The Roots of Reading

The ROOTS OF READING ¿ Writing is the ability to leave information through symbols while reading is the ability to retrieve information previously written. ¿ Writing is transcribing words we speak into understandable symbols that we see. ¿ We are not born speaking but we are wired to acquire the speech that we hear in a relatively short time flawlessly. ¿ We have the inherent capacity to form concepts and label concepts with words. ¿ Reading is an outgrowth of speaking. It follows that to be a good reader one must be a fluent speaker and commands a wide range of vocabulary. ¿ Unlike speaking, we need to be taught to read and write. We build a vocabulary of using symbols to represent the sounds that make up words. Similarly we represent auditory signs with visual signs. These signs are represented by the letters of the alphabet. ¿ We communicate verbally through speaking and listening. ¿ For written communication, we use writing (sending a message) and reading (retrieving message). The method of representing sounds that make up words with signs is called phonics. ¿ Writing is simply representing the sounds (letters) we use in saying a word. Reading is retrieving the message we wrote. ¿ Analyzing the sounds that make up a word is called decoding. Choosing letters to represent the sounds of the word we want to say is encoding. Decoding and encoding are the cornerstones of reading and writing. ¿ At first the process of decoding is slow but with practice, automaticity sets in and decoding is faster. Decoding then is reading. ¿ To be an effective reader one needs to develop a subset of skills as follows: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension.