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Reading

The components for learning to read include the development of:

1. Phonics Awareness
2. Phonics
3. Fluency
4. Vocabulary
5. Strategies for Comprehending Text

Component #1: Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words.

School-to-Home Connection for Phonemic Awareness

Component #2: Phonics

Students must be familiar with the written symbols that represent sounds, and have the ability to use them. When they have this knowledge they are able accurately and automatically to decode words, recognize them, and then concentrate on the meaning of the text.

School-to-Home Connection for Phonics

Component #3: Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read a text with accuracy, speed and proper expression.

Why build Fluency?

• Fluency and reading comprehension are closely related. Students who are low in fluency may have difficulty getting the meaning of what they read (Pinnell, Pikulski, Wixson, Campbell, Gough & Beatty, 1995).
• Repeated, oral reading, along with guidance and feedback form teachers, peers or parents, has a consistent and positive impact on fluency (speed and accuracy of oral reading) and comprehension across a range of grade levels (National Reading Panel, 2000). These procedures help improve the student's reading ability, at least through grade five, and for students with learning problems, much later than this (National Reading Panel, 2000).
• The average student need between 4 and 14 exposures to automatize the recognition of a new word (Lyon, 1997). In learning to read, therefore, it is vital that students read large amounts of text at their independent reading level that provides them with repeated exposure to words containing the letter to sound correspondences previously taught.

What Does A Fluent Reader Do?

Practising Reading at Home

Component #4: Vocabulary

There are two kinds of vocabulary:

1. Oral vocabulary refers to words that the read recognizes in listening, and uses in speaking.
2. Written vocabulary refers to words that the reader recognizes or uses in print.

Why Build Vocabulary?

• Instruction in vocabulary leads to gains in comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000).
• As students read more advanced text, they must learn the meanings of new words that are not yet part of their oral vocabulary - vocabulary from content areas such as social studies, science and math.

Component #5: Strategies for Comprehending Text

Strategies for comprehending text are schemes that students can sue before, during and after reading to increase their understanding of what they are reading.

Questions for Elements of Story Grammar

Information from Orchestrating Success in Reading by Dawn Reithaug (2002)

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