Robin's Journey to Literacy
When learning how to read, Robin incorporated a variety of strategies that helped him become literate, even at the age of 50. One strategy I often saw Robin using was breaking individual words into chunks. He even looked for parts of the word that he already knew, no matter which part of the word it was, and worked from there. Most of the time it was basic parts, such as "rat" in congratulations. In this same way, he used letter patterns in words to help him discover what words were. Another strategy Robin used was pulling from his prior knowledge to determine if what he was reading made sense. Robin had figured out by this point that reading was supposed to make sense, so when he came to a word that he pronounced wrong or did not know, he was able to catch his miscue. He then thought about what would make sense grammatically and in the context and then could pull from what he knew about chunks or patterns to determine the word. Writing was also something that helped Robin. He thought about what he already knew about letters and sounds to come up with the spelling of the word. This writing was important to his reading skills as well. Lastly, the most important strategy that Robin had on his side was encouragement. This encouragement from friends, family and teachers motivated him to continue to read and write even when it was difficult.
This video really opened my eyes to how much in this world depends on reading. It is not only something that is done daily at school and for pleasure. It is needed for electronic communication, reading the newspaper, looking at advertisements and even going to the grocery store. Robin's story reminded me that it is important to take the time needed with every student and find ways to make them successful readers and writers for their future!
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