Chapter 6 - Literacy Instruction in the Primary Grades

Summary

Introduction

A discussion of reading in the primary grades begins with how the student learns to read words. After learning to read and understand words, the student progresses to reading and understanding phrases, sentences, paragraphs, and compositions.

There are different approaches to teaching, including the synthetic and analytic phonics methodologies, sight word methods, and language approaches. Normally, the best way to teach young students is to use a combination of methods because one method will not reach all students in the classroom. However, the Language Experience Approach (LEA) is a strong self-contained method that employs elements of other approaches and can easily be combined with other methods.

Stages and Phases of Reading Development

There are several models of how students develop the ability to read (Ehri & McCormick 1998; Chall 1993; Gough et al. 1992; Gunning 2010). The Phase Model contends that as children mature in their reading proficiency, the way they approach reading changes. Tracey and Morrow (2012) state that it is natural to assume that children pass through reading stages because reading is ongoing, continuous, and gradual in development. Stage Model proposes that the strategies increase in number and quality, but are refined as children progress. According to Ehri (1998), these phases in the Stage Model are the pre-alphabetic or logographic phrase, partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, consolidated alphabetic, and automatic phase. Ehri and McCormick (1998) indicate that these stages can overlap.

Pre-alphabetic or logographic stage

A preschool or kindergarten student or a severely challenged reader can be in the prealphabetic phase (Ehri & McCormick 1998). In this phase, the student may have limited alphabetic knowledge and cannot decode or use analogy. The pre-alphabetic phase is sometimes called the logographic phase because readers connect visual features of words such as the print styles, shape, or length. The student may pretend to read using visual cues such as pictures to tell the story.

To promote the pre-alphabetic phase, the student should be given opportunities to print and name uppercase and lowercase letters. Alphabet instruction (including mnemonics and alliteration to support memory) and phonemic awareness activities (including listening and sound manipulation plus blending and segmenting) should be provided including opportunities to write with invented spelling.