I am currently a teacher at Belmont Boys' Roman Catholic School, where I am assigned to the senior department, usually the S.E.A. class. My interests are music, , love soca, sport mainly cricket , football and basketball. I was recently introduced to baseball by my husband, at first it seemed like a difficult sport to understand , but I getting a handle on it. I love a "good trini lime" It does matter if it at home, at friends or simply "hanging" at any one of the local pubs. .
At work I am know as the "Planner" I simply love organising fun activities for the pupils and staff at my school. I believe its so important that children see not only a long term goal to their learning, but they must experience some immediate reward for the work they are putting in. I mainly organise competition, where the houses compete either in the academic realm or sporting arena for the coveted prize of "House of the week". This not only encourages the students to be more active in their school work , but it also encourages the staff to work harder as welll since they too see the fruits of their labour. this is one of the many reasons for which I have chosen to become a reading specialist, I believe that children who find themselves under performing within our system of education are not unable to learn , rather they simply learn differently. It is therefore up to us the educators to devise various strategies in order provide new routes in which these children can learn. I believe that I can indeed be a part of that transformation that is sorely lacking in our system today.
Reading as an art.
Too many teachers look to reading as simply the calling of words in a rapid succession, for many this is the standard by which many a reader would be judged. The time has come for reading to be seen as art. Teacher s must understand that like an artists children must be taught the fundamentals of reading. One may ask what are these fundamental or basic skills? In order to answer that we must look at the processes involve in begging reading, One it impossible to teach reading without introducing students to the alphabet. The English alphabet is made of 26 letters, puipls are taught the sounds associated with these letters (about 44 sounds). When these letters are combine they form words, pupils are taught in some cases to recognise the words on sight , while other s they are taught to "sound the letters out" in order to state the specific name of the word. As a beginning reader the ability to understand and perform this function is most basic to the art of reading.
As teacher it is important that children be taught these basic steps in a comfortable encouraging environment, where the instructors is well versed. It is important that the above condition be adhered to, since the outcome may impact negatively on a child's ability to become a competent reader in the future.
When I think about the use of ICT in education, especially as it relates to my students, one word comes to mind - FUN! For, as confusing as concept maps,for instance, seem to be at first, I can see my students,eagerly "trying it out", laughing at each other, as they are wont to do and seriously trying to "follow the trail" of the map.
ReplyDeleteI can see games coming out of the use of these with students feeling comfortable while learning. The concern, however, is shared with regard accessibility to the technology. As yet, we can't get access to sites relevant to this kind of teaching such as blog sites and YouTube for, helpful, free, vidoes to enhance lessons. But we wait and see.
Hi, I got excited when I read the term reading as art. I felt you were addressing the concept of prosody. My interpretation being the rhythm, pause, tempo, stress and pitch features of a language. These forms I believe can be adequately addressed in poems, drama and monologues. How do we integrate these artistic forms into our reading development programmes? I am of the view that if used properly they can improve the communication skills of our students because they emphasize the importance of fluency and comprehension.
ReplyDeleteI agree that reading is an art. It is not something that is learnt as easily as speech. Children learn to talk and say words but cannot read. These same words that they use in speech are not able to be decoded from text. Reading is a skill that must be taught. Exposing students to books is not enough they have to be taught the skills. They must know the letters of the alphabet, know that each letter has a sound or sounds and these sounds when grouped together form words. These words have to become part of their sight vocabulary and they must have automatic word recognition to become fluent readers. It's not just lifting words of the page, its about comprehension, using past experiences and prior knowlegde, talking to the author and really interacting with the literature. When students are taught the skills of reading at an early age they become successful readers and perform better academically.
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