Saturday, December 12, 2009
How children learn to read.
It was intersting to watch the video Biomapping the Brain and see the researchers looking for the signs discussed in the article "How Children Learn to Read." According to the video if a student hears a sound just a tenth of a second different than everyone else than the whole brain will interpret that information differently. This is being proven by the brain waves of students with dislexia by the researchers in the video. Students who have a language based learning disability show signs of misunderstanding sound and making connections between sounds and letters & signs. I was very interested in seeing that some students may actually be writing or doing operations that their brains are telling them from this time delay. It is not that students don't know something but instead are being given misleading information from their own interpretations. The researchers in the video combined their findings with the use of a specialized tudor to help students to become more accurate with hearing sounds and interpreting these sounds into letters and signs. I agreed whole heartedly with the article that we read which said a blanced approach to reading is the best approach. I am a student of the whole language era and I have always struggled with grammar and writing accurately. Although I have never had trouble with reading and comprehension. I worry that some school districts today are headed back with the pendulum to whole language. This only becomes more important in the future with research showing that students with disabilities require more intense phonics instruction than regular education students. I also agree with the advice to parents to be involved in their child's learning process by finding out more about the reading program that is used in their school. The warning signs listed in the article are also good advice for parents to look for to make sure that their children succeed. I think that this article would be good for any parent to read that has a child about to enter the school system. I think the video Biomapping the Brain would be good for anyone who teaches students to view. It sheds a different light onto why students with learning disabilities behave and respond the way that they do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Brian,
ReplyDeleteI watched the same video as well as the reading the brain and both of the videos reall gave you a great understanding of how learning disabilities like dyslexia really are a malfunction with the brain activity. It was nice that in the Brain Reading video the doctors would show the students their brain activity and explain to them why they were having such trouble. I thought that was a great self help tool for the children to understand what was happening in their bodies and to know that with help and training they would be able to read and understand language at a very normal rate. The article on How to read was not to detailed, but gave a nice refresher of each learning concept. I personally like the phonics style better as well and am using with my son who is only 2 and a half. Learning the sounds and letters is so important to building that foundation for reading. I thought your analysis of the article and video was great. I agree that schools heading back to whole language might be in for a long road. I think a combination of both systems is best, with the foundation in phonics.
It is so amazing at how much we can learn from our brain! I loved this video! I too worry that some school districts will rely more on whole language approaches instead of a balanced approach with phonetics and whole language. I use both in my classroom with my students. I really relied a lot on letters and letter sounds when my students were first learning to read but now that they are able to spell and decode words with the skills and strategies I taught them in the beginning of the year they are able to tackle the words. Both is best!! I totally agree 100%
ReplyDeleteBrian you watched the same video as Ryan and I agree that it is so amazing what can be found by studying the brain. I think that with more studies the information found could be used for diagnosis, not alone, but with other criteria. Who knows maybe brain imaging information could be used to help aid in interventions for these disabilities.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your approach and response to the article as well. I think that a balanced approach in teaching reading is a great idea. It doesn't limit yourself to one approach and gives your students many ways to learn. I like to hear that you are taking the article and giving real world experiences, it helps your group members to see what other teacher are doing in their classrooms so that one day we can also use these ideas.