Parts to a Whole

As a mother of a 7 year old and a 4 year old, I am very aware of how phonemic awareness aids children through the process of learning to read.  The Yopp and Yopp article about phonemic awareness mentioned the use of Dr.  Seuss to help beginning readers learn about the importance of how the slightest change of letters and sounds in a word can have a big impact on the meaning of a word.  Children who read books such as those by Dr. Seuss begin to learn that there are different parts to a word that give the word its meaning.  I used books by Dr. Seuss as a reading aid when my oldest son was learning to read, and I definitely plan on using them soon as my four year old starts to read.

In Clark's "Sound it Out" article, I really liked how she explained how teachers can coach beginning readers about words by asking them questions, rather than just telling them the answer.  In my opinion, children learn and remember significantly more information when they are encouraged to think about how they can come up with a solution to a problem on their own.  By asking students to recognize a word by piecing together sounds and combinations of letters they already know, the students learn how to figure out words by themselves, and they also know why the sounds are important to the meaning of the word.