Sound Systems initial response

From the beginning, I had a good feeling about this book simply because it started off talking about the Gingerbread Man. That was my favorite book when I was five! After reading the it to my neighbors kids last summer, I didn't go back and have them listen to rhyming words like Ms. Chandler did, nor did I have them divide words by syllables. It was just for entertainment purposes. I've never worked with very young kids who lack knowledge of letter sounds and how to spell basic words. I find it to be challenging based off of the readings in Sound Systems so far. I hope I am able to dive in and teach these kids what they need to know.
The bulk of the reading was about going back to basics of phonics. I don't really recall learning these concepts, but I know that I did or couldn't write this right now. The statement "The more real words children already knew how to read, the more knowledge they had about the pronunciation of predictable letter patterns, and consequently, the more made-up words they could sound out," made me think that the parents have a lot to do with the basics and that elementary teachers must fine tune what has already been taught. However, some parents don't know what to do or how to teach, and we have to step in and take the plunge. One of our colleagues wrote about how she made parent packets with information on how to help their child progress in the classroom. I'm very pleased with this idea and hopefully will incorporate it into my classroom someday. Having all aspects of community and family working together towards the same goal of preparing children for the real world will most likely keep the child in a constant learning state where they will excel beyond the average student.
The chart on linguistic concepts summarizes the basic tools for speaking, reading, and writing. It’s very precise and is a great way to organize what needs to be taught to young children. Phonics curriculum, according to the book, is outlined by grade level and stage of development. The authors break down the concepts by grade in another chart. It seems to be gradual and also cumulative. Everything at the beginning is just being built upon. Chapter 4 starts talking about writing. The writings must be built on the linguistic concepts. When reading a sample of a child’s writing, I had much difficulty in deciphering what was being said. It was scary to think I will not be able to grade papers. But after further investigation and a little more time put in, I was able to understand where the child was coming from. It was nicely laid out in that the children’s stories started from kindergarten and moved gradually to second grade with thorough investigation of how to analyze and critique the work.
There were just so many concepts, I was overwhelmed. I hope over time I will master them and add my own concepts to them.