Class topics, literacy vocabulary, fieldwork applications and other thoughts
Sousa, Chapter 1 “How quickly and successfully the young brain learns to read is greatly influenced by the development of two capabilities: speech comprehension and visual recognition.”
Different types of speech call on different parts of the brain. The more complex the sentence or words are the more parts of the brain are needed to produce it. It is easiest for the brain to learn and develop a new language at younger ages. Many used to think the older you got the better you could study and learn, but it has been proven false.
Syntax is the order in witch words are placed to create sentences with meaning. Syntactic development happens in the younger ages. It can be seen through their speech development. An example would be when a toddler goes from asking for “milk” to now saying, “give me milk.”
Discussion of Sousa, Chapter 1 (and others) Infants from the time they are born are listening to those around them. Picking up little words and pieces of language. As they get older they use what they have heard and listened to at the younger ages. Doing interactions and games with toddlers and kids helps them develop. Just because there is one point of roughness, it can be made up for. They are not gone, this time can be made up for.
We have to believe as teachers, that what we do is going to make an impact. That no matter what these children are going through, when they come to see us at school we can make their days a little better.
Spoken language helps kids grow the parts of language and leads them to reading. It also comes from directions and how classrooms are managed.
Sousa, Chapter 2 The frontal lobe part of our brain is what helps us take in information around us and make quick decision on what our best survival move is. There are three main phases of learning to read. Phase one is the pictorial stage. This is where children are learning how to put pictures and visuals to words and letters of the alphabet. The second phase is the phonological stage. This is where the children begin to decode the letters into sounds. The third phase is the orthographic stage. This is when the child is able to recognize words quickly and accurately.
Our brain has a few different lexicons in it. There is the mental lexicon, which is the stored familiarity of words. The orthographic lexicon is the visual recognition of letters, graphemes, and morphemes. This lexicon helps us break the word island down into is + land. The phonological lexicon, stores words how they are pronounced, so it would tell us island is pronounced eye-land. We also have a grammatical lexicon that has all our rules of sentence structure and plurals. Everything has meaning as well, so these are all stored in the semantic lexicon. This is where you would know that an island is a piece of land surrounded by water.
Phonological awareness is the recognition that language can be broken down into smaller pieces. Phonemic awareness is the piece that words are made up of individual sounds, and that these sounds can be used/changed to create new words.
Discussion of Sousa, Chapter 2 (and others)
How is working memory connected to reading comprehension?
Working memory and reading comprehension connect because the words the words they speak are the words they will read. And these words they will read are going to be in short sentences. It all works hand in hand, and is hard to have one skill without using the other.
Sousa, Chapter 5 Put notes in here
Discussion of Sousa, Chapter 5 (and others) Differences in auditory and visual processing speeds: Abnormal auditory with normal visual: d o g Visual may be ahead of auditory processing making the eyes be on g when still sounding d. Then d becomes associated with the sound of g. Over time as d becomes recognized as a g sound then they will always use g sound as a replacement for d. Practice makes permanent.
