The
first process for children before reading or writing is Pre-reading and the
pre-writing; these concepts are the moment before the children read and write.
These two processes are essential because it prepares the students for the
activities they will do during all their lives. When we are adults, reading and
writing are actions that we do without problems, but if we don´t receive a good
input from the school we could have many problems in the future.
Maybe
this is easier if we train our children in the first language, but it´s more
complicated if we are training the students in a second language. The main aim
of learning a foreign language is that it should be attractive for parents easy
for teachers and workable for children, and in another way, make the children
be aware of other cultures. (Brewster and Ellis, 1991)
Obviously,
the first process is pre-reading, because if we do not identify the signs of words
or texts, the letters for instance, we are not able to write. So, how could we encourage
learners in these topics? Well, we can have some points that could help us:
-
We must be a language model,
explaining clearly and calm, giving examples correctly supported with actions
and gestures, so that students can copy or repeat.
- Is important to promote
activities and opportunities where the children are available to read or
develop their skills required for the language.
-
Adapt the material that we
have according to the age of the children.
-
Avoid constant translation,
only use the first language as a support.
-
Plan every lesson.
(Cloud,
Genesee, Hamayan, 2009)
Something
very important, that we should take into account is that the reading process is
not separated to other areas. For instance, we can use music, art, creativity and
other subjects joined to other skills to help learners to read with
satisfaction. Moreover, an important point is that we must look for those
learners that have more difficulties for learning another language, such as
students with dyslexia or from other countries…
After
the first process we have the pre-writing, which could start in the middle of
the process of reading. Normally, writing is connected to thinking or having
ideas, such as remembering choosing, selecting, ordering… When we talk about
learning how to write we should focus on technical aspects, spelling, pencil
control and hand-eye coordination, for instance. In the first stage, copying is
a good way to practise handwriting and consolidate their understanding of new
vocabulary, but never ask students at any level to write things they cannot
say. In the second stage we can focus on sentences and short texts, which
provide the opportunity of selecting and spelling correctly. (Brewster and
Ellis, 1991)
A
good activity for writing useful for all levels is to answer questions to a
story or a piece of music they have heard before, working with students in a
low level the teacher can read the story, and for higher level, they can read
the story. Later, they have to answer some questions to see if they understood
the whole story, or at least the main idea. They must write different types of
texts because is essential for a successful development of the skills, that is
why the teacher must create a lot of variety activities.
Teachers
work as detectives, because part of their duty is to investigate the interests
of each one of their students. This is a little bit difficult, but the pre-reading
can help us to discover the likes of children. They can choose any kind of
reading or writing, this means that the teacher should be able to give them
freedom to explore their topics, if they want to read a comic or a poem or a
little novel, depending in their age, they are allowed to read it, because the
goal is to get used to the words and the letters.
Now
I am going to put two activities for pre-reading and pre-writing forward. Obviously,
we can inspire our activities from others, changing things, or adapting the
same activity for another level. The first activity is connected with
pre-reading, and we are going to use a Beatrix Potter´s tail:
“Once upon a time there were four
little Rabbits, and their names were—
Flopsy,
Mopsy,
Cotton-tail,
and Peter.
They
lived with their Mother in a sand-bank, underneath the root of a very big
fir-tree…” (Beatrix Potter, 1989)
We
provide parts of the tail mixed up, they have to read carefully all the
fragments of the tail and classify them in order. After comparing with their
mates the teacher tells the story with flash cards with the pictures of Beatrix
Potter in order, during the tail the children will check their result, so the
action of pre-reading is done, but we also connected it with culture.
Now
let’s see an activity for pre-writing. This activity requires first a part of
listening to a little son of a musical. They will also watch the video of the
song. While they are listening they have to guess what happened before the song and what is going to happen after. They will write it and then
read it to the rest of the class, it doesn’t matter if the story is the real
one, they idea is to give them freedom to create their own story from that
song.
This
is the song they will hear.
Obviously,
they cannot know the name of the film or the song, they only need to hear the
music.
To
conclude, the teachers are the ones who must prepare the children for the
reading and writing actions. We can develop those skills if we take care of the
facilities and difficulties that our children may have, and create or adapt
activities for them. There are many ways to reach these goals, but one of the
most effective is to let them to read and write what they like, that will
create interest on them.
References:
- BREWSTER, J. AND ELLIS, G.
(1991). The Primary English Teacher´s
Guide. England: Pearson Education Limited.
- CLOUD, N., GENESEE, F. AND
HAMAYAN, E. (2009). Literacy Instructions
for English Language Learners. United States of America: Heinemann.
-
POTTER, B. (1989). Beatrix Potter. The Complete Tales. London:
Penguin Group.
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