Fingerpointing while reading- a marketing article written for intended translation, for a parent audience, on the school’s blog. This means that syntax is a little bit simpler (my coworkers are very proficient in both languages but I don’t want to make their life onerous), that I am trying to “sell” our classroom methods, that I am addressing the concerns of a well educated and demanding customer. I should also remember to be sensitive to heavily government monitored social media standards. After writing this I realized that it would probably not be published due to Double Reduction. But I gained a lot from the process.
Recently a parent had a question about fingerpointing while reading, and why we do it, and when should a student stop? This was an enjoyable topic to investigate further, especially as the challenges of English language learners are different from native speakers’. The added complexity of a student who is learning a logographic or character using system (Chinese) while simultaneously learning a phonemic using system (English) does not get a great deal of attention in educational practice yet. There is very interesting research 1being done on how different systems of language are processed that may inform the classroom one day. I also greatly enjoyed having the excuse to learn more about the left occipital cortex. But…. I will spare you these rabbit holes except for where it relates to this topic of fingerpointing.
PRINT CONCEPT:
Reading fluently in any language stems from the ability to recognize printed words. This is called print concept. Print concept start to develop when a child understands that parts of a picture have meaning. Picture books are the beginning of print concepts. When pointing to shapes on a page, the simplest of all finger pointing, children begin to recognize a parallel between pictures and real life. As children begin to understand more print concept, the shapes that have been identified as “words” begin to take on greater importance.2
Another print concept is that of following these symbols in a straight line and top down. As it has been pointed out to me by other instructors, scanning in a straight line is not the most efficient way of gathering data about an environment. It takes training of the brain to perform this task of “tracking”. As we struggle to overcome evolution, using a finger to physically isolate the symbol that comes next is the best tool “at hand”.
PHONICS and DECODING:
Understanding that these printed symbols have a pattern which corresponds to spoken sounds is another print concept. In English, there is the additional need for students to recognize that letters are grouped into these sounds, that groups of these sounds are sometimes grouped together, and that these groupings are separated by spaces and punctuation. This is the basis of phonics, called decoding. Segmenting is matching a letter and the sound. Blending is making one sound (which is sometimes one word) out of these letters. Chunking is when multiple “chunks” of sounds are managed. At all of these steps in the process, using a finger is the most available tool to physically help the reader’s eye in the process of decoding.
An emergent reader is still developing these phonics skills while building their sight word vocabulary. An early reader has a better grasp on these phonics strategies but can still be challenged by irregular words and is also continuing to build their sight word vocabulary. For second language learners, there are a number of additional challenges. These challenges can be reduced by the practice of fingerpointing.
WAYS FINGERPOINTING HELPS:
Finger pointing helps to remind the student to segment, chunk, and blend the word. For all learners, there is a temptation to use words known from oral vocabulary to finish a word that starts with the same letter sound. This is because only the beginning of the word is being “read”. Using a finger to point manually encourages the child to look at the whole word, not just the beginning. In the classroom, I encourage reading using finger pointing and with a pace that is not very fast, so that students have the time to correctly decode using their phonics knowledge. Over time, the student will feel more confident about their phonics decoding. The likelihood that they continue using phonics strategies is greater. This will lead to more fluent reading.
Most of the science that studies how humans learn to read stresses the mechanism of linking sound to symbol. There is a part of the brain, the left occipital cortex, that connects spoken words to the visual word3. This further backs up the practice of reading a text multiple times. Among other things, we are exercising this part of the brain. And you have probably seen that, in the many choices available to help emerging readers though online reading improvement games and audio products. My most urgently given advice to families of emergent, early, and even more advanced readers? Your student would benefit from listening to a recording of the book while reading along. Along with reading for at least 20 minutes every day, this remains among the best strategies for learning how to read. However, it is crucial that the student actually be looking at the word that is being read orally, so that their left occipital cortex associates the correct sound with the correct grouping of written text! Fingerpointing is the easiest way to accomplish this.
Another reason why I ask students to finger point in the classroom while reading is that I can personally monitor their speed and their attention. As the teacher, I need to make sure that each student is comfortable with the material being read. I need to be sure it is not too hard, but also not too easy. When the students are fingerpointing, I can see if they are tracking at the same speed. In this way, I know that the material is comfortable for them. I can adjust the speed of the reading or give more attention to an individual student.
WHEN DOES THE FINGERPOINTING STOP?
At a point in learning to read, students start being able to group multiple words together into phrases. Confusingly, this is also called chunking, and it is also called sweep reading. Concepts other than phonics can be introduced at the same time. In our early reader classes, this means that we practice reading using emotion and stressing important words. In addition, we practice many different strategies to improve comprehension, retention, and critical thinking.
A comfortable reading pace will help cushion all of the concepts being used. In our classrooms, the speed of the reading, while still comfortable, is also increased each time we read a text. This encourages the student to chunk words into phrases because they are aware of what word is coming next. Their visual reading fluency will be aided by each repetition, and they will be moving their eyes to the next word more easily. By developing a natural habit of moving the eyes to the next word, or even words, a student will then be free to focus on the other parts of literacy.
According to Fountas and Pinnell, one of the most widely known levelling systems, this should be around the Levels C or D, or 1.2 AR, for a native English speaker and reader4. However, there is no information I can find about when this transition “should” occur for an ESL student, much less for a student who is learning two different systems of language at the same time. The deficit of using a tool most often pointed to by reading instructors is loss of sweep reading habit. In more advanced levels, using a physical tool can become a crutch that can impede comprehension and retention. It is my opinion that using a finger or any other tracking tool while reading is an enormous and easy to use scaffold and confidence booster to learners who have many skills to balance at once.
As mentioned earlier, when students use their finger to read along, I am able to see if they are sweeping ahead, and if the material is comfortable for them. When a student is able to read whole sentences independently using sweep reading, while using phonics strategies for unknown words, obeying punctuation rules, they are ready to kiss the finger goodbye. There may continue to be some added benefit at times to the physical aid of the finger, however reading with eyes only is the goal.
http://evlab.mit.edu/
and yes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logogram#Differences_in_processing_of_logographic_and_phonologic_writing_systems
https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1403&context=reading_horizons
There may well be better and newer places to cite. Something to investigate.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0028393212004022
Fountas & Pinnell Prompting Guide, Part 1 for Oral Reading and Early Writing
By Irene Fountas, Lesley University, Gay Su Pinnell, The Ohio State University
https://www.facebook.com/FountasandPinnell/posts/q-when-should-students-stop-pointing-to-words-as-they-reada-at-level-c-they-shou/10151116348080588/