Dr. Brown
EDUC 313
21 April 2016
Reading Philosophy
As I have started my journey on the road to becoming a teacher,
I have begun to develop the crucial ideas that have lead to the
foundation of my reading philosophy. I have had the opportunities to
observe full classrooms, volunteer at after school centers, and work
one-on-one with young learners; each experience bringing a new set of
ideas on how I plan for my future classrooms. Although teaching
reading can seem like a daunting task because of how crucial of an
element it is in a childs educational journey, I truly believe that with
proper care it can be the most rewarding for the students and the
teacher. My philosophy for teaching reading and writing is centered on
the environment of the classroom, the style in which the classroom is
managed, the overall mindset of creating life-long learners, and the
fundamentals of literacy instruction.
The environment of a classroom should be deliberate in both
physical and mental proportions. Just as teaching reading and writing
can seem intimidating, it is also scary for the children to learn it if it is
not handled properly. Because of this, it is important to make the
environment of the room as welcoming and reading centered as
possible. I believe that it is best to have different parts of the room
designated for different subjects. If a room is cluttered with math,
differently, I say let them. If they make predictions about the text that
are far off, that is still wonderful. So long as the child is thinking deeply
about what they are reading, it will be more beneficial to them.
Finally, the fourth piece to my reading philosophy is the
understanding the importance of the fundamentals of literacy
instruction. This includes, but is not limited to, phonemic awareness,
phonological awareness, alphabetic principle, and a balanced literacy
program. Creating the concept of phonemic and phonological
awareness is not a small undertaking. Phonological awareness, The
understanding that spoken language consists of words, syllables,
rhymes, and phonemes, and the ability to act on that understanding,
and phonemic awareness, the understanding that individual
phonemes form meaningful words, should be taught in a way that
prepares the student for every piece of learning they will receive in the
future. These two skills are what set the foundation for all reading and
writing that children will learn; they are the critical attributes for
furthering the learning process of reading. Working with these two
areas can be done in a variety of ways, some more successful than
others. To teach phonemic awareness there are fun ways to go about it,
such as clapping or stomping out vowels or sounds. This not only
engages the children in a fun way, but it also connecting the idea of
sound to letters. Another way to improve this skill is by using phoneme
substitution, deletion, and addition. This is helping children have the
I have at hand and ensure that I am taking the time to invest in all the
students I have set for me in my future.