"Close observation of reading behaviors enables teachers to teach the
child, not the book or program." (Fountas & Pinnell)
The best invitations are overt - read-alouds, digital storytelling, acting out stories, making personal connections with stories of culture or celebration - these are the first invitations that draw children's attention to text. Often these invitations are offered in infancy and continue to unfold through childhood and beyond. Sometimes invitations to share text don't happen during this critical window of time for various reasons - growing up in homes where literacy is not a focus, where poverty controls access and attention to texts, where language barriers or families with low-literacy levels present obstacles. School offers a consistent, focused place where invitations to reading are offered multiple times a day to all children regardless of background experiences - overt invitations brimming with possibility for the youngest readers to pursue the learning-to-read journey.
Engaging children in learning to read is a most rewarding and interesting experience - it never looks or sounds the same way twice because each child is different from the next. While we might share a book together how each child receives the story, makes connections to what they have already experienced with texts and the world, and how they understand their role in making sense of text independently will differ - sometimes significantly so. The best invitations capture imagination and attention, provoke questions and nudge children towards reading proficiency with intentional, thoughtful challenges and guidance. And the best invitations encourage students to engage with text independently regardless of proficiency - it is only through independent engagement with text that children will strive to build deeper understandings of how text works and build skills to decode, understand and manipulate text.
Sharing text with peers and others (including adults) elevates awareness of text structure, context and meaning in a comfortable environment that promotes risk-taking and discussion. Reading with friends or buddies, family members or adult volunteers in the classroom presents additional opportunities for children to build awareness of genre as well as voice modulation as they expand experiences with text. These are critical experiences for experimenting with expression, meaning, new concepts and practicing discussion strategies not available through independent reading alone.
Perhaps the reading invitations with the highest impact in the early grades of school are those involving shared, guided or conference support reading engagements with teachers. These opportunities usually occur in small groups or independent interactions with student-teacher. These supported learning opportunities allow teachers to interact directly with students, to listen, observe, question and record individual student progress and determine next best steps to move the child forward in the learning-to-read journey. It is not about the next thing a particular program suggests teaching, or following a sequential series of steps towards learning to read but rather directly understanding what a child is already able to do independently and having a broad range of strategies available to offer each student the next best possible idea for building strengths in learning to read.
A key component on the learning-to-read journey is celebration - celebrating good books, acknowledging favourite genres and topics, authors or series, celebrating successes in learning to read, sharing strengths and accomplishments - these are all ways to gently nudge children forward in their reading journey as they accept and appreciate their own successes while understanding what they next steps in learning to read truly are. It is the artistry of instruction to balance independent and buddy reading experiences, supported reading interactions and celebration to ensure each child values and appreciates the nuances and dimensions learning to read presents to the learner.
Acknowledging the strong connections between reading and writing are essential and are rarely separated as children travel the learning-to-read journey. Understanding what letters and sounds do together in order to be read and understood as text also means students need to be able to manipulate and play with letters and sounds to generate writing and express ideas and meaning. Connecting reading and writing encourages students to develop control of language while taking risks, making predictions and connections and challenging meaning as they learn to read with increasing levels of proficiency. It is a beautiful experience to watch a reader progress through a year of school, understanding their successes are sometimes independent, sometimes supported, other times shared and practiced in the company of peers.
Invitations, independent interactions with text, shared experiences, supported instruction and celebration all look and sound quite differently depending on the development, personality and intellectual engagement of each student and the artistry of teaching strategies employed by teachers. But the pursuit of learning-to-read is almost always exciting, engaging and exhilarating as children come to see themselves as readers in a most complex and interesting world.
Lorraine Kinsman, Principal
Eric Harvie School
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