Building Literacy Skills

"The ability to read silently with comprehension changes lives by opening rich opportunities for lifelong learning. Therefore, the primary goal of literacy instruction is to teach students to read silently, not orally, and to do so with understanding, or comprehension" (Erickson & Koppenhaver, 2020, p. 91).

It is important to teach students to read silently and with comprehension.

All students can learn with effective instruction and experience. The underlying theoretical framework for reading instruction is the whole-to-part (WTP) model of silent reading comprehension (Erickson & Koppenhaver).

WTP is achieved with three parts:

Word Identification

The process of linking print-to-sound. Words can be identified automatically or using decoding strategies. Provide students with opportunities for repetition (with variety) to build up automatic word identification effortlessly from memory.

Language Comprehension

There are two parts: "knowledge of text structures" (the ability to understand written language) and "knowledge of the world" (the experiences related to the text that is presented).

Whole-Text Print Processing

There are five parts:

Inner speech use (remembering ideas and connecting them with text),
Projecting prosody (reading with expression),
Making print-to-meaning links (connecting words together to form meaning),
Eye movements in reading and,
Integrating the above four parts together (p. 91).

Comprehensive Literacy Instruction

Comprehensive literacy instruction is evidence-based. It is critical to provide comprehensive literacy instruction daily so that all students with varying needs and strengths can learn to read and write. They need to learn how to read words, understand written language, develop fluency, increase their motivation for reading, and become independent readers. Comprehensive literacy instruction provides instruction and varied opportunities in reading and writing. These include the four components of literacy.