Prior to reading chapter 4 from the book by Tompkins (2022), I had a very surface level understanding of phonics, phonological awareness, and ways that it can be taught. While reading how to develop phonological awareness, one quote in particular really stuck out to me. "Phonemic awareness requires that students treat speech as an object, to shift their attention away from the meanings of words to examine the linguistic features of speech" (Tompkins et. al., 2022). This stood out to me because it presented another way to consider and view the steps to literacy and being phonetically aware. When we think of literacy, we often spend a lot of time focusing on the meaning of a word or words in a sentence. While it makes sense, it is a much different way to think that we must first see the word "dig" as its parts, /d/ /i/ /g/, before we can understand it as its meaning, breaking down something and moving it.
In the Yopp (2000) article, there was another quote that held a lot of meaning. "Furthermore, teachers must recognize that while sensitivity to the sound basis of language supports literacy development, it is also an outcome of literacy experiences. Therefore, to overemphasize this component of literacy instruction in the initial years of schooling is to limit children's opportunities for more comprehensive literacy development" (Yopp, 2022, p.132). This quote caused me to reflect on many of the past articles we have read such as Kucer (2015), Muhammad (2020), and Cline & Neccochea (2003). Each of these readings touched on the importance of considering and acknowledging students' previous experiences. Kucer (2015) also discusses how ignoring students previous literacy experiences limits their literacy development. Muhammad (2020) and Cline & Neccochea (2003) all show the importance of giving students credit where it is due, creating experiences for them to excel in, and how different experiences can cultivate the genius within different minds. All of these points from the different articles helped me reflect on the different experiences of my previous classmates, current students, and even myself. Thinking back I can see where much of the curriculum was based on students with lives similar to mine, whereas some of my classmates may have been left behind by the exclusive material. This quote also relates to many of Tompkins' (2022) points on differentiated and balanced instruction. By incorporating their different methods for these types of instruction, more students will be reflected in the curriculum and reactive to the instruction.
Throughout our class discussions, we each have shared different parts of our literacy journey. While many of us shared similar experiences, others are different. One of our classmates didn't even notice the aspects of CRT she missed out on until we learned about it in class. Our different experiences show the different paths to literacy and how aware we must be of our students' and their identities so that they are not limited.
References
Cline, Z., & Necochea, J. (2003). My mother never read to me. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 47(2), 122–126.
Kucer, S. (2015). Literacy: Varied, dynamic, and multidimensional. Journal of Family Strengths, 15(2),
Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The Reading Teacher, 54(2), 130–143. https://doi.org/10.1598/rt.54.2.2
I really appreciate how you drew connections across the readings for this week (Yopp & Yopp and Tompkins) *AND* you also made connections to our previous readings of both Muhammad and Cline and Neccochea. As you say so well Adeline, it is important to give sufficient attention to the our language -- both spoken and written -- as "objects" that have important 'parts,' and it is also equally important to allow our literacy learners many different types of activities to use their developing spoken and written language in meaningful ways.
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