What is phonemic awareness?
- is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds–phonemes–in spoken words.
What is phonics?
Phonics instruction focuses on teaching the relationships between sounds (phonemes) and letters (graphemes)
What is fluency?
Reading fluency is the ability to read text easily, quickly, and with expression.
What is vocabulary?
Vocabulary refers to the words that we know.
What is comprehension?
Comprehension is an active and purposeful process that leads to understanding and remembering what was read.
What are instructional strategies for teaching fluency?
Explicit and systematic instruction.
• Model fluent reading and remind students of its features.
- Provide practice in repeated oral reading (commonly called “rereading”).
- Monitor rereading practice and provide feedback.
- Ensure that students spend ample time reading and rereading texts that are at their independent levels.
- Choral reading – The students read in unison. The teacher fades in and out as needed. The students may assess their reading using a fluency reminder list. Sometimes choral reading is implemented as computer-based or tape-assisted reading as students read along with a recorded voice.
- Partner reading – Students take turns reading the selection or alternate reading portions of the selection. The teacher may ask the students to provide their partners with feedback regarding one or more features of fluent reading (e.g., use punctuation marks). Partner reading may occur within class or across grades.
- Echo reading – Students “echo” the teacher who reads short portions of text (e.g., a sentence, a paragraph). Feedback is provided as needed. Sometimes echo reading is implemented as computer-based or tape-assisted reading.
- Readers Theatre – Students read a text repeatedly as they rehearse and then perform the text. Feedback is provided as needed.
- One-minute timed readings – Students read a familiar text for one minute then record on a chart the number of words read. Students reread the same text several more times, each time recording on the same chart the number of words read. When appropriate, the teacher discusses troublesome words and/or highlights items from a fluency reminder list.
What are strategies for understanding a text?
o comprehension monitoring o answering questions o generating questions o summarizing o recognizing story structure o using graphic and semantic organizers o accessing prior knowledge o using mental imagery (visualizing)
What are strategies for teaching phonemic awareness?
• Emphasize blending and segmenting tasks, the most critical skills for success in beginning reading.
- Students need to practice blending and segmenting with a wide range of one-syllable words rather than focus on a specific word family (rime) or specific letter-sound correspondences.
• Make use of letters (printed words) when appropriate.
- The development of phonemic awareness and print awareness represents a reciprocal relationship. Insights into one stimulate insights into the other.
- Letters and printed words visually show children how sounds can be blended to form words and how words can be pulled apart into sounds. Teachers can use counters and fingers when letters would be confusing.
- Students will continue to develop phonemic awareness as they participate in explicit and systematic phonics instruction.
What is a consonant blend?
Where two or more consonants run in or blend with each other ex: l-family, r-family, s-family, -nd, -nk, -nt, -mp, st, ster, scr, spr, spl
What is a consonant digraph?
two consonants that come together to make one sound ex: sh, ch, th, wh, ph, -ck, -ng
Why do we teach phonics?
- Skillful readers have a firm grasp of the alphabetic principle—an understanding that enables them to read words accurately and automatically.
- One of the most pervasive characteristics of struggling readers is difficulty in reading words accurately and automatically.
- Skillful readers process all the information within a word (e.g., letter-sound correspondences, spelling patterns/chunks, and morphemes) and use context clues for verification. Struggling readers are more apt to use only partial information within a word (e.g., beginning sounds) and depend more heavily on context clues than their more skillful peers.
What is the alphabetic principle?
an understanding that phonemes of spoken words are mapped onto the letters of written words in systematic and predictable ways
Direct Vocabulary Learning
Students learn vocabulary when teachers provide explicit instruction in specific words and word-learning strategies
Indirect Vocabulary Learning
Students learn most words through incidental and multiple encounters
Onset
An onset is the information that comes before the vowel
Rime
A rime is the part of a syllable which consists of its vowel and any consonant sounds that come after it.
What is comprehension monitoring?
Comprehension monitoring is being aware of what is and what is not understood during reading. Skillful readers know when they understand and know when they do not understand. When skillful readers monitor their comprehension, they activate “fix-up” strategies when problems occur at the word or text level. This process involves using multiple comprehension strategies flexibly and in combination. It also involves the use of other problem-solving strategies such as rereading, reading ahead, using the dictionary or glossary, and asking someone for help.
How many phonemes are in the english language?
41
