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TOPIC 2: ELEMENTS OF READING:

LITERACY

Table of contents

What does a child need in order to learn to read?.............................2

THE BIG FIVE……………………………………………………………..3

Learning to read…………………………………………………………..7

Levels of Phonological Awareness…………………………………….10 • Word level…………………………………………..10

• Rhyme level…………………………………………11

• Syllable level……………………………………….17

• Sound level: phonemic awareness………….…20

Phonological vs Phonemics Awareness……………………………21

• How to build phonemic awareness…………23

- P.isolation

- P.identity

- P.categorization

- P.blending

- P. segmentation

- P.deletion

- P.addition

- P. substation

- P. counting

Phonics…………………………………………………………………….27

Vocabulary Instruction………………………………………………….29

Fluency…………………………………………………………………….30

Comprehension………………………………………………..…………37

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A child must be able to:

ELEMENTS OF READING

• Hear and be able to recognize the sounds that are spoken and determine the

differences between the sounds.

• Recognize the different sizes, shapes, position and form of the 26 letters.

(Letter recognition)

• Have a sense of directionality and hold the book with the cover first and the

opening pages to the right.

• Directionality is also needed to read from left to right and from top to

bottom. (Print awareness)

• Remember the sequence of the sounds and the syllables in the correct order.

Notice how some children will pronounce spaghetti as bisghetti.

• Learn that letters and combinations of letters are all associated with

different sounds in speech.

• Upper and lower case letters (Capital and small)

• cursive writing

• the 2 letters that make certain sounds “pr” for instance

• the two letters that make 1 sound “sh”

• Learn that B and b are the same but P and B are different.

• Derive 'meaning' from the words read.

• Use visual and auditory skills at the same time.

• Remember the many rules of letters, the silent k in knife or the silent e.

• Understand the symbolic nature and meaning of grammar, capital letters,

punctuation (commas, exclamation marks, quotation marks etc. ), spelling.

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THE BIG FIVE

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According to Armbruster, Lehr and Osborn (2001) in their work, Put Reading First:

The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read, the elements of reading

are defined as:

1. Phonemic Awareness: the ability to hear, identify and manipulate the

individual sounds – phonemes – in spoken words.

2. Phonics: the understanding that there is a predictable relationship between

phonemes (the sounds of the spoken language) and graphemes (the letters and

Phonemic awareness describes the awareness

skills used to detect, blend, segment and

manipulate individual sounds in words.

Children who have Phonemic Awareness are

likely to learn to read and spell easier than those

who have few or none of this skill

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spellings that represent those sounds in written language). It is the term applied

to instructional practices that help students develop a understanding of the

alphabetic principle.1 Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships

between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.

Phonics is the instructional method that focuses on these letter-sound

associations.

Children's reading development depends on their understanding of the

alphabetic principle – the idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds

of spoken language. Learning that there are predictable relationships between

sounds and letters allows children to apply these relationships to both familiar

and unfamiliar words, and to begin to read with fluency.

The goal of phonics instruction is to help children to learn and be able to

use the Alphabetic Principle. The alphabetic principle is the understanding that

there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and

spoken sounds. Reading really is about comprehension, and comprehension of a

text depends not on the recognition of its individual words, but on the

relationships among those words.

1 The alphabetic principle is a broad that enfolds awareness of the sound structure of

the language ( phonological awareness) and knowledge of the shapes and names of

letters ( alphabetic knowledge).

ALPHABETIC

PRINCIPLE

Alphabetic Understanding or

knowledge Words are

composed of letters that

represent sounds.

Phonological Recoding: Translation from

written representation into a sound-based

system to arrive at the meaning of words in

the lexicon (stored vocabulary) in long-term

memory.

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3. Vocabulary : refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. In

general, vocabulary can be described as oral vocabulary and reading vocabulary.

Oral vocabulary refers to words we use in speaking or recognize in listening.

Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.

4. Fluency : the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent

readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to

help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and

with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. Fluency provides

a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

5. Comprehension : the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do

not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading.

The relationship between phonemes (the sounds of the spoken

language) and graphemes (the letters and spellings that represent

those sounds in written language).

The goal of Phonics is to help children learn and use the

“alphabetic principle” (relationship between written letters and

spoken sounds)

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LEARNING TO READ

The key to the process of learning to read is the ability to identify the

different sounds that make words and to associate these sounds with written

symbols (graphemes). This is called the “alphabetic principle”. Unlike the Chinese who

use characters to represent whole ideas or the Egyptians who used pictures to represent

words, English is an alphabetic system – letters and letter patterns represent the sounds

of our speech. Spoken words are made up of phonemes, and written words are made up

of letters

However, knowledge of those two facts is not sufficient for developing

good decoding skills. Knowledge of the alphabetic principle refers to an understanding

that the letters in written words represent the phonemes in spoken words.

In order to learn to read children must be aware of phonemes. A

phoneme is the smallest functional unit of sound.

There are 40 to 44 sounds in English , and words made up of these sounds

(phonemes) are represented by the 26 letters of the Roman alphabet.

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Long /u/ sound:

•-ue June -o do

•-ui fruit

•-ew new

•-ue blue

•-ou soup

•-oo moon

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Children must be able to identify these sounds and to manipulate them. The

ability to identify and manipulate sounds of language, the ability to orally recognize

word features (e.g. rhymes, syllables, alliteration), is called Phonological Awareness.

(Smith, Simmons and Kameenui, 1995).

Phonological Awareness is an understanding of the structure of spoken

language. It understands that a language is made up of words, and words consist of

syllables, rhymes, and sounds. Fitzpatrick (1997) summarizes it best by saying that

phonological awareness is “the ability to listen inside a word”.

Phonological Awareness is basically a skill that trains the child's ear .

Phonological awareness is an awareness of the different levels in the sound system of

speech. In order to learn to read or spell words, learners need to be aware that the words

they hear in spoken language are made up of small segments of sound and that these

sounds can be represented in print.

Phonological awareness is the awareness that words can be separated in three ways and

at three levels, by syllables, by onsets and rimes, and by phonemes.

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Levels of Phonological Awareness and how to teach it

I. Word level:

• Recognize how many words are in a sentence.

• Activities to work on word awareness.

– Words are part of sentences

– One potato rhyme

– Compound words (game)

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II. Rhyme level: Rhyming and alliteration

• understand the concept of rhyming. (nursery rhymes,)

• recognize and generate rhyming words. (teach them how to rhyme, word

families)

• repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of words.

A. What is rhyming?

Rhyming is the ability to identify words that have identical final sounds

segments.

Reading begins in a child ears: the more you talk, sing and read to the child, the

bigger his/her speaking vocabulary will become.

Playing rhyming games or reading rhyming poems will get the child’s ears

ready.

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NURSERY RHYMES

Exposure

Hearing, learning and reciting nursery rhymes can help young children toward

becoming proficient readers.

Help children develop an ear for rhyme by:

1. Telling children that the words sound the same at the end;

2. Reading aloud and reciting to children and having the children themselves

recite and sing nursery rhymes and poems.

Selection

•Select those that contain rhyming words. Otherwise they will not promote

phonological awareness.

• Those that have rhyming words in close proximity to one another.

“This little piggy went to market

This little piggy stayed home

This little piggy had roast beef

This little piggy had none

And this little piggy cried, Wee-wee-wee

All the way home”.

(home and none are partial rhymes but they are far away in

the poem).

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In many poems and rhymes, the rhyming pattern in ABAB, so the rhyming words are

not in consecutive lines, but rather in every other line.

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Five little monkeys (with one hand hold up the number of fingers to match the verse)

jumping on the bed (bounce your fingers (monkeys) up and down on your other hand (the bed)

One fell off (hold up one finger)

and bumped his head ( hold head with both hands and rock head back and forth)

Mama called the Doctor and the doctor said (dial the phone with one finger)

No more monkeys jumping on the bed (shake index finger ("no no")

RHYMING GAMES

Body name game

Riddles

Word families

Finish a sentence with a rhyming word

Card games

RIDDLES

I am on your head to help you hear

There are 2 of me. I am your………

•Listen closely and hear me well

I ring and chime: I’m a ………..

•Open me up and take a look

I’m full of stories. I am a ……….

•There are 10 of me, 5 in each row

I’m on your feet, I am a ……..

•I shine outside when you’re having fun

I’m up in the sky, and I’m called the …….

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This is a word which rhymes with cat, It goes on your head because it's a ____.

•I'm useful for journeys when you're going far, I need lots of petrol because I'm a ____.

•You'll find us near ponds or sitting on logs, We jump and we croak because we are

_____.

•This is a word which rhymes with up. You can drink out of me because I'm a ____.

•This is a word which rhymes with bake, I'm nice to eat because I'm a ______.

•This is a word which rhymes with spoon, I shine at night because I'm the______.

•A neverending circle, a bright shiny thing, It's on my fourth finger because it's a _____.

- Give students sentences, they finish them with a rhyming word

A cat wearing a ______________(hat) A mouse that lives in a __________(house)

A moose with a tooth that is _____(loose) A pig that is dancing a ________(jig)

Some kittens wearing ____(mittens) A sheep that is sound ________(asleep)

A bear with long brown ___________(hair)

An ape that is eating a _____________(grape)

A goat that is sailing a _____(boat) A duck that is driving a ___________(truck)

B. Alliteration: It is the repetition of the first letter sound in a phrase.

(tonguetwisters)

Carol and Claire can cook carrots, corn, cabbage, and candy.

– Miss Marble.

– Miss Marble’s muffins.

–Miss Marble makes muffins.

–Miss Marble makes marvellous muffins.

–Miss Marble makes marvellous marmalade muffins – “mm ...”

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Activity: look for words within words

III. Syllable level

Syllable awareness is an awareness that words can be divided into syllables. A

learner who has phonological awareness at the syllable level will know that the word

mat has one syllable, that rabbit has two syllables and that hospital has three syllables.

Identify and work with syllables in spoken words.

Segment and blend words of at least two or three syllables.

• Pen + cil

• Fin + ger

• Dra + gon

• Com+pu+ter

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A. Onsets and rimes: Onset-rime awareness is phonological awareness within the

syllable level

Identify and work with onsets and rimes in spoken syllables or one-syllable words.

Onsets - all the phonemes before the vowel

Rime - the rest of the syllable from the vowel to the end

Sit – s+it

Spoil – sp+oil

B. Syllables Rules

A syllable is the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) that's created when pronouncing

a word. The number of times that you hear the sound of a vowel (a, e, i, o, u) in a word

is equal to the number of syllables the word has.

Counting Syllables

To find the number of syllables in a word, use the following steps:

Count the vowels in the word.

Subtract any silent vowels, (like the silent e at the end of a word, or the second

vowel when two vowels are together in a syllable)

Subtract one vowel from every diphthong (diphthongs only count as one vowel

sound.)

The number of vowels sounds left is the same as the number of syllables.

How many syllables?

–came

–outside

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How To Find Syllables:

Count the number of vowels (a, e, i, o, u, and sometimes y) in the word.

Subtract any silent vowels (like the silent 'e' at the end of a word).

Subtract 1 vowel from every diphthong.

A diphthong is when two volwels make only 1 sound (oi, oy, ou, ow, au,

aw, oo, ...).

The number you are left with should be the number of vowels in the

word.

How To Divide A Word Into Syllables:

Divide off any compound words, prefixes, suffixes, and root words that have

vowels.

sports/car, house/boat, un/happy, pre/paid, re/write, farm/er, hope/less

Divide between two middle consonants

hap/pens, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, din/ner

Never split up consonant digraphs as they really represent only one sound ("th",

"sh", "ph", "th", "ch", and "wh").

Usually divide before a single consonant.

o o/pen, i/tem, e/vil, re/port.

The only exceptions are those times when the first syllable has an obvious short

sound, as in "cab/in".

Divide before an "-le" syllable.

a/ble, fum/ble, rub/ble, mum/ble

The only exceptions are "ckle" words like "tick/le".

Im/polite, hap/pen, tack/le, bas/ket, let/ter, sup/per, stop/ping din/ner, Den/nis,

teacher, a/ble, fum/ble, freck/le , un/happy, mum/ble, thi/stle, tick/le, rub/ble,

farm/er, mum/ble, hope/less,

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•Divide before a consonant before an –le syllable

•Divide off any compound words (prefixes and suffixes)

•Divide between two middle consonants

IV. Sound level: (Phonemic Awareness)

The third level of separating words is by phonemes (or phonemic awareness).

Phonemic awareness is knowing that mat has three phonemes (/m/ /a/ /t/).

In order to learn to read children must be aware of phonemes which are the smallest

functional units of sound that make a difference in the meaning of words.

identify and work with individual phonemes in spoken words.

isolate the beginning or ending sounds in words.

segment and blend sounds in a word with three sounds.

change a sound in a word to make a new word (familiar games and songs).

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual

sounds—phonemes—in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is a subcategory of

Phonological awareness.

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PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS is an umbrella term that encompasses phonemic

awareness. It is the ability to think about and manipulate the sounds of language

separately from their meaning. Specific features include:

- Understanding that words can rhyme.

- Sentences are made of words.

- Words have syllables.

- Words can begin or end with the same sounds.

- Words are made of individual sounds called phonemes.( phonemic a.)

- They can be put together or taken apart to make new words.

PHONEMIC AWARENESS is the conscious understanding that spoken words are

made of individual and separate sounds called phonemes. It involves the ability to play

with and manipulate these sounds in order to put together and take apart spoken

language. It seems to depend on a student’s ability to focus on the sounds of words, as

opposed to the meanings.

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Children with phonemic awareness will be able to:

change a sound in a word to make a new word (familiar games

and songs).

identify and work with individual phonemes in spoken words.

isolate the beginning or ending sounds in words.

segment and blend sounds in a word with three sounds.

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A phoneme is the smallest unit of speech that conveys a distinction in meaning. For

instance, the word “sat” contains three phonemes: /s/ /a//t/; and differs by one

phoneme from each of the spoken words : sad, sap, hat, mat, and sit.

1. Phoneme isolation

Phoneme isolation is the

ability to identify where a sound appears in a

word, or what sound appears in a given

position. Initial, medial or final sound.

ACTIVITY TAMPAREADS. TOUCH

ELBOW, TOUCH HEAD

Children recognize individual sounds in a

word.

Teacher: “What is the first sound in van?”

Children: “The first sound in van is /v/.”

2. Phoneme identity

A technique for building phonemic awareness in which students are

taught to identify the same sound in different words. For example, what sound is the

same in boy, ball, and bath? (Answer: the b sound) WORD TO WORD MATCHING

Teacher: “What sound is the same in fix, fall, and fun?”

Children: “The first sound, /f/, is the same.”

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3. Phoneme categorization

A technique for building phonemic awareness in which students listen

to a series of three or more words and have to identify which word does not belong. For

example, in the list cat, car, mop, can, the odd word out would be mop, which beings

with a different phoneme.

Children recognize the word in a set of three or four words that has the “odd“ sound.

Teacher: “Which word doesn’t belong? Bus, bun, rug.”

Children: “Rug does not belong. It doesn’t begin with /b/.”

4. Phoneme blending

Children listen to a sequence of separately spoken phonemes, and then combine the

phonemes to form a word. Then they write and read the word.

Teacher: “What word is /b/ /i/ /g/?”

Children: “/b/ /i/ /g/ is big.”

Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in big: /b/, write b; /i/, write i; /g/, write g.”

Teacher: (Writes big on the board.) “Now we’re going to read the word big.”

What word would we have if we blended these sounds together: /m/ /o/ /p/, /f/ /l/ /a/ /g/,

/a/ /n/ /t/?

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5. Phoneme segmentation

Children break a word into its separate sounds, saying each sound as they tap out or

count it. Then they write and read the word.

Teacher: “How many sounds are in grab?”

Children: “/g/ /r/ /a/ /b/. Four sounds.”

Teacher: “Now let’s write the sounds in grab: /g/, write g; /r/, write r; /a/, write a; /b/,

write b.”

Teacher: (Writes grab on the board.) “Now we’re going to read the word grab.”

6. Phoneme deletion

Phoneme Deletion is the ability to identify how a word would sound if one sound were

omitted.

Children recognize the word that remains when a phoneme is removed from another

word.

Teacher: “What is smile without the /s/?”

Children: “Smile without the /s/ is mile.”

What sound do you hear in “fear” that you don’t in “ear”, “train” “ rain”

“train” “ rain”

7. Phoneme addition

A technique for building phonemic awareness in which the students are asked to add

single phonemes to words in order to create new words.

Children make a new word by adding a phoneme to an existing word.

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Teacher: “What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of park?”

Children: “Spark.”

8. Phoneme substitution

Phoneme substitution refers to the ability to replace a phoneme in a word with another

phoneme to form a new word.

Children substitute one phoneme for another to make a new word.

Teacher: “The word is bug. Change /g/ to /n/. What’s the new word?”

Children: “Bun.”

9. Phoneme counting

The ability to identify how many sounds students can hear in a word.

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PHONICS

Phonics is the relationship between sounds & spellings in printed text. Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual

sounds—phonemes—in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is a subcategory of

Phonological awareness.

Phonemic Awareness on the other hand, is the ability to recognize phonemes or

graphemes (sounds) in spoken words and so it is an oral skill and not a written skill

as in phonics .

There are 26 letters in the English Language (Roman alphabet ).

There are approximately 44 sounds in the English Language called

phonemes.

There are approximately 70 common spellings to write down those

sounds.

The singular or group of letters used to represent these sounds, are called graphemes.

A phonogram is a grapheme (written character) which represents a phoneme (speech

sound) or combination of phonemes, such as the letters of the Latin alphabet. EX:

–ck is a phonogram that says /k/ as in clock.

–s is a phonogram that says /s/ as in sat or /z/ as in has.

–oy is a phonogram that says /oi/ as in boy.

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Good phonics instruction helps students:

1. Become aware of and manipulate the sounds of spoken English (

PHONEMIC AND PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS).

2. Identify the letters of the alphabet by shapes and names (

ALPHABETIC KNOWLEDGE).

3. Relate sounds to spelling (THE ALPHABETIC PRINCIPLE)

.

4. Read each letter or combination of letter in a word to determine the

word’s meaning ( WORD RECOGNITION/DECODING).

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VOCABULARY INSTRUCTION

"Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. In general,

vocabulary can be described as oral vocabulary or reading 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"

(Armbruster, Lehr & Osborn, 2001 p. 34).

Vocabulary is an important component of children's reading comprehension. As

children sound out words when reading, they compare the sounds to words they know.

The larger a child's vocabulary, the easier it is for him to match words as he reads.

Bromley (2004), in a comprehensive review of research on vocabulary

development, concludes that vocabulary knowledge promotes reading fluency, boosts

reading comprehension, improves academic achievement, and enhances thinking

and communication.

In schools, the study of new words is often done through direct instruction.

Children study a word's parts, its origin and its meaning.

Vocabulary can be taught directly or indirectly:

Students learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both

individual words and word-learning strategies. Direct vocabulary instruction

aids reading comprehension.

Students learn vocabulary indirectly when they hear and see words used in

many different contexts—for example, through conversations with adults,

through being read to, and through reading extensively on their own.

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Using what children are interested in can be a successful way to teach vocabulary.

Children often provide clues to their interests as you read or work on projects or in your

casual conversations. Picking up on these clues and using them to teach new words

engages children in their learning and makes it more fun.

Explore the meanings of words and build a list of related words.

Build their vocabulary through extended instruction

Repeated exposure to words and their use in a variety of contexts.

FLUENCY

"Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent readers read

silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them

gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with

expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking"

(Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001, p. 22).

Fluency is important because:

it helps children bridge the gap between word recognition and

comprehension.

It is easier for children to understand what they read, if they don’t have to

work hard to decode the words they are reading.

They can make connections among the ideas in the text and between the text

and their background knowledge.

Fluency is associated with strong skills in phonemic awareness, phonics, and

vocabulary.

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Fluent readers :

read silently,

they recognize words automatically.

they group words quickly to help them understand what they read.

they read aloud effortlessly and with expression.

their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking.

Fluency is associated with strong skills in phonemic awareness, phonics, and

vocabulary.

Fluency develops gradually over considerable time and through substantial

practice.

At the earliest stage of reading development, students’ oral reading is slow and

laboured because students are just learning to “break the code“—to attach

sounds to letters and to blend letter sounds into recognizable words.

Fluency changes, depending on what readers are reading, their familiarity with

the words, and the amount of their practice with reading text.

Two major instructional approaches related to fluency.

repeated and monitored oral reading (commonly called “repeated reading“) .

Students read passages aloud several times and receive guidance and feedback

from the teacher.

independent silent reading. Students are encouraged to read extensively on their

own.

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You can help your students become more fluent readers by:

providing them with models of fluent reading

having students repeatedly read passages as you offer guidance. In addition, you

can help students improve their fluency by combining reading instruction with

opportunities for them to read books that are at their independent level of

reading ability.

Vygotsky argued that we learn when we work collaboratively with an adult or a

more knowledgeable peer. What we can do now with help we can do later

independently.

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A. Model fluent reading, then have students reread the text on their own. By

listening to good models of fluent reading, students learn how a reader’s voice can help

written text make sense.

- Read aloud daily to your students. By reading effortlessly and with expression,

you are modelling for your students how a fluent reader sounds during reading.

- After you model how to read the text, you must have the students reread it. By

doing this, the students are engaging in repeated reading. Usually, having

students read a text four times is sufficient to improve fluency.

Of course, hearing a model of fluent reading is not the only benefit of reading aloud to

children.

Reading to children also increases:

their knowledge of the world

their vocabulary

their familiarity with written language (“book language“)

their interest in reading.

A. Have students repeatedly read passages aloud with guidance.

The best strategy for developing reading fluency is to provide your students with many

opportunities to read the same passage orally several times. To do this, you should first

know what to have your students read. Second, you should know how to have your

students read aloud repeatedly.

B. What students should read

Fluency develops as a result of many opportunities to practice reading with a high

degree of success. Therefore, your students should practice orally rereading text that is

reasonably easy for them:

text containing mostly words that they know or can decode easily.

the texts should be at the students’ independent reading level.

A text is at students’ independent reading level if they can read it with about 95%

accuracy, or misread only about 1 of every 20 words. If the text is more difficult,

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students will focus so much on word recognition that they will not have an opportunity

to develop fluency.

I. Think aloud

When reading aloud, you can stop from time to time and orally complete sentences like

these:

–So far, I've learned...

–This made me think of...

–That didn't make sense.

–I think ___ will happen next.

–I reread that part because...

–I was confused by...

–I think the most important part was...

–That is interesting because...

–I wonder why...

–I just thought of...

II. Shared-reading

The shared reading model was developed by Holdaway (1979). It builds from the

research that indicates that storybook reading is a critically important factor in young

children's reading development (Wells, 1986).

In the shared reading model there are multiple readings of the books over several days.

Children are actively involved in the reading (Yaden, 1988).

The teacher may pause in the reading and ask for predictions as to what will

happen next.

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PURPOSES OF RE-READING The repeated readings of the same story serve

various purposes.

BENEFITS OF SHARED READING

Rich, authentic, interesting literature can be used, even in the earliest phases of a

reading program.

Each reading of a selection provides opportunities for the teacher to model

reading for the children.

Opportunities for concept and language expansion that would not be possible if

we selected only those books that children could independently.

The first reading is for enjoyment

The second may focus on building and extending comprehension of the selection.

A third might focus attention on the interesting language and vocabulary

A fourth might focus on decoding, using the words in the selection as a starting

point for teaching word identification skills (Yaden, 1989).

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WHAT STUDENTS SHOULD READ?

Fluency develops as a result of many opportunities to practice reading with a

high degree of success. Therefore, your students should practice orally rereading text

that is reasonably easy for them:

text containing mostly words that they know or can decode easily.

the texts should be at the students’ independent reading level.

A text is at students’ independent reading level if they can read it with about

95% accuracy, or misread only about 1 of every 20 words. If the text is more difficult,

students will focus so much on word recognition that they will not have an opportunity

to develop fluency.

III. GUIDED READING

Students are divided into small groups (4-6 students). The younger the students

the smaller the groups.

Guided reading lessons are to be about 15-20 minutes in duration.

Select appropriately leveled reading materials

Pre-Reading: The teacher establishes a purpose for reading through prediction making,

vocabulary introduction, or discussing ideas that will provide the readers with the

background knowledge required for the text.

Reading: The teacher observes the students as they read the text softly or silently to

themselves. The teacher provides guidance and coaching to individuals based on her/his

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observations by providing prompts, asking questions, and encouraging attempts at

reading strategy application.

Post Reading: The teacher asks questions to ensure that the text has been

comprehended by the readers and praises their efforts

COMPREHENSION

"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" (Armbruster, Lehr, &

Osborn, 2001, p. 48).

The other elements of quality reading instruction—phonemic awareness, phonics,

fluency, vocabulary—are skills that contribute to reading comprehension. How well

children use these skills contributes to their understanding of what they are reading.

Some very useful strategies to help children understand what they read are:

Asking "wh" (who, what, when, where and why) questions when reading

making predictions about what the story will be about or what will happen in

the story

looking for main ideas and connecting the story to previous experiences

pre-teaching vocabulary words before reading.

MISTAKES IN READING CAN INCLUDE

1. Mispronunciation - the child mispronounces the word, usually creating a word

that isn’t a word at all.

2. Omission - the child skips the word altogether

3. Insertion - the child adds a word, or words, that aren’t really in the text

4. Substitution - the child replaces a word with a different word. Sometimes the

replacement word makes sense with the sentence, sometimes it doesn’t. This is

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important to note because if the word the child uses makes sense, it shows an

understanding of the context.

5. Self-correction - the child makes a mistake in reading, but quickly corrects the

mistake on his own.

6. Repetition - the child repeats a word, or words, that are in the passage.

7. Parent assistance - the child asks you for help to read a word, or you help her

because she is “stuck.”

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40

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Bibliography SB, Simmons DC y Kameenui EJ (1995). Synthesis of research on phonological

awareness:Principles and implications for reading acquisition. Technical Report no.

21, National Center to Improve the Tools of Education. Eugene: University of Oregon.

http://books.google.es/books?hl=es&lr=&id=E87pz82v32UC&oi=fnd&pg=PA129&dq

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Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read

Armbruster, Lehr and Osborn (2001)

Fitzpatrick, J. Phonemic Awareness: Playing with sounds to Strengthen Beginning

Reading Skills, Creative Teaching Press, 1997.

David Booth: Guiding the Reading Process: Techniques and Strategies for Successful

Instruction in K-8 Classrooms . Pembroke Publishers 1998. Canada

David Wallace Booth, Larry Swartz: Literacy techniques for building successful

readers and writers. Pembroke Publishers Limited, 2004. Canada

Smith, S.B., Simmons, D.C., & Kameenui, E.J. (February, 1995). Synthesis of research

on phonological awareness: Principles and implications for reading acquisition.

(Technical Report no. 21, National Center to Improve the Tools of Education). Eugene:

University of Oregon.

Adams, Marilyn Jager. 1990.Beginning to read: Thinking and learning about print.

Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois, Reading Research and Education Center.

0262011123. Location: Dallas SIL Library 372.4 A215.

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Spalding, Romalda B., The Writing Road to Reading, North, Mary E. Ed. Harper

Collins, New York, 2003