Literacy Big 5

Phonemic Awareness

• Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words.
• Children who have phonemic awareness skills are likely to have an easier time learning to read and spell than children who have few or none of these skills
• Phonemic awareness is NOT phonics

Phonics

• Phonics help children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
• Most effective teaching methods include *systematic—the plan of instruction includes a carefully selected set of letter-sound relationships that are organized into a logical sequence. *explicit—the programs provide teachers with precise directions for the teaching of these relationships.

Fluency

• Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.
• It is very important to monitor student's fluency to help set goals and motivate the students
• Fluency is very important so students are able to understand what they read

Vocabulary

• Vocabulary is the words we must know to communicate effectively.
• There are two types of vocabulary *oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. *reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.
• Vocabulary can be developed in two ways
• *indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own. *directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies.

Comprehension

• Comprehension is the reason for reading.
• One way comprehension can be developed is by teaching different stratagies
• There are many ways to teach comprehension but some of the best examples are...
• *Through explicit instruction. *Through cooperative learning. *Helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination.