Learning to Reading At Mistwood

What does this mean? 

Cross-Curricular: “Instruction that intentionally applies multiple academic disciplines simultaneously, is an effective way to teach students transferable problem solving skills, give real-world meaning to school assignments, and increase engagement and rigor.” This means that you will not see a class or curriculum labeled "reading",  "phonics" or “writing” because literacy skills are being addressed across all our classes everyday. 

Holistic Approach Literacy: Mistwood’s holistic approach to literacy consists is eclectic consisting of three parts in the grammar school: 1- Whole Language reading instruction,  2-Phonics, and 3-Holistic view of Language

• Whole Language Reading Instruction: In the simplest terms, the whole-language approach strives to teach children to read words as whole pieces of language. Influenced by the Constructivist Theory, proponents of the whole-language methodology believe that children draw from their perspective and prior experiences to form the framework for new knowledge. This form of instruction is taught using a holistic approach, meaning that children do not learn to break down sounds individually but to take words at face value and associate them with prior knowledge. Think of it as the way we learn to speak a language. So, if a child sees the word “dog” written enough times with a picture of a dog he or she will then associate that word, in its entirety, with the idea of a dog. A study done in Scotland showed that young students who learn to read using only a phonics-based program read at a significantly slower pace and understand less than those who are in a classroom that utilizes a blended approach. This trend continued when the students were 11 years old, with many of them years behind their peers in identifying new words. The difference was even more pronounced when these students were in university, many of them years behind their peers in fluency, comprehension, and vocabulary.

• Phonics:  Phonics is an academic approach to teaching reading where instruction develops an understanding of the connection between the letters and their sounds.  The English language has 44 phonemes and the knowledge of these can enhance the reading learning process.  Phonics is taught through stories, crafts and activities. Research suggests that phonics is particularly beneficial for younger students (4−7 year olds) as they begin to read. Teaching phonics is more effective on average than other approaches to early reading (such as whole language or alphabetic approaches), though it should be emphasized that effective phonics techniques are usually embedded in a rich literacy environment for early readers and are only one part of a successful literacy strategy.

• Holistic View of Language: A holistic view of language does not attempt to separate out the act of reading from comprehension of the content. Program’s embracing a holistic approach to language understanding that comprehension of the material is the fundamental purpose of reading. Instruction therefore focuses on what the student needs to learn to be able to have adequate comprehension of the whole text, not of the exact details of phonic and fluency. This view also reaches to writing AND interpretation of a variety of media. Multi Media literacy is a focus of our group 3-5 literacy program.