Making Sense of it All

I've shared all of the reading experiences that I had with Cindy but I've yet to tell you how this experience has changed by beliefs about learning to read. I always thought that reading was a matter of breaking up and sounding out a words (phonics method). Now I understand that it goes much farther than simply reading a word correctly. A child must be able to comprehend what (s)he is reading or there really is no point in reading at all. Gretchen Owocki and Yetta Goodman's book Kidwatching: Documenting Children's Literacy Development is basically a teacher's guide to evaluating a child's reading strategies and finding the best methods that will enhance a child's reading experience. They stated:
"Kidwatching teachers use miscue analysis to help them understand how young readers are making sense and to observe them in the process of constructing meaning. They listen to children read a whole story or article without interruption because they know that when students are permitted to work out their strategies, teacher discover their ability to learn from the text" (63).
I was so lucky to have Cindy as my Audit Trail partner because she helped me understand that it is important to focus on what a child already knows and to use that knowledge to discover new things (such as reading strategies). Whenever we had to break apart a word or sound it out, Cindy was using the knowledge that she already had in order to make sense of what she was reading and I was able to use her knowledge as a way to guide her without simply giving her the answers! Reading is no longer about the phonics of things but simply the ability to comprehend a piece of literature!