Learning to Read

One of the main questions we have discussed in English 383 is centered around how individuals learn, and what is the best technique to learn to read and then translate what one knows into intelligent writing. This is a bit off topic, but something that I found rather interesting. I just started volunteering at the Peter Paul Development Center in downtown Richmond, a Richmond Family Initiatives Project located in the center of four housing projects. What can reasonably be assumed from its location is that the children who attend this facility often struggle in academics. My role at this center is to tutor those children. Interestingly enough last week, I tutored a 5th grade boy in reading. As he read, he used the method of sounding the word out to say it, instead of automatically knowing what the word is/supposed to be. When reading the sentences aloud, he plowed through the words until he ran out of break, and this started up again. This can be related to the various types of errors. He completely disregarded any sort of punctuation. Although he did not write the paper, it really exemplifies how those that may be learning English as a second language have difficulty.