Joy of Reading through Phonics approach

Phonics approach of learning sounds can be helpful and effective if they are taught at a very early age as young as three. This will help students to read and write better is the stand I take. You can ask me how?

Phonics is introduced in the kindergarten and Montessori approach with the books which are available in the market which are just teaching the basic sounds like ‘buh’ ‘kuh’ and so on. Is it all about phonics?

Then what is Phonics all about? Phonics is the letter sound relationship. A child has to undergo this with a proper phonics instruction, which if done by grade three or four he will be able to read independently. If not taught what happens? The child who enters the school with all enthusiasm will soon find themselves struggling to read. Now, as everyone knows English is the basis for learning all the subjects. What is the solution for this? As we all know that Reading is a key to success in school and poor readers fail miserably and this decreases their motivation to read books.

Young learners need to be motivated and empowered with the phonics knowledge which will lead to good wide vocabulary and he is able to read any book at ease. There are lots of research done in this reading aspect and how much a child should have is the question? There are two types of reading silent reading and oral reading. As a silent reader a child of grade 1 should have a speed of 80 wpm and oral reading of 53 words per minute. Then, as educators think how much of effort is required to bring a child to this standard. A child should be motivated to read and understand them and that is how reading and vocabulary goes hand in hand. Then how we should do this is the biggest question?

Then, but how does this phonics work? Phonics vs English whole Language is important aspect where English comprises of 26 letters which are having 44 -45 speech sounds and the 87 phonograms and 70 common spellings which will help them to understand the letter sound clearly and able to read any word at ease. Then, how is this going to help? If he can read better, he will gain interest in reading and this leads to improving his vocabulary and will be able to appreciate reading a variety of books.

Many studies prove that phonemic awareness ie., the ability to identify the individual sounds in words and phonics is letter sound relation are essential for skilled reading especially in the early readers. We can classify readers as early reading, assisted reading, independent reading and fluency reading. Now, to reach the fluency reading, one can understand the child should be able to go through a systematic phonics program which will lead him to a complete package which will give him a path to understand the  English whole language approach.

Let us make an early start to teach children as there are two ways to provide systematic instruction ie., phonemic awareness and phonics which helps in decoding words and encoding ie., constructing words. Blending the letters and understanding it as a word and teaching it with sight words age appropriate will make a young learner appreciate and read it easily.

We can now say,  phonics is not just helping in reading, but writing and expands your vocabulary for the simple reason is when children go through the concept of understanding a known word with an unknown word he will able to understand the word families and their meanings and apply it in a sentence. This will help him to gain tremendous vocabulary and able to appreciate reading of books.

So, I feel reading must be a joy, and not a pain. Hence, I am of the opinion Phonics must be taught from a very early age and in a very systematic manner which will lead the child a stress free life.

                                                                                                                     DR VATSALA IYENGER

Disagreements between parents. Will it hamper the overall growth of a child?

I set my memory to work. I look into tracking my mind on my parents. I ask to myself who held the highest standards to me, was it my father? Or was it my mother? I could look into tracking my memories and say “My father” and the second thought immediately crosses my mind and says “My mother”. Hence my mind could conclude and say “both”. Now our children also compares us now and I feel any child above the age of six or seven, who wishes to commit himself will answer very quickly when posed a question before him. Perhaps, you all might look back and decide who was the stricter parent at home? Did your parents have disagreements at home? How did you feel about it?

I would ask a question to myself and say “Is there any parent couple where the children would consider them equally firm or equally easy?

Well matched parents will naturally disagree. In my opinion when the members of the married pair are pretty well matched mentally and pretty nearly equal in respect to an attitude matter and how they nearly think alike and also their points of view and judgments with regard to matters of common interests to them, then they will surely differ and just as the disagreement will follow. At this point, the child will look confused and he will start feeling insecure and torn between the parents.

Then, how to look into this issue? A man and wife who are intelligent and self-respecting should accept the faith that as soon as the first child is born they will have differences of opinions as to the child’s rearing. So the parents have to accept the fact and they must face it and each parent / parents must acquire sportsmanship when each learn to disagree with the other without getting angry and listen quickly  and patiently to what the other has to say. The parents have to reveal their readiness to the other and try to get to the other’s point of view and maintain a high degree of mutual consideration and courtesy and self-control.

Now, disagreeing is a common thing between parents, but how intelligently we look into it and not lose our attitude with the other is important. But if such disagreements are expressed before the child’s presence tremendous damage is done to him. So I conclude and tell from the point of the child as to how difficult for the child is to handle two bosses? Are we parents are bosses to a child? Do you want to your child to suffer because of the disagreements you do before the child? Ponder for a minute or two and you will start feeling that as a parent we are both matured and acquire a bit of sportsmanship and make our child happy and give him a secured platform. At the end, your child will look upon you both and say “I love both the parents” when asked by anyone and as a parent you will raise your head above others and in the mind now you can tell confidently “I am a good parent”

Crash Course Schedule 2018 Day wise details

15 days Certified Crash Course in Montessori & Nursery Education

PSTTI being a pioneer institute in successfully imparting Montessori, Nursery and Early Childhood Care and Education courses, offers a 15 days Job directed Crash Course. This is absolutely practical oriented course with a blend of Montessori and Nursery concepts. This will be helpful for all Educators/ Teachers/ people interested to pursue a career in the foundation level of Pre-Primary field/ Entrepreneurs looking to start a Preschool/ Home makers looking to turn into professionals etc.

The course module is designed in such a way that it provides in-depth pragmatic knowledge on the art of handling preschoolers and hands-on training would be provided on Montessori material handling. On successful completion, Certificate will be awarded.

School Management by Mrs Gurjit Kaur

Today subject ~School Management by Mrs Gurjit Kaur Bhatia 

Topic is School Administration Effective and Innovative Ways of School of Teaching EVS And GK to Preschoolers.

learning objectives/outcome ~ the learner’s will learn about the Recording and Reports Maintained by the Administration.The Learner’s will be aware About different types of records,cumulative records Health Records,Anecdotal records.The learner’s will learn about some important Registers/Records to be maintained in a Preschool strategies to teach EVS and GK(theme based).

LEARNING DISABILITY WORKSHOP AT PSTTI RAMAMURTHYNAGAR BANGALORE

Learning disability workshop At PSTTI Ramamurthynagar

by

 Padma Shastry,

Director,

SAMAM VIDYA 

Workshop on ‘Learning disorders - Processing disorders simulation lab’ by Padma Shastri, Founder Samam Vidya at PSTTI. The session focuses on understanding the difficulties faced by children with SLD’s. It helps to greatly understand that SLD’s are not a disease but a disorder which can be managed adequately by a person with proper knowledge of effective handling. The workshop gives a first hand experience on the practical difficulties faced by these children and how these difficulties make learning difficult for a child.