Reading Readiness

The prerequisite skills for reading acquisition remain unknown in spite of nearly a century or reading research and several centuries of teaching reading.Over the years,a board range of prerequisite has been proposed and rejected.Among these are the beliefs that childern must have attained a mental age of 6.5 years,have strong perceptural-motor skills,show good understanding of left-right orientation,or have achieved the cognitive stage of concrete operation.While all these factors are in some way relate to reading,they are not necessary because individuals can be found who are good readers yet show poor development in these prerequisite skills.They are not sufficient because remediation of those skills does not automatically lead to improved reading readiness. Part of the problem stems from perceiving readiness as a discrete development state clearly separate from reading.In some reading curricula,readiness instructions consist of exercises in the perceptual and motor skills that are presumed to underline reading.Childern may spend hours developing balance,eye-hand coordinations,and left-right awareness because the teacher hopes these skills will lead to improved reading readiness nor help to remediate reading disabilities. Readiness is better seen as the initial stage of learning to read.As such,readiness instructions may be indistinguishable from reading instructions.Wherever possible,readness activities should be directly tied to introducing print and to developing a childs vocabulary,language,and cognitive skills.Four aspects of reading readiness are: Developing an awareness of print Learning to identify the letters of the alphabet. Increasing language comprehension skills.

CHARACTERISTIK OF COMPUTER PROGRAMS FOR PRESCHOOLERS At present,few computer programs address readiness instuctions well,primaliry because designing adequate input and output means for preliterate childern is difficult.Printed instructionds and responses are clearly inappropriate because readiness-level childern cannot be expected to read or type accurately.This means a readiness program requires special devices not usually found on standard computer models,such as speech synthesizers,interactive video,and accessory switches. Output techniques Because young childern often have short attentions spans,computer outputs must bbe highly stimulating.Video display isalmost assential,with animation and speech productions as valuable accesories.Animated,complex pictures are not necessary,but ample motion and sound hluable accesories.Animated,complex pictures are not necessary,but ample motion and sound help to sustain a chllds interest. Good animation and clear speech production are difficult to attain on many computers.Compared with televison,microcomputers can present only simple picture and

actions.Large computers are more powerful,but the graphics terminals used with these machines are too expensive for most elementary school system.Interactive video may be the most promising output device for young childern because of its superior color,animation,and sound.The video player can present all the action and special effects possible in modern films and television,while the computer makes these interactive fo r the young child.Interactive video is also similar to televisi and therefore familiar to young childern reared onsesame street.Many of the activities described in this chapter lend themselves to interactve video,althought currently such programs are not sold commercially. Input techniques Input proses similar problems in reading programs.Preschoolers enjoy pushing buttons,particularly when these produce dramatic visual effects,but they are very inaccurate when required to locate a specific key.Indeed,immature chldern often start by pounding the keys with the palms of their hands,elbows,or fists.This style of response is hard on the keyboard and on the computer program.At this stage of development,childern show minimal awareness of the causal relationship between pounding the keyboard and any changes in the visual display.The recognize a global relationship between the two-if the display is turned off,they soon stop.They are unaware that they can control the display by pressing buttons selectively.As a result,their selections are generally random. Later,childern begin to press individual keys in a more deliberate manner.Simultaneously,they develop an awareness of the various keys and are eager to discover their individual functions.Typing remains a difficult task because most childern this age do not know the alphabet,not are they prepered for the visual and cognitive overload of locating the desired letter among 50 similar keys.A beginner may teke three minutes to type one word correctly without adult help.Preschoolers cleary need alternatives to typing. An expanded or simplified keyboard can ease the typing problem,but it also increases the prince of a computer system.Touch-panel keyboards are tha easiest to modify for readiness instructions.Because the keyboard has a smooth surface,overlays can be used to reduce the number of keys,rearrange their sequence,or add new labels to each key.In an introductory reading activity,the keys might be labeled with vocabulary words or pictures instead of individual letters. Special switches for computer input are also possible.Most microcomputers can accommodate accessory switches.The switches can take any physical form,such as objects to push,rotate,tip,insert,or merely touch.A vocabulary development activity provide a series of cards with a word printed on each one. When a child is put the card in the machine specific slot (see fig.3.1), attached by cable to the computer, the word may be spelled out in the letters big video screen, followed by a cartoon that illustrates the meaning of the word, which then fades into the print version of said it. With this way, children can experiment with the words before it can spell them. Currently, readiness TEW-reading software specifically for commercial use swatches young children. Most software developers completely ignored the benefits of this switch can offer children's preliterate. This is partly due to a variety of ready-made swatches adequate. While the paddle game and the joystick

is avaible, most are too small and fragile to be used by preschool-aged children. Fortunatly, children are compliant switch can be made easily in the basement whorkshop just a few bucks for parts. When only some of the responses required from the child, they can be displayed in the list. The program is slowly moving pointer list. Scanning procedure is used in reading instruction Britannica computer animation system (Caris) to help children choose the words. For example, the following list of nouns, children select items by pressing any key when the pointer reaches said they want: Child's home Car boat Tree truck Dog cat Scanning rate must slowers than two seconds per word to give the child enough time to examine and respond to the word. This sharply limits the number of items possible. When more than about ten choices offered, scanning becomes too slow and confusing for young children. With the scanning system, the child should have to learn the function pointer. Very young children often select items in a way that seems intentional, but I can not select specific items on request. This is especially true when all items are produced interesting results. When asked by adults to search for words, children sometimes respond by pressing the button once they have been visually located a desired word, even if the pointer is not on the target word. User control In addition to special switches, control of students is an important design consideration in developing activities for children are very young. Structure of the drill-and-a traditional practice is often used with older children are less effective with preschoolers because they are much less interested in answering questions posed by others. On the other hand, the same children maydevote more time and effort for self-directed play. Differences in the greatest attention span in children are very young or immature. Computer programs are effective for these children to minimize questions and trying to develop a very similar environment to play. In this case, children are free to explore aspects of the program. The intrudaction reading skills are less the result of direct instructions from the product of a child's attempt to manipulate computers. PRINT AWARENESS Child's environment is full a message is printed: books, newspapers, signs, and advertising. Many children begin to read the messages at a very early age. Even two years old often recognize the common signs and labels, usually keeping in mind the words of surrounding context. Early experiences have a lasting effect. Dolores durking have shown that the chidren who learned to read at an early age through informal experience that continues to be a reader who excels year-round elementary school. They also showed a positive attitude towards reading stongly. Experiences provide the basis for the initial printing and reading instruction by helping to make children aware of print and communications roles. Print awareness component A. Knowledge of the organization's books. a. The story begins at the front. b. The book is held in an upright position for reading. c. A book to tell a consistent story with a beginning, midle, and end.

d. The story ends on the last page. 2. Awareness of text. a. Text, not images, tell stories. b. Text consists of words and the latters. c. Punctuation adds emphasis to the text. d. Read the text involves the movement of the left-right and top-down. 3. Respect the book. a. The book is not meant to be torn, thrown about, or damage or detroyed. Awareness of best print of the human mind by providing children with books and other printed materials that are relevant to the interests of ther. However, exposure alone insuficient unless a child is personally involved with the material. When the story is a prime example: adults need time to read to children, and in turn, drwan child into the story through personal interaction with adults. Children often enjoy having re-read favorite stories over and over kali.Mereka remember the details of it and may even be able to repeat the story from memory. When they can see the book as it is read, they begin to identify key words in it. Story time computerization would be counterproductive because of personal involvement is an important factor in effectiveness. However, other types of computer activities can help children to develop awareness of print. The page to speak The page to speak, developed as part of the initial PLATO reading curricula (PERC) project by the John and Priscilla obertino Riskin, using a creative approach to print awareness. Talk page displays the exact reproduction of a story book, one page sekaligus.Ketika a child touches one of the words displayed on the screen, the computer reads the word aloud, using the synchronized speech. Touching a point at the beginning of the line to read the entire line. Children can read or change the squence reset line at will by touching a point. Special box in the botton screen to let the kids turn the pages forward and backforward. PERC project adapted the popular children's books for some of these formats and provides teachers with an easy method to enter the story is determined by the children. The talk page is a valuable activity because it heightens the awareness of children who printed the story convey information. Touching an image or some other part of the screen does not produce pidato.Karena children can play back the words and phrases many times, these activities help to reinforce the concept that words carry meaning invariant. The ability to control the story line makes a difference touching students actively involved in this book. Unfortunately. PERC pages that talk has not been replicated in many other than PLATO computer system because it requires a large amount of speech and touch-sensitive screen. Both are expensive addition to a speach production komputer.Perangkat system used in this project is only marginally reliable. However, the talk page still is an exciting example of what is posible. Interactive video can reduce the cost of prividing high image quality and accurate oral reading while improving the mechanical reliability. Texas instruments magic wand book is an update of the concept of talk pages. Children's book adds a bar-code lines at the bottom of each page. When a child slide bar-code reader (wand) for stipes, a computer-controlled speech syntesizer page read out loud. The use of bar codes to avoid errors encountered in speech production the original PLATO activities.

Songs and Rhymes Children Songs and rhymes of children - children are very interesting predicted using the structure for the child the child, repeating sounds and uses a simple tone helps anak2 learn more cepat.Lagi rhyme and the rhyme was introduced to direct the children's attention on the words and voices therein. "Nursery time" and "micro mother goose" are two examples of software that introduces sedehana read poems and songs. In the "nursery time" the children choose poems by selecting the button, while the "micro mother goose" they move the cursor on the appropriate item, after the choice is made, the drawing program bardasarkan poems and plays songs and displays the lyrics on the screen. (See figure 3.1) melodies created to avoid the weakness of the synthetic voice, because some small computers have difficulty in playing the notes, the child will also easily recognize and remember the lyrics of the song, and many enjoy singing to the tune. Software nursery rhyme is fun, but the latest version will be more effective for reading readiness if they are more interactive, and highlights each word as it is played. after the initial selection, a child sitting passively while the computer is an interesting illustration and play songs. interactive components can easily be added to the poem. for example, pressing a key every time the song comes to a word containing a particular ballot paper or to catch the words for gift boxes occupying the corner of the screen. This game will draw attention to the lyrics of the song and ensure a strong relationship between spoken word and the printed form. Personal book Personal books can improve a child's interest in the story. It uses a word processor technology to combine aspects of the background into a storybook children personally (see figure 3.3). adjust the current model superficially, enter only the name of her children, addresses, and names of parents, friends, and pets into the narrative. all are designed just for mail-order business only where nothing else is known about the child. however, computer technology has no intrinsic limitations to prohibit greater personalization. a program that encourages teachers to enter additional personal information, thus creating a book that is more closely associated with the background experience of the children, may be more relevant in educating LEARN Alphabet learns to identify the names of letters and related sounds are the most popular reading readiness activities. knowledge of the alphabet is widely accepted as a measure of readiness to read and taught in almost all preparedness programs, including those that also use computer-based instruction. Talking Typewriter initial approach to learning the alphabet is the Edison Responsive Environment Project, better known as the talking typewriter. This innovative machine was first developed in 1960 by OK Moore. At the simplest level, talking typewriter print letters using large type and said second sound and the name of each letter pressed. Initially, children are free to explore the typewriter keys without adult intervention. phase continues until the child is free to type tire. at this point, the role is reversed and the computer asks the child to

find a specific letter. computer help students by ignoring all but ..... Thats what happened to jimmy when he chased his house, mickey, along meadow lane and toeard the playground at the park where eric, mark and jonathan were playing. Jimmy ran as past as he could, but mickey stayed far ahead, jimmy caught up just as mickey slipped through the door af a shining dpaceship mickey, you come out of there, jimmy shouted, and he raced in after the mouse. The correct response and by illuminating the correct key with small lights under the keyboard. Again, children are free to experiment with various keys while searching for the correct one when the child locates it, the computer repeats the letter name and sound and displays it on a large screen. After mastering all the letters , the child learns to type word in similar fashion. At the most advanced levels , children read and write long stories on the computer and use their newly acquired typing skills to produce a rudimentary newspaper (see fig. 3.4). throughout the sessions, children control the computer interaction and can dhoose to return to a simpler level whenever they want. Developers of the talking typewriter interpret incorrect student responses not as errors, but as indications of a childs search strategies. Moore cautioned his assistants against providing prompts or other aids to children searching for a particular key . he reports that many children enjoy the freedom to experiment. The fundamental difference between this approach and that of conventional computerbased drills is best summarized by its creator , O. K: moore: The talking typewriter is a responsive device . . . . an early example of a simple responsive device is the lyre. One does not ask how efficient a lyre is, as if it were a lever or a pulley; one does not ask about a lyres fidelity as if it were a reproducer , say a phonograph: instead, the kinds of questions one should ask about a lyre and the talking typewriter, too, are: Do they foster emotial cognitive growth ? are they fun to play with? what I am suggesting is that whereas most of those concerned with computers two decades ago conceived of them as highly efficient and faithful master clerks, we were trying to show their potential for enhancing human growth, especially the kind of growth that arises out of playfulness (Moore, 1980) . The creative synthesis of visual, auditory, and manual cues, along with emphasis on student control of the learning environment, make the talking typewriter unusual among computer-based instruction systems. Few reading program allow a child to play with letters and words while also providing rich feedback based on the childs responses. Evaluation studies by moore and his associates showed that the talking typewriter was highly effective for introducing reading to diverse groups of children. After using the talking typewriter for only four months, disadvantaged kindergarten children increased their reading ability by FURRY AND NUTTY By venn more Once upon a time there were two squirrels named furry and nutty.

They were very cute squirrels: they would scamper up and down the treas to play. Also they would do cute tricks on telephone wires. These squirrels liked acorns, peanuts and walnuts. At night they hunted for food and dug a hole to store it in a secret place. They lived in holes in trees: sometimes they moved away to build a different kind of home . One spring they had a baby and named it bushy. The reason they wanted to name it bushey was that they lived in bushy trees and they had bushy tails. One day when they were doing tricks on the telephone wires, it was stormy and it lighteninged. It caught on to the wire, and furry was electrocuted. Poor furry was dead poor bushy and nutty were alone. From that time nutty and bushy were more careful than they used to be . TWO FIRES By Jeffrey bacter Once when we were going to school, there was a fire on laurel road. When the fire atarted , the children were already outside, and the mother was badly hurt. On march 31, my brother lit a fire beside the garage. The fireman next door put it out. THE FUNNY BUNNY By Shirley horno If I were a bunny, Id be funny. Id earn money By selling honey. In the sunny It would get all runny . Isnt that funny THE PEABODY MUSEUM By mary Ellen burns

During vacation I went to the Peabody museum with my daddy and my brother, joseph. We saw a big dinosaur, and it was so big that joseph had to look up. In the same room we saw the largest turtle in the wole wide word. OUR TRIP TO BOSTON By lisa witcomb We went to boston and when we were driving we had to stop to have supper. We stayed with some friends. When we got there, it was ten o-clockway past our bedtime. We woke up mom and bothered her. I mostly watched tv. Daddy watched tv with me, and mcm talked with ellie priess, when daddy was not watching tv, he was talking to uncle al. we had fun I MY LOOSE TOOTH By Kathy johnstone I have a loose tooth and it is my first one. When it come out I will put it in a glass of water and in the morning I will find a quarter under my pillow. The fairy will leave the money for me. I may buy some groceries with it for my mother. THE WOODPECKER By tamara plakins I saw somebody peck And did wreck, But I never saw anybody smack Someone in the back. The boy and girls in kindergarten are one year younger than we are. They all made up their stories, and then they typed them for our newspaper. We showed them how to cut a stencil. Lab record editurs. THE ELEPHANT by spencer taylor

once upon a time in the far away land lived a little elephant named timmy. He can away. He almost got run over. THE HAUNTED HOUSE By susan Connelly The haunted house has ghosts and goblins and demons. Its scarey to go in, and you might get killed. SUSAN SQUIRTED ME By pam malley My friend susan squirted me with water on my new dress. Susan had to put her head down. MY BIRTHDAY By Richard wright May s my birthday. I will blow out the candles on my birthday cake. I want a fire engine. MOTHER By Helen greenspan Mother is well now. The castis off her leg. Now se can drive me to school. I am glad. SOLDIERS By jonathan cahn This is fun. We play combat soldiers. Davie and Stevie break through our team. We break through their team. The nursery school children just started to type their stories for the Lab record and we helped them type the stencils. The editors. PAM By Melanie canadeo

Pam, you could be a nurse some-day. But when you he a nurse, you can not acream I like you do now.

A MONKEY By brian symme 3 I saw a monkey feeding peanuts to lots of people. I LIKE SCHOOL By Carissa whitcomb I paint at Sharons house. Like ricky. I like god. He makes us healthy. FISHING By larry batter I went fishing with my father and my brother and we caught a goldfish and a whale l PIRATES By Charles stainton Larry and Charles are pirates. When my baby brother sleeps, my sister and I play outside. KITES By david black I went to the ball field and flew kites. We didnt get to stay long. 1,5 grade levels. In another study, participants learned to read new words 30 percent faster than students in conventional programs. Moore himself wrote a case study of a gifled but emotionally disturbed boy,suggesting that significant emotional growth can parallel a childs academic improvement. The talking typewriter attracted much attention when it was first developed and, despite its high cost, was used in avariety of school and community settings. It was the first computer-based reading project to receive wide exposure in textbooks on reading methods. In recent years, however, the talking typewritwr seems to have gone out of fashion,although its operation can be replicated on most small computers at a substantially lower cost. Perhaps student control of the learning process was and still is too radical a concept for computer curriculum developers. Letter indentification programs Most commercial programs that introduce the letters of the alphabet require the student to press the key matvhing a large letter displayed on a screen. Some add to the challenge by mixing uppercase and

lowercase letters, while others provide pictures to reinforce correct selections. Because of the inadequacies of computer-based speech, few programs teach the letter sound or name along with its visual form. Without an auditory component, these drills consist of little more than matching a shape on the screen to its corresponding key and thus fail to teach the phonemics role of letters in reading and writing. Because letter represent sound, audio output is essential for computer program that introducethe alphabet. Distrimination among letters of the alphabest is a critical component of letter indentification instructions . studies in experimental psychology show that instruction is more efficient when students are taught the visual features that distinguish one letter from another . the three principal distinctive features of letter are curve, line,and angle. Ball-stick-bird, a noncomputerized initial reading program developed by renee fuller , is the only commercial curriculum thay incorporates these three distinctive features directly into letter-recognition instruction. This program eses cardboard manipulatives to show children how each letter is formed by combining the basic shapes of ball,stick,and bird. Ball stick bird is not well known, and few studies have been undertaken to evaluate its effectiviness. Pilot experiment show that four year old learn to read more easily by this method and that older ,low readiness, handicapped children also benefit from its use . It demonstrates how abstract perceptual features can be made accessible to young children. Fostering awareness of distinctive features by encouraging their manipulation lends it self well to a variety of computer activities .in the following hypothetical example,children move the distinctive features across a color video screen using simple switches or a study joystick .once the child has formed the letter from the distinctive features ,animation slowly fuses the part into a well formed letter ,while providing audio commentary about the letter name ,sound , and salient features (see fig 3.5)