Reading Process

Phonological Awareness

What is phonological awareness?

Phonological awareness is a pre-reading skill that includes identifying and manipulating units of oral language – such as the number of words in a sentence, rhyming, alliteration, syllables, and onsets and rimes. Another key component of phonological awareness is "phonemic awareness."

What is phonemic awareness?

Phonemic awareness refers to the specific ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. The best way to describe this is that it can be done with your eyes closed. Students do not need to see letters or print in order to do this skill.

Phonological awareness is essential to learning to read. If a child cannot hear that "man" and "moon" begin with the same sound or cannot blend the sounds /rrrruuunnn/ into the word "run", the child may have difficulty connecting sounds with the corresponding letter or blending sounds to make a word once they see it.

Phonological awareness is a strong predictor of early reading success!

​Phonics

What is phonics?

Phonics is the relationship between a specific letter and its sound, only as it relates to the written word (as opposed to phonemic awareness being spoken word). Phonics is used, for example, when a reader comes across an unknown word. With knowledge of phonics, readers can decode the word by focusing on the specific sound of each letter or combination of letters. If the child does not recognize the word "wish", the child might break the word into phonemes, such as /w/ /i / /sh/, assigning an appropriate sound to each separate letter or combination of letters. Then, the child blends or recodes these sounds to say the word "wish."

Phonics is also used in writing, or encoding, text. If a child is trying to spell "smart," the child might begin with the /s/ sound and write "s". Then, the child goes to the next sound /m/ and writes "m", and so on. An early phonics learner often achieves a close approximation of correct spelling rather than complete accuracy. The child attempts to spell the word "smart" using the method above but end up with "smrt", simply because the child only heard the dominant /r/ sound in the /ar/ sound-letter combination.

Vocabulary

What role does vocabulary play in learning to read?

When a child learns to read, they begin to understand that the words on the page correspond to the words encountered every day in spoken English. It’s much easier for a child to make sense of written words that are already part of the child's oral language. While we don’t have to know every word on the page to understand what we are reading, too many new or difficult words make comprehension difficult. As a child's reading level improves, so does the number of words the child needs to know.

How do children learn new words?

Children increase their vocabulary through both direct and indirect instruction. Children continually learn new words indirectly through listening and speaking to the people around them, being read to by others, and reading on their own. Sometimes children need to be taught new words explicitly, especially when the words are crucial to their understanding of a story or concept. Study in content areas, such as science and social studies, adds to a child’s vocabulary development.

Fluency

What is reading fluency?

Reading fluency is the ability to read a text easily. Reading fluency has four parts:

accuracy - reading words correctly (automatic sight word recognition).

speed - when children read fluently, they read at an efficient rate (automatic sight word recognition).

expression - also known as prosody- the ability to read in a way that sounds like spoken language.

comprehension - fluency is the bridge between being able to read (or decode) words and to comprehend or understand what is read.

Each part is important, but no single part is enough on its own. A fluent reader is able to coordinate all four aspects of fluency.

Comprehension

The goal of reading is to derive meaning. Without comprehension, reading is simply following words on a page from left to right while sounding them out. The words on the page have no meaning. While people read for many different reasons, the chief goal is to glean some understanding of what the writer is trying to convey and make use of that information – whether for fact gathering, learning a new skill, or for pleasure. That’s why reading comprehension skills are so important!

​Comprehension refers to the thinking readers do before, during, and after reading. This is a simple definition for a very complex cognitive process. Reading comprehension weaves all the above mentioned elements together. Readers must activate prior knowledge (background knowledge), make connections, visualize, infer, synthesize, and monitor their understanding. Good readers think and ask questions before, during, and after reading! Additionally, strong oral language is critical to developing strong comprehension.

Source: National Reading Panel