Interpretive Essay
Gloria Jordan-Kirksey
April 23, 2008
EDB 302 Dr. Brian Harper
Interpretive Essay Final Paper
Topic: Teaching a four year child phonics
Section 1 The child that I am working with is a four year old female named Briniyah. She is in preschool and learning new letters each day. Briniyah is my daughter and I am worried about her not learning phonics as she learns new letters. One day over Christmas break we were reviewing her letter and I asked her “what sound does the letter B make?” and she said “Mommy, I don’t know.” This situation concerned me because I am an educator and my child does not know phonics. I became worried and began to panic. I soon discussed the situation with her teacher that I had a concern and we created a plan of action to help Briniyah learn phonics more efficiently. My plan consisted of teaching my daughter phonics. I felt like a failure; how can I be an educator and my child not know phonics? I guess I felt bad because my students knew phonics and are the same age as my daughter. My daughter and I went shopping and purchased two Hooked on Phonics booklets. She already has Leap Frog products at home (CD with songs to learn letters and sounds and the fridge phonics kit). We began practicing the letters along with their sounds. I am going to keep her teacher in the loop so we can work together with Briniyah’s development. I believe that learning phonics is a very important part of learning to read. Children cannot learn site words correctly without learning phonics. I am not saying that it is not possible to learn site words without phonics but I believe that the site words will become a part of rote memory instead of learning how to sound words out. Teaching my daughter phonics is going to be a long process that is going to take patience and persistence. I am very focused on my daughter learning phonics and I determined to be her first and best educator. In the end I will be able to measure her success when we
April 23, 2008
EDB 302 Dr. Brian Harper
Interpretive Essay Final Paper
Topic: Teaching a four year child phonics
Section 1 The child that I am working with is a four year old female named Briniyah. She is in preschool and learning new letters each day. Briniyah is my daughter and I am worried about her not learning phonics as she learns new letters. One day over Christmas break we were reviewing her letter and I asked her “what sound does the letter B make?” and she said “Mommy, I don’t know.” This situation concerned me because I am an educator and my child does not know phonics. I became worried and began to panic. I soon discussed the situation with her teacher that I had a concern and we created a plan of action to help Briniyah learn phonics more efficiently. My plan consisted of teaching my daughter phonics. I felt like a failure; how can I be an educator and my child not know phonics? I guess I felt bad because my students knew phonics and are the same age as my daughter. My daughter and I went shopping and purchased two Hooked on Phonics booklets. She already has Leap Frog products at home (CD with songs to learn letters and sounds and the fridge phonics kit). We began practicing the letters along with their sounds. I am going to keep her teacher in the loop so we can work together with Briniyah’s development. I believe that learning phonics is a very important part of learning to read. Children cannot learn site words correctly without learning phonics. I am not saying that it is not possible to learn site words without phonics but I believe that the site words will become a part of rote memory instead of learning how to sound words out. Teaching my daughter phonics is going to be a long process that is going to take patience and persistence. I am very focused on my daughter learning phonics and I determined to be her first and best educator. In the end I will be able to measure her success when we