Literacy's Big 5 Components

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

• "The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words." (Put Reading First, pg.1)

Phonemic Awareness Instruction

• Students understanding that words are made up of letters which make sounds.
• Helps kids learn to read and to spell.
• Best learned through the manipulation of words and their phonemes.
• Ex. /h/ /a/ /t/ ------> /c/ /a/ /t/

Phonics Instruction

• "Teaches children the relationship between the letters of written language and the individual sounds of spoken language."(Put Reading First, Pg.11)

Phonics Instruction

• Improves word recognition, reading comprehension and spelling.
• Can be practiced in short stories that have a repetitive letter sounds.
• Should be taught for two years starting in early kindergarten.

Fluency Instruction

• "The ability to read a text accurately and quickly." (Put Reading First, Pg. 19)

Fluency Instruction

• Recognizing words automatically making the reading smooth.
• Students can practice fluency by rereading text that are relatively easy to them. It gives them practice.
• There are several read aloud options such as partner reading, tape-assisted reading, student-adult reading and choral reading.

Vocabulary Instruction

• "Children use the words they have heard to make sense of the words they see in print." (Put Reading First, pg. 29)

Vocabulary Instruction

• 4 types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading and writing.
• Vocabulary are words that students must know to effectively communicate.
• Students need to understand what the words mean and their definitions before they can read about them.

Text Comprehension Instruction

• "If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading." (Put Reading First, pg. 41)

Text Comprehension Instruction

• Students can monitor when they do or don't understand what they are reading.
• Have students generate their own questions about their reading to improve comprehension.

Text Comprehension Instruction

• Summarizing helps students pick out key points and put in their own words what they read helping them better understand their understanding.
• Text comprehension is purposeful and active.