Personal Model of Reading Theory

After completing the readings and research this semester, I can’t say that my entire personal model of reading theory has changed but it has definitely evolved and I have a fuller understanding of literacy development. Now I am aware of the general order of literacy skills attained by early readers and know the importance of matching instruction to the natural development. This means providing phonics and phonemic awareness instruction on an as needed basis within the context of shared or guided reading and providing students with the tools to read individual words by analogy rather than feeding them the words.  I have always tried to implement a balanced approach to literacy in my classroom and utilized many components to serve this purpose. However, after reflecting on my methods, it seems that some parts of a balanced approach have not been used to their utmost potential; this means that there has been a discrepancy in my beliefs and practice.    

            In my last model of reading theory I actually used the phrase “reading readiness” and now I’m a little ashamed. I previously stated that for reading instruction to be effective, the reader needed to have a basic understanding that text conveys a message, have some receptive language knowledge, and be aware of the functionality of reading and writing. It turns out that the same students that I previously would not have deemed “reading ready” were participating in shared reading with support where these developmental literacy skills were being modeled for them. Even though I was utilizing all aspects of a comprehensive literacy approach, what I considered to be “instruction” was systematic and skills based.

              Although I will continue to provide skills instruction to my students in the areas of phonics and phonemic awareness, I will be paying closer attention to the contexts surrounding these skills to make sure they are relevant to what we’re doing right now. If the students are not taught in which instances these skills will be needed, we can’t expect them to know when or how to use them. In the future I will also be expecting my students to produce more writing and for varied purposes. They will also be participating in reading and writing to learn in inquiry processes in the content areas. Perhaps because I completed my comprehensive literacy approach paper on inquiry, I now recognize this as a very effective method of delivering literacy instruction within the context of student guided research and as I was researching and writing myself, I was thinking of how I could adapt and model the process with my own students.

            Because my classroom is represented by many different developmental levels, I still agree with what I said previously that: “students can be exposed to the foundations of reading in a balanced approach, but instructional strategies and methods must be based on individual students’ abilities and readiness.” All of my students receive instruction in components of a comprehensive literacy approach but the level of support, engagement, and independence varies greatly. For this reason, I will differentiate instruction for the individual within the comprehensive literacy framework.