What is Literacy if the essence is
lost at the foundation stage? Every developmental mile stone that is skipped in
the literacy journey, has a way of hunting any educational system. After my
experience with three secondary school students from different schools, who
could not read nor write well, a question refused to leave me. Did they pass
through foundation stage? If yes. Then what went wrong?
Literacy focuses more on reading (decoding
words) and the ability to spell (encoding). This goes down to applying the knowledge
of phonics in early years teaching. Beyond having the knowledge of phonics,
which should be a criteria for any educator who is interested in result, every
educator should have the skill of teaching kids how to read and write.
Having thrown this light, it is
paramount therefore that educators always trouble shoot, to find out reasons
why their students are not reading or spelling well at a particular age. The earlier
this is spotted, the better chances of developing the reading and writing
skills of learners.
For learners to be able to read,
they must be able to decode sounds. This invariably means that building the
reading skill must begin early with learners being able to identify individual sounds.
Kids should be able to link letters to sounds from their early age.
Helpful tips
1. Make sure
your leaners know their individual letter sounds. Don’t assume they do, because
of their age, you might be shocked when you assess them.
2. Make sure
they are able to identify the individual sounds that forms a word. Depending on
the age, it could be two, three, or four letter words.
3. Make sure
they can blend sounds to form two, three or four letter word, according to
their age and mental ability.
4. Let them
know the difference between vowel and consonant sounds. This depends on the age
and class. There is no need to rush, if your learners are not there yet. Focus on
result, and check from time to time if your teaching is effective. If it is not,
provide extra support.
5. Introduce them
to CVC words and how to blend consonant and vowel sounds to form them.
6. Expose them
to digraphs, and teach them how to blend them with other sounds to form words
7. Form simple
sentences based on the sounds and words you have taught and have them read
I hope this helps …
