There are quite a few major differences between a skills approach to literacy and a sociopsycholinguistic or comprehensive view. One of the first differences is that the skills approach focuses on teaching from the bottom up, meaning students are first taught the letters and letter-sound relationships, before they move on to learning the words. Once students learn the words, they are then able to determine the meaning. A sociopsycholinguistic view, on the other hand, is a whole-to-part approach, meaning the reading is using his or her own schema and what is in the text to understand the meaning of the word.
Another difference between these two views is that the skills approach starts with teaching phonemic awareness, then moves on to phonics, next is the automatic and rapid word recognition, and finally the meaning. The comprehensive view involves a more circular approach in that letter-sound relationships, words and their meanings, schemas, context, and virtual aspects of words and texts are all interrelated and are used together to understand the text.
Hi Amanda,
ReplyDeleteYour reading reflection mirrored mine in terms of how you explained each approach's method. Since your graduation in 2009 and your experience with 2nd and 5th grade, what is your stance on a preferred method? What kinds of approaches do you feel your students have experienced at a charter school, and are you able to recognize them more easily as an ELA teacher? I taught kindergarten for one year and second grade for six years. I felt the skills approach taught in my methods courses was helpful to students, but I am now learning a more comprehensive approach as I begin to dive into Montessori texts. As of yet, the comprehensive approach (as supported by the text) just seems more plausible, but I will be able to better justify that after some Montessori training in the future.
Elizabeth,
ReplyDeletePersonally, I think I prefer the comprehensive approach. I feel that students need to look at the passage as a whole to truly see what it is about. I think you must be able to look at a whole sentence in order to determine the meaning of one word. I am also a firm believer in using what you know to create your own comprehension.
While observing my students, I think they were taught previously with a skills approach. Many of my students were not able to look at the whole picture to see what it was about. They had difficulty with this and it was something that I tried to work with to also allow them to see the whole as well as the part.