Teaching Directionality through Demonstrations

What strategies can the educator utilize to ensure that the child is

maintaining directionality?

From the Viewpoint of a Child• The child’s everyday experience has actually trained him in

different habits than those he needs in reading. An orange, a dog, or a favorite toy must be recognized from any angle when viewed. Meaning does not change when the object is small or large, back-to-front, is upside-down, or sideways to the viewer. Becoming Literate, p. 114

When the Child Enters School

• He/She has to learn that in one particular situation, when faced with printed language, flexibility is inappropriate.

• He/She must recognize some directional restrictions.• ALWAYS left to right in English.

Becoming Literate,p.114

Think About It… Any complex movement like hitting a golf ball, playing a violin or reading a

book must be organized or patterned. Study the letters in each of these blocks.

t d

v m

s w

l g

Becoming Literate, p.115

When you are traveling in the car do some of the signs written on the road cause you to look twice?

How did you write the letters?• tdvm; swlgOur reading habits tend to make us survey letter

and word patterns from top left to top right and then return down left and repeat the pattern.

1__________________________2

Start Move to right

3Return down left

4__________________________5Move to right

Becoming Literate, p. 115

The child’s eyes have to scan according to the serial order rules of the written language without conscious attention.

Demonstrations are suggested; talk may increase the confusions.

Literacy Lessons Part Two, p.6

Complex movement patterns to be learned include

attending to a left page before a right pagemoving from the top of the page downwardsmoving left to right across a line of printreturning back to the left of the next lineusing the spaces to control attention to wordsattending left to right across a wordknowing how and where to find what the teacher calls the ‘first letter’ or the ‘last letter’and (ultimately) scanning every letter rapidly in sequence from first to last without lapses.

Literacy Lessons Part Two, p.6

Shared Reading•The teacher uses a pointer to point to each word as it is read, allowing the children to follow along with their eyes, looking left-to-right.•The teacher may choose a child to “be the teacher,” using the pointer to lead the remaining group or class. •The teacher may write the text on sentence strips and have the children put the strips in the correct order.•The teacher may choose a word from the reading for the children to predict. The teacher covers the word with paper, slowly uncovering the word until it is revealed. As the letters of the word are revealed, the children make predictions. The paper is moved from left-to-right during the unveiling of the word.

Interactive WritingThe teacher can perform a read aloud before the story is composed.During the establishment of the text, the children must read left-to-right when deciding what word comes next.The teacher must also prompt the re-reading of the text once it is complete.The children may also practice the formation of a letter or high frequency word that the teacher deems necessary on a small whiteboard.

The teacher must monitor these directional behaviors for a period of time and help the child to act consistently and correctly across all print activities.

Literacy Lessons Part Two

Paired Reading• Form of choral reading done by two readers, one more

proficient than the other.• Pairs can be made up of teacher and child, parent and child,

teacher aide and child, etc.• Student chooses the reading material.• Partners sit side by side.• One partner, usually the student, follows along with a finger,

using one-to-one matching.

On most occasions a child will show an adequate directional pattern, but sometimes he will produce surprising results.

Reading: The Patterning of Complex Behavior, p. 127

Surprising ResultsChild: Go go go go Text: Go Tim

Child: Tim up Text: Go up

Child: Up Tim Text: Go up Tim

Child: Up up up Text: Go up up up

This child’s reading was word perfect, but this was only discovered because he was asked to read it with his finger. If a teacher frowned on pointing, she would not discover this handicapping behavior (which had probably been learned after entry to school).

Reading: The Patterning of Complex Behavior, p.127

Guided Reading•Form of oral reading that is performed by the child in a small group setting using leveled readers.•Teacher can observe the child while reading.•Teachers can also show children how to read and help them as they read. •Title of book read by teacher and located by student.•Teacher performs a “picture walk.”•In the early stages of reading, children use their index finger to match the words. (make sure they point at the beginning of each word, not in the middle or end.) Also, the book’s format should be consistent with print appearing at the same place on every page.

Making Words

Possibilities:• words from a set of letters• words with the same first letter• words with the same final

letter• words found within other

wordsObservations:• Teacher models left-to-right

behaviors when making words• Child constructs the word• Collaboration within a small

group

QUESTIONS TO THINK ABOUT

• How are the letters of a code different from familiar objects in the world?

• How do the eyes learn to scan print?• Which way are the child’s eyes

moving?

Important to Remember•We can scan objects, faces, and pictures by moving the eyes in any direction, but a printed message must be scanned in a different manner.•‘Read it with your finger’ is a direction given by the observer to get some impression of how the eyes learn to scan print and which way the child’s eyes are moving.•Strategies that are used to teach directionality should flow with everyday teaching concepts.•Once the directional rules have been learned, children rarely give conscious attention to them.•There is nothing natural about directional movement: it is arbitrary. It seems so simple to us that it is difficult for us to respect its importance.

Literacy Lessons Part Two, p. 105