The act of reading is a very complex task, especially for the young reader. As adults, we sometimes forget all the necessary components we learned for reading to occur, once upon a time. For many of us, we have been reading for a long time, and since we have been doing it for a long time, we forget how we learned, and often take for granted that reading just ‘happened naturally’.

However, reading is a very complex task. There are essentially two components to reading. The first component is decoding. This is where the emerging reader learns the mechanics of the reading process and happens to be where most beginning readers are at. The second, and more essential component, is the comprehension. Comprehension is understanding the meaning of the words and the ideas that are being conveyed. As emerging readers, the decoding is a crucial step and the main focus so that when the reader becomes stronger, the focus can then turn to comprehension, which is actually the most important component in the reading process that ultimately leads to learning the material.

One component essential to the emerging reader is becoming acquainted with the “frequently used words” (sight words or common words). These are the list of words that your child brought home recently and the cards with the “word of the day” that your child recently started bringing home. Unfortunately, many of the words in early readers and board books do not follow the phonemic rules. For example, words such as the, of, because, said, some, have, cannot be sounded out phonetically and must be memorized. Therefore, consistent repetition of these words is an essential step in helping to build reading fluency. One way this repetition can be done is by having your child read the flashcards frequently and consistently. Another way is by looking at and reading books with your child often so that when they can recognize these words in print. This will help your child to better transfer that understanding more contextually as they see the words in the books. Therefore, reading with parents, older siblings, and other adults will help this transformation take place. As an aside, once your child knows the words, continual practice is recommended as knowing the words is an essential part to the writing process. Learning to spell the words is not necessary, but familiarity with the words will help your child to use them once we begin writing more independently in our class.

Another component to decoding is phonemic awareness. This is our focus presently and needs to become a solid foundation before reading can take place. Phonemic awareness is knowing the individual sounds (phonemes) that a word makes to help in sounding out unfamiliar words. The phonemes can be the individual letter sounds, digraphs, vowel team syllables, or r-controlled syllables combined with an understanding of the heard vowels when saying the word (i.e.  closed syllable, open syllable, magic e). The more familiar a reader is with the phonemes the easier reading becomes.

Once a reader has an understanding of the sight words and phonemic awareness, fluency will begin to emerge. Fluency is the flow in which the words are read and this cannot occur if the reader has to stop and sound out each word. That is why recognition of the sight words is crucial to building fluency.

This phonemic awareness helps to build the vocabulary and an understanding that words follow certain rules. The sight words and an understanding of phonemic awareness is not only important in building stronger readers, but also becomes helpful during the writing process especially when it comes to homophones. The spell check function does not detect an incorrect use of there, their, or they’re even though the word is spelled correctly. Again, the more books and stories read, the greater the knowledge and spelling skills.

As readers become stronger, it is important that reading continues to be modelled so that other cues can continue to be strengthened by reading aloud to them. Reading according to the punctuation is necessary so that correct meaning can be conveyed. Voice inflection and expression are also needed to gather the correct information. Further, dialogue and conversations about the material helps to strengthen the overall understanding of what was read. Asking various questions about the story helps children to recall, reflect, and think about what was read. Although audio books and stories are good in listening to reading being modelled, the interactions with other people through the conversation that occurs about the story ultimately strengthens children’s learning.

Welcome to another school year. I hope that the transition back to routines has gone smoothly. As we begin a new school year, please remember that you (parents) and I (classroom teacher) are a team in the growth and development of your precious children. I feel privileged that I am your child’s teacher this year.

Our job as the community of adults surrounding the children we care for is to provide a safe and nurturing environment so that children can grow into strong, successful, self-sufficient, resilient members of the community.  One of the ways we can help our children to become strong individuals is to be supportive when adversity or challenges come their way. It is important to remember that we can help our children simply by listening attentively to what they are saying, asking relevant questions for clarification, and encouraging them to look for possible solutions rather than getting upset and/or solving the challenge for them.  Of course, we do not want to see our children hurt. However, if it is a challenge that they can overcome with no harm, we need to allow them the opportunity to face it and let them experience it. Safety, of course is paramount, and it may also be painful as caregivers to watch, but how will children learn if they are not allowed to experience it? Not being able to deal with each challenge, especially when they are capable of overcoming them with encouragement and support, has lasting negative outcomes. What will happen if they do not learn how to overcome a simpler challenge that can be overcome, perhaps with some help, when more difficult challenges occur?

As children grow older, the challenges naturally become more complex. However, if they have not been allowed to face easier challenges and build their problem solving skills, how will they be able to encounter when more challenging ones arise?  The best way to help your child is to allow them to ‘do it themselves’ and standby to encourage and support them if the need arises. If they need consoling, standby with caring words and help them talk it out. Help your child to see what happened and how they can change things for the next time to not experience the same feeling again.  Making mistakes is a critical part of learning. If we continue to do what we already know over and over again, how is this developing them to become stronger individuals? How are they gaining new skills and strengthening the skills they already have? Working out what happened, reflecting back on what went wrong, and looking at what can be done differently the next time is where the learning takes place.  It is important for children to encounter challenges and hiccups along the way so they can build resilience. Resilience is not something that happens magically with a wave of a wand or because the children reach a certain age. Rather, resilience is something that is built through experiencing challenges and overcoming them through encouragement and strengthened with support and guidance. Being able to face the challenge, learn from it, and bounce back stronger is what we want our kids to be. After all, building resilient children who will become stronger adults ready to embrace any situation is our goal as caregivers.