Module 3: Activity 2

I definitely agree that phonics and phonemic awareness are very important aspects that contribute to successful reading and readers. However, I do not agree that just because a child or student can phonetically read are they actually reading. Reading, in my opinion, is the combination of phonemic awareness and metacognition, or the thinking while reading. It is great to hear the student in the video can “crack the code” of the sounds, however, is he reading if we don’t know if he understands what he is reading or what he is thinking or connecting to? I feel that this student is only half way reading because we are unsure of his thinking process. As teachers, especially in the primary grades, we focus a lot on phonemic awareness and not so much on the strategies of reading (i.e. retelling, summarizing, visualizing, predicting, connecting, etc.). This, as I have experienced from teaching 3^rd and now 4^th grade, has caused some issues within the intermediate grade levels because the students lack the foundation of gaining meaning from reading. Thus, as teachers, we are not building proficient readers by just teaching phonemic awareness. In order to successfully teach reading I believe we need to have a balance between teaching phonics and reading strategies. When students are exposed to both strategies then they will have the necessary foundation to become proficient readers.