Five Essential Components

Scientific research shows that there are five essential components of reading that children must be taught in order to learn to read. Adults can help children learn to be good readers by systematically practicing these five components:

Comprehension

Comprehension is the active process of constructing meaning from written language. Comprehension “monitoring” is an important part of comprehension. Students who practice comprehension monitoring know when they understand what they are reading and they know what to do when they do not understand what they read.

Fluency

Fluency is reading smoothly, accurately, and with expression. Fluency is reading so the words come out automatically. Fluency is important because it frees the reader to understand what they are reading.

Fluent readers read smoothly, at a good rate, and without having to sound out many words. A fluent reader pays attention to commas (pauses) and periods (voice goes down) and question marks (uses a questioning voice). Text is not read as one long run on sentence. A fluent reader uses expression to help convey the meaning.

Phonemic Awareness

A reader can identify blends, syllables, segmentation of words, addition, deletion, and substitution of letters in words. Phonemic awareness focuses on the oral sounds of letters and words parts.

Phonics

Phonics is knowing the relationship between printed letters of written language and the individual sounds of spoken language. Knowledge of these relationships contributes to the ability to read and to understand words.

Vocabulary

A rich vocabulary is the key to learning. Vocabulary is the thing that readers of all ages will always be learning as they grow in skills.