Reading or Spelling for Pre-School
What should be the primary goal of a child? What is more important, reading or spelling for pre-school?
Children are introduced to selected vocabulary to help them develop their phonetic knowledge. Learning the sounds and being able to blend them together is essential to allow children to read unfamiliar words independently. Being able to decode words into their individual sounds will enable children to start spelling.
From my experiences, children who tend not to have any phonics knowledge struggle with new content, as they tend to heavily rely on one strategy that uses picture clues to help with with the context. A child should be introduced to various strategies to have a repertoire of techniques to learn. Understanding the sound-spelling relationships of words can help the child derive meaning for themselves. Phonics is key to helping students comprehend text.
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Jolly Phonics
There are many different approaches when it comes to teaching phonics. I started off teaching Jolly Phonics at a tuition centre in Hong Kong. Jolly Phonics teaches children how to read and write using synthetic sounds, a well regarded method.
This approach was exceptional for the younger children, as it the teaching is multi-sensory and active. Lessons were fun to execute and it gave myself great flexibility.
For more information check out: https://www.jollylearning.co.uk/jolly-phonics/
What is the best approach to teach Phonics? It depends on the student as there are different types of learners. A parent must consider whether their child is more of a visual, auditory or kinaesthetic leaner. Jolly Phonics caters to all of the mentioned types of learners, making it very versatile and popular in the educational industry.
Reading or Spelling
Back to the question at hand, what should a child focus on, reading or spelling? I believe that a child should have a solid reading base before undertaking spelling exercises. They must have solid sound knowledge and be able to blend effectively, to understand the concept that every word can be broken down into individual sounds. Focusing on reading will not only allow the child to understand the concept, but will allow them to give text context and meaning. In kindergartens especially, I encourage parents to let their child read as much as possible, to improve their vocabulary range and to get more exposure to letters and their sounds.
That being said, it is much easier for a child to learn how to read than to spell. Reading should always come first, and spelling should follow afterwards. By reading, the child can familiarize themselves with the grammar structures of the English language.
To find out why grammar structures are important, check out my blog post: http://www.mrgregenglish.com/grammar-or-writing-which-is-more-important/
