Letters Represent Sound

It was a lot of fun meeting and reading with our Kindergarten buddies. As I read through chapter one through three in our Fox text, I was able to see some connections between the readings and the first day experience in kindergarten. I really enjoyed seeing how “rubber band stretching” helps children hear sounds in words in actual practice in the classroom with the word: mop. Clapping to bring the letters back together and saying the word is a nice visual and great way to tie the concepts together. I do not remember using this technique in my own elementary school experience, but it makes sense that by elongating the sound of letters, it enforces the concept of teaching kids how “Letters represent sound.”

During the getting to know our kindergartener introduction piece, I was able to see “the strategy of associating meaning with the print in our everyday surroundings” (chapter 3) into practice. When my partner and I asked our kindergarten buddy, what is your favorite television show? She said, “Scooby Doo.” She drew this below:

When we asked, what does your drawing mean? She said, “Shaggy.”

When we asked, what is your favorite food? She said, “eggs.” She drew this below:

In my main placement, another child in first grade drew the letter M on his mother's shirt in one of his illustrations.  I was able to infer and also confirm by asking that his mother worked at McDonalds.

During the reading aloud section to our kindergarten buddy, this young girl was very excited for us to read the story, Ella Sarah Gets Dressed by Margaret Chodo-Irvine because she was already familiar with the story. When I asked her what the title of the book was, she said, “She gets dressed.” This relates to the section in our Fox text book describing “the strategy of inferring meaning from illustrations.” This was also a good example showing how young kids love to read books over and over again. Our K buddy was very eager to tell us what would happen next in the story which was a good indication of comprehension.

Also during the read aloud, our K buddy recognize the word, “no” in the text. However when I showed her the word “no” in a different book and a different font, she hesitated and was not sure. It is interesting how different fonts and unfamiliar context can change a child’s perception of a word. I never thought about the different visual display of letters before in teaching children to read.  There is more going on than what I thought when it comes to understanding and assessing where children are in their reading ability and helping them build on their skills.  It was nice the text provided sample activities to help with kids' phonemic awareness.  I am eager to see how my K buddy does while I administer the Emergent Literacy Profile Record during our next meeting.