vowels well, she asked them to read words that include these
vowels such as, spoil, appoint, poured and destroy by using decoding strategy. So,
students were breaking the written word down to its individual parts and
determining the word's pronunciation based on the common sound/letter patterns
of English. Adding to that, the teacher encouraged students to use the decoding
strategy over and over again to read any word ,for example, when the teacher
asked students to read the word "invention", they told her here "it is hard and we
dont know how to read it". So, she told them "no, you can read, just break the word
to syllabus. As a result, students break the word invention and say "in/ ven/ tion".
From that I learned that phonics approach is a powerful way to ensure that there are
no gaps in student knowledge of the English alphabet, pronunciation, letter
formation, and the correspondences between letters and sounds . Furthermore, it
has a part to develop students spelling. "Phonics instruction is a way of teaching
reading that stresses the acquisition of letter-sound correspondences and their use
in reading and spelling" (Panel, 2000). In addition, decoding is a productive
technique to enhance students reading because it will increase their vocabulary
and support them to read words that they have never read before.
The teacher used lots of interaction by giving them chances to discuss, predict and
read with her .So, the teaching was not depending all the time on the teacher, but
students have a role to construct their knowledge and learning. Constructivism
fosters critical thinking and creates active and motivated learners.
Recommendation:

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The teacher applied both the top down and bottom down approach in reading
,which play a very important role to support students in reading "the best readers
in any language are those who use interactive reading, which integrates elements
of both bottom-up and top-down reading. (Nunan, 2006) . On the other hand, it is
clearly shown that the teacher used a decoding strategy, but she was not sure that
each student is capable to decode the words. So, I think that she has to call each
student, ask him/her to decode any word and scaffold him/her when possible.
Furthermore, I proposed to use repetitive phrase, flash cards, pictures to represent
words because this will help second learners to understand more and some
students learn best when they see pictures and print words. So, we as teacher has
to meet each student need and learning style. In addition, I suggest to use
language experience approach, where students provide the text, through
dictation(students will do their own writing) whilst the teacher transcribes the
students words on the board, then use the students word as reading materials.
This will be effective because it will get students eager to read and write. Moreover,
students will feel proud about their writing and they will read it easily even if the
words are considered difficult. Besides that, the text relates to the learner's personal
interests and experience which support second learners to read "Language
experience used successfully with students who are struggling with learning to read,
as well as with second language learners (Meyerson, 2010). Finally, I think that
teacher has to use more strategy not just depending on the shared reading. *see
the attachment page7-8*

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The attachment
The story

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Shared reading is a great strategy to use, but teachers

have to use various strategies, not depending on this all
the time. So, I tried to apply different strategies which
they are, guided and independent reading.
1- Each student will have this mini- book. This book
will encourage students to read.
2- This mini-books follows both strategies
independent and guided reading
For the high level, use

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Independent reading, where students will

read alone. After finishing reading the
book, they will develop reading practices
by sharing with peers what they read,
their retelling and their responses.

The purpose of this minibook.

Why I choose this strategy for high

level?

High level students are able to read

the books without getting
scaffolding from the teacher and
other students.

For the medium and low use

Guided reading, the teacher will put

the students in levels and give them
books according to their levels.
Students will read books with
teacher assistance and developing
reading practices by engaging to
talk about what they learned from
the book.
Why I choose this strategy for these

levels?

Medium and low level students

can read the words, but they need
more practice and support to be
able to reach the high level. In
addition, this will scaffold and help them with reading.

After finishing reading the book, students will complete their mini-book by filing on
the spaces . Then they will start reading another book and do the same steps.

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This checklist will be

used to asses
students. It will be
very helpful to
develop students
because the teacher
can know students
weakness points
and search to find
strategies to help
students.

References:

Meyerson, M. (2010, July 20). Language Experience Approach. Retrieved

March 20, 2016, from education.com :
http://www.education.com/reference/article/language-experience-approach/

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Nunan, D. (2006). Reading Horizons in Practical English-Language Teaching.

Retrieved February 7, 2106, from Reading Horizons:
http://www.readinghorizons.com/research/practical-bottom-up-strategies-forteaching-reading

Panel, N. R. (2000, April ). Phonics Instruction. Retrieved March 19, 2016, from
Reading Rockets : http://www.readingrockets.org/article/phonics-instruction

Shared Reading. (2015). Retrieved March20, 2016, from Area Education

Agency : https://www.aea267.k12.ia.us/english-languagearts/reading/phonics/shared-reading/

Stearns, C. (2003). Using the Top-Down or Whole Language Approach to

Reading Instruction. Retrieved March 19, 2016, from study.com:
http://study.com/academy/lesson/using-the-top-down-or-whole-languageapproach-to-reading-instruction.html

Hall, D. P., & Fuhrmann, J. M. (2002). Shared reading with big books: Lessons using
Building-Blocks and Four Blocks strategies. Greensboro, N.C.: Carson-Dellosa Pub..

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