Teaching Reading

I really enjoyed reading the Tompkins chapter 2 for this week's class. It was interesting reading about teaching reading. I really like the concepts about the alphabet that is talked about in the chapter. Tompkins states, "Young children also develop concepts about the alphabet and how letters are used to represent phonemes. Pinnell and Fountas have identified these components of letter knowledge: the letter's name, the formation of the letter in upper- and lowercase, the features of the letter that distinguish it from others, the direction the letter must be turned to distinguish it from other letters, the use of the letter in known words, the sound the letter represents in isolation, the sound the letter represents in combination with others, and the sound the letter represents in the context of a word" (88).

These concepts of children learning the basics of the alphabet are very interesting. Students must have these understandings of the alphabet in order to build on their skills in reading. As a future teacher, I know the importance that the alphabet plays in students learning how to read, and will therefore work very hard to make sure my students are comfortable with these alphabet concepts.

In teaching my reading lesson to a first grade class, the Tompkins chapter 2 helped me grasp concepts that will help me in designing my lesson plan. Because my first graders are just beginning to read and are still struggling with reading, I will concentrate my lesson around alphabet concepts. I believe a lesson based around these alphabet concepts will greatly benefit my first graders and will make my lesson plan an effective one.