Last week for ELED 422 we read an article on academic language, and in it Stephen Krashen and Clara Lee Brown talked about the idea of learning information and words through narrow reading and natural repetition. Narrow reading is a kind of reading strategy in which you read many texts on a single topic or written by a single author. The idea is that by reading similar things you will come across many of the same words over and over again (natural repetition) and it will help you learn those words. Seeing the words repeatedly through reading is much more meaningful than reviewing flashcards. I really liked the Ten Important Words Plus Strategy because it incorporates learning words through meaningful mediums and in a natural way. I liked how the kids had to deal with the words in a variety of approaches. How many of us remember things we had to memorize for a test a month later? I certainly don’t, but I can still remember some of the more engaging activities I participated in in elementary school. The more children can see words in different contexts and in interesting ways the more likely those words are to stick with them.
I really agree with the idea that narrow reading and natural repetition can help children with the process of learning to read. I know I use Dr. Seuss in a lot of my examples, but his books are full of word repetition and rhyming, which can be used as tools for narrow reading activities.
ReplyDeleteI have also mentioned in class that my mom used to read to me and my siblings every night, and since we didn't have a ton of books, we ended up listening to the same ones over and over. This repetition definitely helped me learn to read, because I remember "knowing" what words went where because I recognized what my mom had read.