Coaching Young Minds

I noticed that for both readings this week, the common definition for reading was described, understanding meaning.  Although I enjoyed the book reading for different activities to use when teaching phonics and spelling patterns, I thought that the information presented by Clark was more beneficial.  I feel that coaching is more like scaffolding instead of making the student "sound it out".  Although the student may be able to effectively sound out a word, it does not necessarily mean that they understand what the definition of the word it.  Coaching seems to be a better way of going about teaching word recognition so that students understand words in various contexts.  I thought that this article did a wonderful job of reminding teachers the factors that needed to be considered when coaching.  These include:  vowels, the y sound when it is a vowel, consonant sounds, blends, silent letters, r-controlled vowels, context in which words appear, and known word parts.  There were also three stages of word recognition considered being:  selective-cue, spelling-sound, and automatic.  I think it is important for teachers to understand that when learning words, students must first pay conscious attention before mastering automatic recognition of words.  I think that is is also vital to break students up into coaching groups so that struggles in recognition and comprehension can be worked on.
Below is a video that shows ways for coaching context reading comprehension.

Reading Tutoring: Reading for Context

Sources:
 Clark, K. F.  (2004).  What can I say besides "sound it out?": Coaching word recognition in beginning reading.  The Reading Teacher, 57, 440-449.

Cunningham, P. M., & Allington, R. L.  (2010).  Teaching Decoding and Spelling Patterns.  (Chapter 5, Classrooms That Work.)