Module Three Reading Reflection

Do you agree with Marilyn Adams (1990, p. 108) who argued that rather than relying on context, Skillful readers of English thoroughly process the individual letters of words in their texts. Why or why not?

I would have to disagree with Marilyn Adams’ statement.    I think that good readers rely on context to thoroughly process words, and not just the individual letters.  Reading is much more than just the identification of letters, especially with “skillful” readers. If readers are focusing on individual letters, than they are taking away from the overall meaning of the passage. The important thing to remember is reading is about constructing meaning, and not about identifying individual letters within the text.   

The activity on pg 92 and 93 proves readers don’t just look at the individual letters when reading. This activity provides a reading passage which required the reader to read when the individual letters were missing from a number of words within the passage. At first, I thought this would be a challenging activity, but quickly found this activity was quite easy to complete. I was able to read and construct meaning from the reading passage. During my reading, I didn’t process the individual letters, but could recognize familiar words or word parts from only part of the visual information available to me.  According to the text, readers process words in letter chunks, typically syllables and/or onsets and rimes. I felt this helped me in understand the reading passage, and I was able to find word meaning through the visual information even when the “word” itself wasn’t directly identified.

Another point I found interesting is phonics may play some role in reading instructions, however many of the rules that are taught do not apply a large percentage of the time. This was fascinating to me, as I feel schools tend to focus on phonics instruction for the younger grades. If we teach our students to only identify letters and use phonics rules to sound out words when reading, they are going to have a difficult time identifying many of the words they come across (2002, p. 101). However, by providing students with opportunities to read and practice skills students will become more proficient over time which will help to increase reading fluency. One thing I know as an educator, encouragement to read is a vital role in any reading instruction.