The Five Key Components

of Reading
•Phonemic Awareness
•Phonics
•Fluency
•Vocabulary
•Comprehension
Phonemic Awareness
 PHONEMIC AWARENESS

• It’s
Auditory
• Remember:
Lights Out!
 To understand
Phonemic Awareness,
you need to understand the
broader category:
Phonological Awareness
 Basic Levels of
Phonological Awareness
• Rhyming
• Syllables
• Manipulating and Identifying
Onset and Rime
• Counting Words in a Sentence
 And, last but not least,
Phonemic Awareness.

It also falls under the same

umbrella of auditory skills.
 Phonemic Awareness
• Phonemic awareness skills also fall within
a hierarchy from “basic” to “complex”
• Phonemic segmentation is considered a
benchmark for demonstrating a complex
level of phonemic awareness.
• Example: How many sounds/ phonemes in
ship?
• /sh/ /i/ /p/=3
 Findings from National Reading
Panel
• All young children benefit from phonemic
awareness training
• The most effective approach: direct and
systematic
• Using letters with phonemic awareness
training is effective
• Less is more!
• Small group instruction is effective
 Why is it so important?
• Phonemic awareness turns out to be the
single best predictor of risk for early reading
failure (p. 90)
• Dyslexia is associated with the “phonological
component of language” so early detection of
difficulties with phonemic awareness is
critical.
• Research suggests that intervention
programs aimed at phonemic awareness are
effective.
Phonics
 Phonics
Definition
• Paired association between letters and the letter sounds
they represent
• Teaches sound-symbol correspondences of the
approximately 44 sounds in the English spoken
language

Goal:
• Help children use the sound-symbol relationship to read
and write words.
• Provide children with carefully sequenced, systematic
direct instruction
 Phonics Instruction
• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is more effective than non-
systematic or no phonics instruction.

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves

kindergarten and first-grade children’s word recognition and spelling.

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves

children’s reading comprehension.

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is effective for children

from various social and economic levels.

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is particularly beneficial for

children who are having difficulty learning to read and who are at risk
for developing future reading problems.

• Systematic and explicit phonics instruction is most effective when

introduced early (K or 1).
 Approaches to Phonics Instruction
• Synthetic (explicit) phonics--Children learn how to convert letters or
letter combinations into sounds, and then how to blend the sounds
together to form recognizable words. Children have learned the letters
m, a, n and the corresponding sounds /m/ /a/ /n/. They blend them to
make the word man.
• Analytic (implicit) phonics--Children learn to analyze letter-sound
relationships in previously learned words. They do not pronounce
sounds in isolation. Children see and say the word man. The teacher
tells the students that the letter m makes the beginning sound in man.
• Analogy-based phonics--Children learn to use parts of word families
they know to identify words they don’t know that have similar parts.
Children use their knowledge of key words such as must and ate to read
the word frustrate.
• Phonics through Spelling--Children learn to segment words into
phonemes and to select letters for those phonemes. Children learn to
compare unknown words to words they already know. Children focus on
phonics during writing experiences.
 Phonics
• Activities should include:
 Letter recognition
 Students practice matching, identifying, and ordering letters in the
alphabet ~ http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part1.pdf
 Letter-sound correspondence
 Students practice identifying and matching sounds to letters (initial,
final, and medial) http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part2.pdf
 Onset and Rime
 Students practice identifying initial consonant and any consonants
that follow it; then practice blending, sorting, and segmenting the
onset and rime http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part3.pdf
 Word study
 Students practice sorting, blending, segmenting, and manipulating
the sounds of letters in words and practice identifying high-
frequency words http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part4.pdf
 Syllable Patterns
 Students practice blending and segmenting syllables in words
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part5.pdf
 Morpheme Structures
 Students practice blending compound words, roots, and affixes
http://www.fcrr.org/curriculum/pdf/GK-1/Archive/P_Final_Part5.pdf
Fluency
 Fluency
• What is reading fluency?
– “Ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with
proper expression.”
Report of the National Reading Panel (p. 3-5)

• Why is fluency important?

– “Fluency provides a bridge between word recognition
and comprehension.”
National Institute for Literacy (NIFL), 2001, p. 22

– Fluent readers are able to focus their attention on

understanding text.
 Fluency
• What are the essential components?
– Accuracy and Automaticity of Decoding Processes
• Readers decode words accurately
• Readers decode words effortlessly
– Reading Speed or Rate
• Readers read with an age or grade level appropriate rate
• Reading speed is adjusted for purpose and text difficulty
– Expression and Prosody
• Readers read with smoothness, phrasing, and inflection.
– Comprehension
• Readers comprehend important ideas in connected text.
 Fluency
• What instruction helps develop fluency?
– Speed Drills
– Phrase Reading
– Repeated Reading
– Paired Reading
– Choral Reading
– Reader’s Theatre
– Books on Tape
 Fluency
• How can we monitor students’ progress?
– Assess fluency regularly and systematically
• Listen to students read aloud
• Take timed readings and compare performance with norms
– Adjust instruction, if necessary, based on:
• Progress monitoring assessments
• Observational data
• Why is monitoring progress important?
– Motivating to students
– Useful in setting instructional goals
Vocabulary
 Vocabulary
• Vocabulary is..
– The words we must know to communicate effectively.
• Oral vocabulary
» Words we use in speaking or recognize in listening.
• Reading vocabulary
» Words we recognize in reading or use in writing.
• Importance of Vocabulary
• Learning to read
– Beginning readers have a much more difficult time reading words
that are not part of their oral vocabulary.
• Reading comprehension
– Readers can not understand what they are reading without
knowing what most of the words mean.
 Vocabulary
• Most vocabulary is learned indirectly through everyday
experiences with oral language as children:
• Engage in daily oral language
• Listen to adults read to them
• Read extensively on their own
• Some vocabulary requires direct instruction in the form
of:
• Specific word instruction- explicit teaching of individual word
meaning.
• Word learning instruction- teaching of strategies for deriving
word meaning.
» How to use dictionaries and other reference aids.
» Knowledge of common affixes, base and root words.
» Using context clues.
 Vocabulary
• The vocabulary words selected for
instruction should be:
– Important
Words that are important for understanding a concept or
the text.
– Useful
Words that are likely to be seen and used again.
– Difficult
Words that are particularly difficult.
Comprehension
 Comprehension
Comprehension is the reason for reading

• Good readers are purposeful and actively engaged in

the text

• Text comprehension can be improved by using the

following six comprehension strategies:

1. Monitoring Comprehension:
• Teaches students to be aware of what they do understand,
identify what they do not understand and use strategies to
resolve problems with text comprehension
 Comprehension
2. Using graphic and semantic organizers:
• Helps students focus on text structure as they read
• Provides students with tools they can use to visually examine
relationships in a text
• Helps students write summaries of text

3. Answering questions
• Gives students a purpose for reading
• Focuses students’ attention on the text
• Encourages active thinking as they read
• Encourages monitoring of comprehension
• Helps students connect text to previously learned material
 Comprehension
4. Generating questions:
• Improves students’ active processing of text
• Promotes students to self-monitor for
understanding

5. Summarizing:
• Helps students identify main idea
• Assists students in connecting main idea
• Allows students to eliminate unnecessary
information
• Helps students remember what they read
 Comprehension
6. Recognizing story structure
• Promotes greater appreciation, understanding and
memory for stories
• Allows students to see how contents of a story are
organized into a plot

Effective comprehension strategy instruction:

• Is explicit and direct
• Can be accomplished through cooperative learning
• Helps readers use comprehension strategies flexibly
and in combination
 Writing

Specific Reading Approaches

Rachel Kuklinski
 Our Objectives
• Define purposes of writing
• Think about what good writing instruction
is
• Examine some of the difficulties students
who struggle encompass
• Explore and share strategies that facilitate
skill in writing for students who struggle
 Agenda
• Definitions, questions about writing
• Reading Rocket webcast or power point
• Discussion
• Power point presentation on Technology
and Writing Instruction
 Overarching Questions
What are some of the purposes of writing and
why do we teach it in school?
In what ways does writing relate to reading?
How have you integrated writing across the
curriculum? What are some other ways that
you might incorporate writing into other
content areas?
What are some of the more difficult areas in
teaching the writing process that you have
experienced with your students?
 Begin at the Beginning
Think about your own experiences with
writing in school. Write about something
from them that stands out in your mind,
and how it has impacted you as a teacher.
Define the purposes of writing and goals that
you have when working with your students
on writing.
 Looking at Exemplars
• DESE website
 Debates
• Should writing be taught before proficiency
in decoding, spelling and handwriting?
• Do students need full mastery of
alphabetic principle before beginning
writing?
• Do students need full mastery of phoneme
awareness before beginning writing?
 Often under-taught, yet..
• Teaches organization/self expression
• Teaches forms of text: narrative,
expository, etc
• Connects reading comprehension with
written form
• Connects vocabulary with comprehension
(transitional words, conjunctions, parts of
speech)
 Direct instruction is needed within
the workshop
• Teaches development of sentence to paragraph to
essay
• Goal of sentence writing is to write compound and
complex sentences: enhances comprehension
• Goal of sentence writing is to improve revision and
editing skills: enhances critical thinking
• Goal of sentence is to apply knowledge of
grammar and structure, enhances clarity of self
expression and understanding of author’s craft
Strategies for Reluctant Writers
• Process approach
– Preplanning and organizing
– Writing the draft
– Proofing/revision
– Editing
– Final versions
 Strategies
• Encourage students to visualize situation,
action, character
• Role-play situations prior to organizing the
information
• Play with words
• Create silly situations and have students
verbally elaborate upon what might
happen next
 Strategies
Cops – capitalization, organization,
punctuation, spelling
C-SOOP – capitalization, sentence
structure, organization, overall format,
punctuation
STOPS – sentence structure, tenses,
organization, punctuation, spelling
 Strategies
• Mind mapping – Kidspiration, Inspiration,
Mind Maps
• POWER – plan the paper, organize the
ideas and elaborations, write the draft, edit
the draft, revise the paper and enhance
 Sentence Activities
• Sentences and fragments
• Scrambled sentences
• Sentence types
• Sentence expansion
• Topic sentences
 Paragraphs and Compositions
• Persuasive writing
• Descriptive writing
• Compare and contrast composition
 Integral for success: time, model,
direct
• Plan
• Outline
• Revise and edit
• Write final copy
 Outlines
• Quick outline – develops single paragraph
and intended to help students discern
basic structure of paragraph: topic
sentence, supporting details, conclusion
• Transitional Outline – beginning of
composition writing: two or three
paragraphs
• Multiple Paragraph Outline- compositions
of 3 or more paragraphs
 Outline
• Select topic that will be the basis for title
when writing the draft
• Discuss purpose and audience
• Write main idea as a phrase or category
for each paragraph
• Write supporting details
 Teaching Spelling

Taken from: Multisensory

Teaching of Basic Language
Skills by Judith R. Birsh
 Objectives
After this presentation participants will
• Understand the importance of spelling
instruction and how spelling develops
• Learn reliable spelling patterns and rules
of English
• Learn activities, procedures, and lesson
planning for effective spelling instruction
 Spelling Development
– Requires phonological knowledge
• the knowledge of and sensitivity to the
phonological structure of words in a language.
– Orthographic knowledge
• Orthographic knowledge refers to the knowledge
of how the sounds (phonemes) of a language are
mapped to the symbols (letters) of that language
for use in reading and writing.
– Begins with visual strategies
 Prephonetic Stage
• Also called the precommunicative Stage
• Stage in spelling development in which not all of
the sounds of the word are represented by letters
(e.g., JS for dress).
– Differentiate writing from drawing
– Imitate the print they have seen
– Use ltter-like or number-like forms
– Shows lack of understanding of the concept of a word
 Semiphonetic Stage
• Stage in spelling development in which a
child usually strings consonants together
to represent speech sounds in words and
syllables (e.g., NTR for enter).
– Child becomes more aware that individual
letters represent individual sounds
– Uses incomplete but reasonable phonetic
representations of words
 Phonetic Stage

• Stage in spelling development in which

every sound is represented
• The complete knowledge of conventional
orthography is not.
• Aware of not only sounds but also the
mouth position used to make sounds.
 Important Terms to Know
• Phonetics
– The system of speech sounds in any specific language.
• Phonemes
– place of articulation
– voiced and unvoiced
– open, blocked, partially blocked
– continuous and stop consonant sounds
• Allophones
– Slight variations in production of vowels or consonants
that are predictable variants of a phoneme (e.g., /p/ in pot
and spot, /a/ in fast and tank).
 Knowledge Necessary for
Spelling
• Phonology
– The science of speech sounds, including the study of the development
of speech sounds in one language or the comparison of speech sound
development across different languages.
• Phonics
– Paired association between letters and letter sounds; an approach to
teaching of reading and spelling that emphasizes sound-symbol
relationships, especially in early instruction.
• Morphology
– 1) The internal structure of the meaningful units within words and the
relationships among words in a language.
– 2) The study of word formation patterns.
• Word origins
• Invented spelling
 Knowledge Necessary for
Spelling
• Regular words
• Transparent spellings
• Multiple spellings
– situation
– initial, medial, final
 Spelling Rules
• The Floss Rule
– Double the consonants f, l and s at the end of a one syllable word following a short
vowel. Common exceptions to this rule are gas, yes, and bus.
• The Rabbit Rule
– Double the consonants b, d, g, m, n and p after a short vowel in a two syllable word.
• The Doubling Rule
– If a one-syllable word has one short vowel and one consonant at the end, double the
final consonant before adding an ending that begins with a vowel; for example,
stop/stopping and plan/planned, but not mean/meaner and milk/milked.
• The Dropping Rule
– If a word ends in a silent "e," drop the "e" before adding an ending that starts with a
vowel; for example, use/using, dance/dancer, and fame/famous, but not
place/placement and care/careful.
• The Changing Rule
– If a word ends in a consonant plus "y," change the "y" to "i" before adding
an ending except -ing; for example, ready/readiness, lucky/luckily, and
duty/dutiful, but not study/studying.
 Formal Spelling Instruction Should
Include the Following
• Phonological awareness training
• Opportunities for kindergarteners and beginning first graders
to experiment with writing using invented spelling
• Multisensory guided discovery teaching introductions to the
sound-symbol correspondences, patterns, rules, and
morphemes of English, beginning in the middle of first grade
and using a systematic, sequential, cumulative order of
presentation
• Opportunities to analyze and sort words
• Practice using multisensory structured procedures
• A multisensory procedure for learning irregular words
• Opportunities to use the words in writing through dictation and
personal writing
 Study Questions
• How are reading and spelling alike, and how do they differ?

• How is spelling important to reading and writing development?

• Define orthography, phonetics, phonology, phonics, and morphology.

• How does awareness of other language domains affect spelling

accuracy?

• What makes a word irregular for spelling? Can a word be regular for
reading and irregular for spelling? Can a word be irregular for reading
and regular for spelling?
 Activity
• On a sheet of notebook paper, make three
columns — Regular, Rule, and Irregular. Analyze
and sort the following groups of words according
to their spellings:
• Group One: farm, cow, chick, lamb, duck, digging,
egg, barn, plentiful, field
• Group Two: transportation, car, plane, shipping,
vehicle, driving, train, barge, steamer, rocket
• Group Three: fruit, grape, cherry, banana, kiwi,
strawberry, raspberry, peach, apple, lime
• Readings & Resources Moats, L.C. (1999).
Spelling: Development, disability and instruction.
Timonium, MD: York Press. (Available from PRO-
ED, 800-897-3202)
• Moats, L.C. (2000). Speech to Print: Language
Essentials for Teachers. Baltimore: Brookes
Publishing Co.
• Schupack, H., & Wilson, B. (1997). The “R” Book,
Reading, Writing & Spelling: The Multisensory
Structured Language Approach. Baltimore: The
International Dyslexia Association.
• Resources
• Carreker, S. (2002). Scientific spelling. Bellaire, TX: Neuhaus
Education Center.
• Hall, N. (2001). Spellwell, book C. Cambridge, MA: Educators
Publishing Service.
• Larsen, S.C. , Hammill, D.D., & Moats, L. (1999). Test of
Written Spelling, Fourth Edition (TWS-4.). Austin, TX: PRO-
ED.
• Rudginsky, L.T., & Haskell, E.C. (1985). How to Teach
Spelling: Resource and Method for Planning Spelling
Lessons. Cambridge, MA: Educators Publishing Service.
• Links
• Alternative Education: Training Modules or Clusters of
Competencies
This site provides 17 training modules on various topics for
college instructors, staff developers, and teachers. Module 13
provides strategies for enhancing decoding, spelling, and
vocabulary through morphology.
• Vaughn Gross Center for Reading and Language Arts
This site provides resources for reading and language arts
teachers working with struggling readers and writers.