Module 4: Activity 1

This was a very moving and powerful video in a sense that it provided me with a scenario of a grown man that had the passion to learn how to read, and therefore stuck to his goal. He developed a purpose for learning how to read and as teachers we can motivate our students to want to learn to read by providing them with a purpose. Each child should feel excitement and experience the desire to learn to read, as well as read books of their choice. Providing students with the opportunity to read something that sparks their interest will motivate them to become avid readers.

            After watching the video, I realized that Robin began to notice “chunks” of words. He was able to chunk different parts of a word together in order to gain meaning. For example, he was able to break apart the word nothing. He right away noticed the “ing,” and pronounced the word as “noticing.” He was then able to go back and correct himself to recite the correct word of “nothing.” I observed that when Robin was reading and writing, he used his background knowledge to see if the writing or text was making sense. For example, when Robin was reading the phrase, “I’ll give you some when it is ready.” He first began to read, “give” as gave. He was then able to realize that the word “ give” did not fit in the context of the sentence. When Robin was writing, he knew exactly what to say, but was unsure at first how to correctly write the words. He was able to sound out the words until he wrote it correctly and made sense in his sentence that he was creating. It was amazing to hear the story about this man and how learning how to read changed his life.