Module 4: Activity 1

While learning to read for the first time at age 50, Robin used a variety of strategies to help him succeed. The strategy that seemed to work the best for him was chunking. He was able to read word families through chunking and eventually moved on to more challenging texts. He used used chunking while trying to read the back of a truck and was able to identify the words correctly. Also, while setting up his email account he was able to determine the word "congratulations," by first identifying the word "rat" within the word. He then used chunking to determine the beginning of the word. Once he made blended the initial and middle sounds together he was able to figure out the word said, "congratulations." While reading Stone Soup, he struggled with the several words, but knew that it did not sound correct. He was able to go back and self-correct and retry the words until the words sounded correct and fit the text properly. This video was really interesting to watch since I've never had to opportunity to work with someone who was completely illiterate, but the teachers took the same steps we take with our students to help them become stronger, better readers.