Spotlight on Education : Understanding the five areas of reading instruction
Posted on Wednesday, May 14, 2008
"Put Reading First - The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read"is a guide for parents and teachers based upon a report in 2000 by the National Reading Panel. The panel reviewed more than 100, 000 studies and wrote this guide of what they discovered about how to successfully teach children to read. The guide is broken down into five areas of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and text comprehension.
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds - phonemes - in spoken words. It is important because it improves children's word reading and reading comprehension and helps children learn to spell. Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities, including asking children to identify phonemes, categorize phonemes, blend phonemes from words, segment words into phonemes, delete or add phonemes to form new words, and substitute phonemes to make new words. Phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when children are taught to manipulate phonemes by using the letters of the alphabet and when instruction focuses on only one or two rather than several types of phoneme manipulation.
Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. Phonic instruction is important because it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle - the systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken words. Programs of phonics instruction are effective when they are systematic - the plan of instruction includes a carefully selected set of lettersound relationships that are organized into a logical sequence. Also, it is most effective when the instruction is explicit - the programs provide teachers with precise directions for the teaching of these relationships. Effective phonics programs provide ample opportunities for children to apply what they are learning about letters and sounds to the reading of words, sentences and stories. Systematic and explicit phonics instruction significantly improves children's word recognition, spelling and reading comprehension and is most effective when it begins in kindergarten or first grade.
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read. Reading fluency can be developed by modeling fluent reading and by having students engage in repeated oral reading. Monitoring student progress in reading fluency is useful in evaluating instruction and setting instructional goals and can be motivating to students.
Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. 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 is important because beginning readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print and readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading. Vocabulary can be developed indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them and read extensively on their own and directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word learning strategies.
Text comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading they are not really reading. Text comprehension is important because comprehension is the reason for reading. Text comprehension is purposeful and active. Text comprehension can be developed by teaching comprehension strategies. Text comprehension strategies can be taught through explicit instruction, through cooperative learning, and by helping readers use strategies flexibly and in combination.
Parents can help by reading to their children and by listening to their children read to them. Reading should be a fun time that parents and children spend together. When children are allowed to make choices of what they read it is usually something that is of interest to the child. When interested, reading becomes a positive experience and the five components of reading will happen naturally.
Yvonne Voss is the assistant principal at Grace Hill Elementary School.
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