Learning to read naturally is the cornerstone of The Martin Model of Reading. Though he rose to fame as an author, Martin’s original calling and lifelong passion was early childhood education. His highly regarded reading model was developed through his experience as an educator, and the dynamic methodology is centered on the following foundational principles:
(1) Developing a love of reading and literature is the key objective in sharing books with young children:
Children in a literate society are fascinated by books and reading. From the toddler years, children are drawn to a parent's or caregiver's lap by the call of rich, predictable, melodic story books, and reading begins through the ears and eyes as children hear the cadence of language and see the beauty of the picture book art. It’s simple, really—what comes into the ear of the child, if it touches the heart of the child, will soon come out the lips of the child who moves from listening to participating in the story to independent reading. Within this highly repetitive and modeled storybook environment, children develop both their receptive and expressive language abilities in response to predictable, age-appropriate narratives, and Martin crafted his reading model and his books to provide children with that experience.
(3) In a child’s mind, language works in chunks of meaning:
How does a child move from being read to—to reading the book independently? Martin’s interactive model illustrates the inner workings of this process, and his books demonstrate his conviction that children initially understand the meaning of language through groups, or chunks, of words. Words do not exist by themselves, but in groupings; for example, the phrase “once upon a time” is processed as one word, or one chunk of meaning. The jagged right margin of Martin’s books is intentional and comes from breaking each line where there is a break in meaning, or a break in rhythm. Initially, the break shows the parent or teacher how the story may be read, while also modeling the phrasing for the child. This indicates to the young reader from the beginning to focus on clusters of words, words that sing together and give meaning together.
(2) Reading skills develop in the same way that speech develops—through meaningful transactions:
Just as children learn to talk, they can learn to read—naturally. Martin’s model of emergent reading is patterned after the tenets of speech development and reflects the way children learn to talk through listening and interacting with other language users. In learning to read, children begin the process through inputting language through the ear. Later, after they have internalized language and stories, they begin to understand that the art, words, and phrases carry meaning and tell a story. As children read these words and phrases, they develop an awareness that letters, and the sounds and patterns of letters, are repeated in words, and they begin to internalize phonics. This phonic knowledge is then applied to new words, and the child soon bursts into independent reading.
(4) Reading aloud deposits literary and linguistic structures in children:
Driven by the variables of love and repetition, coupled with art and language structure, reading aloud to children creates a loving and pleasurable haven as a caregiver reads a story to the child time and again. From the first read, children will want to possess the book. With the subsequent readings, children will begin chiming the lines with you. Soon after, they will read it by themselves as you turn the pages. The initial stage of reading is reading from experience—from their mind, and not the page. Anticipating and knowing the highly predictable language structure allows the child to read the book without connecting to the words. As children develop in the reading process, they will begin connecting what is behind the eyes in the mind to what is in front of the eyes on the page. The key is not to rush the child, but to realize that with each repeated reading, the child is depositing the literary structure and sentence patterns in his or her linguistic storehouse.
