Reading Response #6

Phonological memory, rapid naming, and phonological awareness are important factors in determining a child's reading skills. Development in these areas during middle childhood is all based on memory and - as discussed with Ehri - building a bank or reserve of words you can identify at first sight. By age 8 or 9, you don't have to read the word "cat" and sound it out, you just know it's "cat". Phonological memory goes along with this in the sense that it is the ability to recall that "ph" makes an F sound or that two O's together make an "oo" sound. As children get older, they no longer have to think about this, they just remember it and can apply it to new words. Even if they've never seen the word "philosophy" before, they can at least know that it starts with an F sound.
Phonological awareness is the ability to identify rhymes, alliteration, etc... I noticed when I was a tutor with Reading Partners that many students who were slow readers in other areas were quick to pick up on rhyming words-- both written and said aloud. Seeing "call" and "ball" next to each other was easy for them to notice that both words ended in "-all" and they knew the two words rhymed. My students had more difficulty with phonological memory and rapid naming. Many were a grade or two behind in where their reading level should have been. They could identify very simple monosyllabic words easily, but had difficulty with blended sounds and longer words. Even now with the first and second grade students I teach creative writing to after school, I see many having difficulty with this.

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As an experiment, I decided to take the first paragraph from a paper I wrote in 8th grade and calculate the mean number of words per T-Unit. The following is an actual writing sample of mine from middle school, when I was about a month shy of turning 13 years old:

I want to be a graphic designer, fashion designer, or a webpage designer when I grow up. I like this job because I enjoy working on the computer, and I like to draw and design things all the time. This job also sounds like fun, and I think it pays well, too. If I can’t get that job, then my alternative is becoming a writer. However, graphic designer is my first choice.

 I counted 7 T-Units, and calculated the average to be about 10 words/T-Unit. I noticed that I used adverbial conjuncts and conjunctive links like "and", "however", "also", and "because". There is something about the static quality of the writing, however, that feels very immature - despite my use of these higher-level grammar tools. I was an avid reader in elementary and middle school, and I remember that I often would try to mimic the writing styles in the books I enjoyed.
All I can conclude from this analysis is that this sample is a fairly standard example of the literacy abilities of a middle school student.