THE FOUR-PRONGED APPROACH

TO TEACHING BEGINNING
READING
THE ART OF STORY
READING

A. ORAL READING
The

most common situation is one in which a child

reads aloud in order to convey information or
pleasure to an audience or his classmates.

ORAL

READING can be justified only when the

purposes are logical, the goals educationally sound,
and the preparation adequate to the occasion.

There

is much written about the preparation of

students for reading tasks, but there are no reading
tasks which make more justified demands for
adequate preparation than does oral reading.

ADVANTAGES DERIVED FROM ORAL

READING.
READING

IN AN AUDIENCE SITUATION CAN BE AN

EGO-BUILDING EXPERIENCE FOR THE READER.

- personal and social growth as well as selfconfidence can be achieved.

- but the child must be able to read satisfactory in
order to elicit approval from others
- and he should not be expected to read to a
group unless adequately prepared.

- reading aloud from a book while children follow

the same passage in their books minimizes the
audience situation.
- ORAL READING should make use of materials
other than basal series used for instructional purposes
with the class.
ORAL

READING CAN BE AN EXCELLENT MEANS OF

TEACHING READING SKILLS
- good phrasing
- use of punctuation

- reading with expression

- fluent reading without hesitations or repetitions
- ORAL READING is a logical extension of the language
usage characteristics of children as they enter school.
- practice in ORAL READING can help the child
associate printed words with their speech equivalents.
ORAL

READING PROVIDES AN EXCELLENT

OPPORTUNITY FOR THE DIAGNOSIS OF READING SKILLS
AND THE DISCOVERY OF PUPILS READING
WEAKNESSES.

- this diagnostic function is a pupil-teacher situation

centered around a teacher purpose and probably would
not involve the childs reading to a group.
- however, reading to the teacher is a highly
motivating audience situation for most children,
provided the teacher is encouraging rather than critical.
ORAL

READING PROVIDES MANY CLUES TO THE

ACTUAL WEAKNESS IN A CHILDS READING.

- a childs response after reading silently may indicate

that he is a poor reader, or that he is performing below a
certain grade level.

- she can discover important clues to his

competence in sight, vocabulary, attacking unknown
words, use of context, use of punctuation, and whether
he views reading as getting meaning.
- the teacher will not rely on only one sample of
oral reading, as an adequate diagnosis, but each
instance of oral reading will be seen as a part of an
ongoing diagnosis.
ORAL READING IS A MORE DIFFICULT TASK THAN
SILENT READING

KOVAS ( 1956, cf. HEILMAN)

In ORAL READING the reader must know all the
words and must get the authors point and mood so
that he can convey it to the listeners.
he must use:
- proper phrasing
- paying heed to punctuation while at the same
time reading aloud enough to reach all his listeners.

CONSIDERATIONS WHICH SHOULD BE OBSERVED

WHEN USING ORAL READING:
1.

The reader must have a purpose for the oral reading.

He must have interesting data which he wishes to
share with others.

2.

The reader must be prepared. He must have

mastered the mechanical skills required and have
arrived at an acceptable interpretation of the
authors intent.

3.

Children are not always well-trained in our schools to

listen. When children cannot listen critically, the
primary justification for oral reading is missing.

4. Instruction during the actual oral reading situation

will usually destroy the value of oral reading.
5. Too much oral reading can diminish its effectiveness.
The stress should be on good oral reading not on an
endurance contest for either readers or listeners.
6. Oral reading must not become so artificial or
mechanical for the reader that he forgets that he is
reading for meaning.
7. The teacher should be ready to provide a good
model of oral reading when such a model is needed by
the group or by an individual child.

8. It should be remembered that the larger the group

involved, the more the problem.
9. Oral reading maybe a considerable threat to some
pupil. These cases should be handled with sympathetic
understanding.

READING ALOUD
TWO WAYS OF READING ALOUD
By

SIGHT-READING

we mean reading aloud a text one has not seen

before.
By

REHEARSED READING

we mean working up a reading for others by

practicing then presenting it.

 READING

ALOUD allows the learner to socialize

reading both for enjoyment and for the benefits of
feedback.

It

externalizes silent reading and thus gives the

learner a chance to get help.

Reading

aloud encourages the budding reader to

continue the habit of subvocalizing that he
established when first making the transition from
speech to print.

Since,

subvocalizing keeps silent reading speed down

to speaking speed and prolongs an inner activity no
longer needed, it does seem desirable not to

 to perfect decoding so that it becomes second nature

and frees the learner to drop subvocalizing.

HOW DOES A TEACHER KNOW

WHETHER A STUDENT CANNOT DECODE
OR HAVE SOME OTHER PROBLEM?

teacher must create occasion on which he sounds

out the voice he is creating as he reads.

teacher can try a self-direction technique.

COACHING and DIAGNOSING can be just one of many

things a teacher does as he moves among students as
they come to him.
NOT all children will need COACHING and DIAGNOSIS,
But they may all want to read especially if the sessions
feel positive.

teacher should try to make the sessions positive by

being as helpful as possible.

The

teacher must be regarded as supporter who

makes a possible for them to get competent and feel
good about themselves.

The teacher who looms only as a negative judge is one

who simply doesnt know how to be specifically helpful.
So he should concentrate on noticing a kind of mistake
a reader makes and on showing him to overcome them.

as the students read allowed a reasonably challenging

text, note the following:
1.

Which elements of the text he ignore certain

phonemes, whole words or phrases or punctuation.

2.

Whether he replaces pronunciations, words and

grammar with dialectical variation of these.

3.

Which spellings he sounds out un correctly.

4.

Which combination of sound- spelling trip him upconsonants blends vowel- consonants combination,
polysyllabic words.

5.

Whether he follows punctuations.

6. Which kind of mistake he corrects himself.

7. Whether he reverses sounds and words or other wise
rearranges elements.
8.Which sounds, words, or punctuations he insert into
the text
9. Whether his phrasing and intonation fit sense as well
as syntax and punctuation.
10. Whether he sounds involved or calls words
mechanically.

REHEARSE READING
READING

ALOUD is the base from which performing a

text is a natural extension.

Working

up a reading with one to three partners

prepares well for bigger script rehearsal.

HOW DOES A TEACHER

KNOW WHETHER A
STUDENT CANNOT
DECODE OR HAVE
SOME OTHER
PROBLEMS?

TO

HELP A STUDENT TO READ, A

TEACHER MUST CREATE OCCASIONS
ON WHICH HE SOUNDS OUT THE VOICE
HE IS CREATING AS HE READS. IN SOME
SCHOOLS, DIVIDING A CLASS INTO
THREE OR SO READING GROUPS OF
DIFFERENT LEVELS WITHIN WHICH
STUDENT READS ALOUD WHILE THE
OTHER MEMBERS SIT IDLE WITH THE
SAME BOOK IN THEIR HANDS.

IN THIS GROUP, IT IS ASSUMED THAT

ALL STUDENTS ARE READING THE
SAME THING AT THE SAME TIME, AND
THE DIVISION INTO GROUPS AIMS TO
MAKE SOME ALLOWANCE, IN RATE AT
LEAST, FOR INDIVIDUAL
DIFFERENCES.BUT IT CANNOT, OF
COURSE, SO TRYING TO COACH AND
DIAGNOSE IN GROUPS IS NOT LIKELY

TEACHER CAN TRY A SELF-DIRECTION

TECHNIQUE. THAT IS, WHILE OTHER
STUDENTS ARE DOING VARIOUS OTHER
LANGUAGE AND LITERACY ACTIVITIES,
THE TEACHER CAN LISTEN TO READERS
ONE AT A TIME, JUST A FEW A DAY
PERHAPS, AND COACH AND DIAGNOSE
THEM ON THE BASIS OF WHAT WAS
HEARD AND OBSERVED WHILE THE
STUDENT READ ALOUD.

COACHING

AND DIAGNOSING CAN BE

JUST ONE OF MANY THINGS A TEACHER
DOES AS HE MOVES AMONG STUDENTS
AS THEY COME TO HIM. HE MIGHT
SIMPLY ASK SOMEONE WHO IS READING
SILENTLY TO READ SOME OF HIS TEXT
ALOUD.OR, HE MIGHT TELL THE CLASS
HE WANTS EVERYONE TO BRING
SOMETHING TO READ SOMETHING TO
HIM TWO OR THREE TIMES A WEEK.

NOT

ALL CHILDREN WILL NEED COACHING

AND DIAGNOSIS, BUT THEY MAY ALL WANT
TO READ ESPECIALLY IF THE SESSIONS FEEL
POSITIVE.IF A CHILD READS ABORIOUSLY, HE
DOESNT SUFFER THE EMBARASSMENTS OF
HIS PEERS WAITING HIM OUT AND GETTING
RESTIVE OR CONTEMPTOUS, AND THE
TEACHER DOESNT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT
GROUP MANAGEMENT AND TRYING TO
QUELL THOSE WHO ARE GETTING BORED.

THE

TEACHER SHOULD TRY TO

MAKE THE SESSIONS POSITIVE
BY BEING AS HELPFUL AS
POSSIBLE. THE TEACHER MUST
BE REGARDED IS A SUPPORTER
WHO MAKES IT POSSIBLE FOR
THEM TO GET COMPETENT AND
TO FEEL GOOD ABOUT

THE TEACHER WHO LOOMS ONLY AS A NEGATIVE JUDGE