It is vital for students to learn how to read as soon as possible. It is this function that is the most important out of all of the educational goals. In order for children to begin reading they need to have a good foundation for symbol recognition. This means that children need to understand what the letter “a” looks like, and sounds like. These skills are usually taught at the preschool level, or at home. Children that have not been taught these skills prior to entering Kindergarten have a 60 percent chance of failure in that grade. Reading is the key fundamental to all education, as all education is based on presenting material in written format for comprehension. Students must be able to take instructions and they must be able to apply those instructions for their assignments. If a student is unable to read, he or she will be destined for failure in school.
The basic approaches for teaching reading to young students is by starting with the basics. This includes teaching letters and sounds. After the letters and sounds have been mastered, teachers are able to put letters together and begin to form sounds. This is when students can have word recognition with words like “mom” or “dad” or “cat.” These are basic words that students learn to read that follow consistent rules and guidelines. This is also a good way to approach short sounds and long sounds. The next step is to begin to integrate blends, followed by sight words and silent vowel rules. It will take a child up until the third grade to master the key blends that they are taught, and by then they should be working on expanding their vocabulary and not just basic reading skills. Teachers have been provided a prescribed method on how to teach reading, and each student should be able to follow the basic routine without any stress.
