Early+Years+Reader

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 * [[image:book_with_apple.jpg width="120" height="93"]]E **** A R L Y Y E A R S R E A D E R **** - B Y C A L L U M [[image:book_with_apple.jpg width="123" height="106"]] **

Reading is used in everyday life and being skilled enables effective communication amongst others as well as the ability to discuss different texts. I mproving children’s reading comprehension, practice, exposure and discussion about various texts is vital to their reading development. ‘Comprehension is understanding the meaning of what is read from the point, illustrations, layout and designs.’ (Hill, 2006 p.190) There are different types of comprehension questions (Hill, 2006 p.193) that include Literal or ‘right there’ questions where the child can recall visual information. Interpretive questions involve the child to draw upon the knowledge they have gained from the text and finally inferential questions request that the Child draws on their knowledge from both the book and their own experiences. Reading is a vital element of everyday life therefore is a much valued focus during the early years and throughout a child's schooling.

** R **** e a d i n g f l u e n c y r u B r i c **

The speed and ease with which a person reads is called reading fluency. The levels of reading fluency start at level one for beginners and extend to level four for extending students. Often fluency is improved by continuation of reading as the more they work out individual words the more fluent their reading becomes. Improved reading fluency for children is important because strong reading fluency increases comprehension.

The Reading fluency rubric effectively measures an individual’s ability to read a selected text by assessing five key elements in which makes an impressive reader. They are rate, phrasing, pausing, stress and intonation all of which are graded and then assigned an overall reading level. The reading fluency rubric (figure 1) is seen below and details the criteria needed to achieve each level.

** FIGURE 1 ** For more on Reading Fluency go to [|www.time4learning.com/readingpyramid/fluency.htm]
 * || LEVEL 1 || LEVEL 2 || LEVEL 3 || LEVEL 4 ||
 * RATE || Very little variation of rate || Some awareness of punctuation and layout of print || Attention to punctuation and layout of print on the page || Full to punctuation and layout of print on the page ||
 * PHRASING || Reads word by word with frequent long pauses between words || Reads mostly word by word but some two word phrases and perhaps three or four word phrases || Mixture of word by word reading and phrased reading || Reads in larger meaningful phrases. Phraseful reading with few word by word slowdowns for problem solving. ||
 * PAUSING || Very little awareness of punctuation || Some awareness of punctuation || Attention to punctuation || Full attention to punctuation ||
 * STRESS || Very little emphasis || Some rereading to monitor his/her predictions may be present || Rereading to monitor his/her predictions || Rereading to monitor his/her predictions but the reading is generally fluent ||
 * INTONATION || Little expressive interpretation || Some expressive interpretation || Consistent expressive use of tone, pitch and volume || Varied use of tone, pitch and volume interpretation evident throughout ||


 * S **** T U D E N T ’ S S U M M A T I V E C O M P R E H E N S I O N S K I L L S **

The group of students all showed positive signs and are on the right track to continuing to improve their reading fluency and progress to the next stage in their individual development.
 * ** Child ** || ** Level ** || ** Summary ** ||
 * A || 2 || Child A was assessed as being in the level 2 barrier as they were only slightly lacking expressive interpretive. ||
 * B || 3 || Child B was recorded at level 3 who showed much promise and took advantage of the repetitive sentences. ||
 * C || 1 || Child C was at level 1, close to level 2 and demonstrated the signs of a beginning reader. ||
 * D || 3 || Child D is well on the way to level 2 although needs to continue working on stress and intonation. ||


 * I M P L I C A T I O N S F O R T E A C H I N G **

The implications for teaching are quite defined and easy to determine provided prior knowledge is called upon and the development of the individual is monitored. The implications for teaching in this section include:


 * Reading comprehension is a key element and the reading fluency rubric are especially helpful in designing work tasks to suit each individuals abilities.


 * Encourage a vast variety of texts and books to read to broaden the students learning and enhance vocabulary.


 * Students are going to be at different levels therefore those who are at a lower level will require more assistance than the students of higher ability. Student centred learning or ability grouping will allow students to benefit the most.