INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF THE CARIBBEAN

Savannalamar Campus

Assignment Three (3)

By:

Jada Sinanan ID#: 1226302

An individual assignment submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements,

 for the Course Reading Methodology

Lecturer:

Ms. Judith Sharp.

Due date: March 30,2021

 Bottom-Up Theory in Reading

Learning to read is one of the most critical skills students must obtain during early childhood

education. Reading skills set the foundation for overall academic success. There are several

ways to approach reading instruction, and educators often rely on several reading theories.

According to the academic source reading is defined as an intellectual process that includes

decoding symbols to arrive at a meaning and is also an active process of constructing

meaning. Reading is also a thinking process.

There are many theories concerning the best way to teach reading and how people actually

learn to read. As in many instructional practices, some theories come and go in popularity,

and some have greater success than others. I will be discussing the bottom- up theory in

reading.

The bottom-up reading model involves a step-by-step mastery of reading components so that

the student eventually becomes literate. This theory relies on direct and explicit instruction of

the five components of reading throughout early childhood education.

The term "bottom up" is exactly how this process works. The initial focus for early literacy is

the instruction of the basic or foundational skills necessary for life-long mastery of literacy

and the components of reading. In bottom-up reading activities, student learn to read from the

bottom, or foundation, up to concepts like reading comprehension.

The bottom-up theory says that reading is a skill in which students learn to read in a step-by-

step way. This approach utilizes a building-block approach starting with the foundation of

phonics and phonemic awareness. The theory recognizes that students must first learn the

basics to fully understand the more complex components, such as comprehension and

inferences.
The bottom-up theory is widely used because of its sequential approach. This theory

recognizes reading as a development process that is best learned in a way that starts with a

foundation and builds with complexity.

The bottom-up reading model is what most parents of children are familiar with: learning the

alphabet, learning what sounds the letters make, beginning to string the sounds together while

getting an understanding of phonics and then eventually approaching a text.

The bottom-up model helps the top-down model to do what it does so well. Students begin to

recognize words, which increases their speed and begins to give them the chance to use

context to figure out what new words are. The context is also supplied by the theme or

content of the work in question. Readers are not passive recipients of information but are

active contributors to the meaning of the text.