Mod 10 Video Discussion

One thing that struck me about the video was how the instructor was introducing rules for students to follow while they where working on their phonemic awareness, in this case to try the /o/ sound first and then move on to /ow/ if that is unsuccessful. The use of rules for emerging readers is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, phonemic rules help to assist readers in decoding and encoding as they connect the sounds of words to the alphabetic representations of those sounds. Secondly, rules can help emerging readers feel a sense of accomplishment because by being able to unlock more words they can become more confident and gain a sense of independence, encouraging them to try reading more on their own. Lastly, through understanding the rules, emerging readers can begin to recognize necessary patterns and predictable relationships which will help with pronunciation and later, spelling.