Macey's ch. 1 reflection

The first chapter in “On Solid Ground” was kind of interesting to me because I could relate what it talked about to what I observed in my first semester of field experience. I was working with the first grade, so they were right at the time where they are learning a lot of phonics and learning to read.

In one section, the chapter talks about the way that children can look at a story and may be able to read it because they can try to figure out what makes sense. I noticed when the students read to me that a lot of them would look at the pictures or try to think about what the word could be even before trying to sound it out. It is true that they may be able to read a story but not be able to read single words out of context.

One thing I was a bit unsure of was the part about learning through analogy. While I was in the classroom, I often tried to get my students to understand that if “c-a-t” spells “cat, then “r-a-t” spells “rat.” This was a very difficult concept for them to understand and I couldn’t think of a way to teach it to them. We used books that focused on one suffix. Still, the students had trouble grasping the idea. The book says that students ages five, six, and seven should be able to do this. I agree that some students should, but I’m not sure if students figure this out on their own eventually or if they need to be taught.

This chapter was a good one to start with because it got my attention. I was able to think about what I saw in the classroom, and then apply that to what I was reading