Play-filled Reading

   While learning about how children learn to read and the different strategies parents and teachers can use to help move the process along, I have often thought about my own experiences of learning to read.  If you ask any adult, many will say that one day it just clicked for them, and presto they could read.  However, for people like me, people that struggled with learning to read for various reasons, those sometimes painful memories are still vividly etched in my mind.  I can recall the many times I cried because the words are the page just would not make sense.  I remember groaning as if I were in pain when my parents said it was time to read for my Sustained Silent Reading. I can remember shrinking down in my chair and hiding behind my desk and books, hoping that the teacher would not call on me for popcorn reading. But mostly, I remember hating to read. It was hard. It was boring and I hated every moment of it. 
    The strategies my teachers used to improve my reading, in my opinion, did very little help.  They only strengthened my distaste for reading. It was drill after drill.  It was repetitive.  My teachers thought they were helping, but I was only spiraling down.  Everything changed on my 8th birthday. My parents bought Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Each night, my father would read a chapter to two from the book.  During this read-aloud, he would turn it into a production.  He would change his voice for the different characters and would even have me read aloud parts too.  This nightly ritual of a read aloud turn the switch on for me.  After we finished reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, I reread all on my own.  When I was done with it, my parents went out and purchased the second and third ones for me.  They were quickly devoured. 
     So what did my father do that finally let reading "click" for me?  My teachers were of course doing read-alouds in our classroom.  However, reading alone with my father was a special thing we did that was free of frustration and stress that I often felt while in the classroom.  He showed me how fun reading could be. If it was not getting too late, we would even act out scenes from the book.  I got to play with the book and reading, which I was not given time to do in the classroom. 
     In Chapter 6: Interactive Read-Aloud of Catching Readers Before They Fall by Pat Johnson and Katie Keier, the authors aim to change how children experience learning to read.  Their goal is to make learning to read enjoyable and interactive.  One method to get students to engage in reading is the interactive read-aloud.  Similar to a read aloud, this strategy takes it a step further.  The authors describe this method as "purposeful, planned instruction" that "provides the teacher time to model the reading process through think-alouds and interactive discussions" to help students "engage with books in a safe, risk-free environment."  Interactive read-alouds not only model the reading process, but they demonstrate mean-making and text connections, but to the self, other texts, and to the world.  Through these read-alouds, students can practice their developing reading skills with the help of their teacher and peers.  
     

Embracing Digital Literacy

    I, like most individuals my age, love to text. I rarely talk on the phone anymore.  I love the convenience of this form of communication.  I can easily communicate with friends and family members, while doing almost anything.  That being said, I am a stickler when it comes to texting.  I have an Iphone, which provides a full keyboard and gives me the ability to quickly write in complete sentences in standard English, punctuation included.  I hate when I receive a text message that is so weighed down with abbreviations and texting phrases (textisms) that I need a text message dictionary to decode it.  One would think that it is people my age or teens or adolescents that send me text messages like this, however, it is my mother.  No one's standard English communication is safe when it comes to texting.

    In a Voice of Literacy Podcast the host, Dr. Baker, has Dr. Michelle Drouin of Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne on the show.  Dr. Drouin is an Assistant Professor of Developmental Psychology and was recently published in the Journal of Literacy Research for her research regarding the effects of new technologies on language and literacy learning.  In the podcast, Dr. Drouin discusses her findings.  She surprisingly found that people who have a high use of textisms still have a high literacy rate.  Dr. Drouin suggests a possible reason for this is that texting allows people to play with language.  People are able to move between standard English and textisms very quickly.  When reading a textism, a person has to translate it back into standard English. Dr. Drouin cautioned that a negative effect of frequently using textisms is the inability to recall standard English.  So what does this mean for teachers and parents with students that text?
    Both parents and teachers need to stress the distinction between when it is appropriate and when it is not appropriate to use texting language. Textisms are an informal communication between friends.  Dr. Drouin states that they are appropriate in text messages, emails, and other social media sites among friends.  She says that textisms are not appropriate in school work or communicating with adults.  I would have to agree with Dr. Drouin.  It is hard enough translating a text from my mother, I cannot imagine how difficult it would be to try and translate a student's essay written message language.  
    In the age of digital literacy, do text messaging and textisms have a place in school? Should teachers teach this new form of communication? Now I doubt Text Messaging 101 will ever find its way into the elementary curriculum, but I think it can be integrated in some format.  As a preservice teacher, I spend two days a week at a local elementary school doing observation.  What I observe is this, children are becoming competent in advance technologies at an earlier and earlier age. Teachers can help students embrace and further understand this digital literacy by giving them outlets to use this new language.  I am not suggesting that textisms be used in essays. However, I think they would be a great way to communicate in creative writing or poetry.  Or perhaps they are a new genre of writing itself. This gives students the opportunities to play with language, which as Dr. Drouin states in her podcast increases literacy scores.   

To listen to Dr. Drouin's podcast, simple click on Voice of Literacy Podcast above!