Components of Lang and Reading Instruction

Chapter 5: Components of Language & Reading
Chapter 5
The Components of Language and Reading Instruction
Multiple references have been made in preceding chapters to the use of

“balanced” reading instruction in studies of reading instruction. Prior to
describing the components of reading, an introduction to the components of
language that shape that foundation is warranted.
Components of Language
Reading would not exist without the human capacity for language.
Because the components of language and their associated terminology align
with our demarcations for many of the elements of reading, they are
described briefly in this section. Linguists have identified five basic
components (phonology, morphology, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics)
found across languages.1 Language acquisition progresses across these
components with increasing quantity (e.g., sounds, words, and sentence
length) and gradual refinement, and understanding of the subtler and more
complex points of usage (e.g., using “taught” rather than “teached”). Readers
are encouraged to explore the literature in the field of language development
to better understand and appreciate the oral language skills students may
bring to the reading process. Speech and language pathologists are a great
resource for identifying resources in this area and assisting in determining
whether a child’s language skills are developing normally and providing
support when assessment and intervention may be required.
Phonology
The study of speech structure within a language, including both the

patterns of basic speech units and the accepted rules of pronunciation, is
known as phonology.2 The smallest units of sound that make up a language
are called phonemes. For example, the word “that” contains three phonemes
the “th” represents one phoneme /th/, the “a” maps to the short a sound /ă/,
and the “t” to its basic sound /t/.
Morphology
Moving to the next level of language, we find the study of the smallest
units of meaning, morphemes. Morphemes include base words, such as “hat,”
“dog,” or “love,” as well as affixes, such as “un-,” “re-,” the plural “s” or “es,”
and the past tense “ed.” Knowledge of the morphology of our language is
critical to vocabulary development and reflects the smallest building blocks
for comprehension.
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Syntax
The study of how individual words and their most basic meaningful
units are combined to create sentences is known as syntax. As words are
grouped together when we communicate, we must follow the rules of
grammar for our language, in other words, its syntax. It is the knowledge of
syntax that allows us to recognize that the following two sentences, while
containing different word order and levels of complexity, have the same
meaning.
 The boy hit the ball.

 The ball was hit by the boy.
Syntax also allows us to accept “I went to the store” as a meaningful

(grammatical) sentence while “To store went I” would not be acceptable
English.
Semantics
Not only does the grammatical structure of our language provide the
needed clues for understanding, we also have a wealth of figurative language
and rich description that adds color and nuance to our communication.
Semantics refers to the ways in which a language conveys meaning.3 It is our
understanding of semantics that allows us to recognize that someone who is
“green with envy” has not changed hue, or that “having cold feet” has less to
do with the appendage at the end of our legs and more to do with our anxiety
about a new experience. Because semantics moves beyond the literal meaning
of words and is culture-dependent, this is among the most difficult aspects of
language for individuals who are not native speakers and even those who
speak the same language but come from different cultures and convey
meaning using words in unique ways. Anyone who has attempted to converse
with a teenager in his own vernacular can appreciate the importance of
sharing a semantic base for communicating clearly.
Pragmatics
“‘Pragmatics’ refers to the ways the members of the speech community

achieve their goals using language.”4 The way we speak to our parents is not
the same as the way we interact with a sibling, for example. The language
used in a formal speech may bear little resemblance to what we would hear
at a lunch with five friends. The conversational style of day-to-day
interactions is quite different from the language used even when reading a
42
storybook to a toddler. Knowing the difference and when to use which style is
the essence of pragmatics.
Facility with language is critical to social interactions. Our ability to

effectively communicate with others through spoken and written language is
considered one of the ultimate goals of our educational system, with reading
receiving much-needed emphasis. “Reading is essential to success in our
society. The ability to read is highly valued and important for social and
economic advancement.”5 In the following section the components identified
by experts as critical to developing reading skills are reviewed.
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Developing an Integrated Reading Program
Effective and powerful instruction from knowledgeable teachers

is the key to successful early reading achievement. Balanced
instruction providing all children with opportunities to master
concepts of print, learn the alphabetic principle, acquire word
recognition skills, develop phonemic awareness, engage in and
sustain an interest in reading, and experience a wide range of
materials in the context of developmentally appropriate
instruction continues to be the major deterrent against reading
failure (Adams, 1990; Hiebert, Pearson, Taylor, Richardson, &
Paris, 1998; Snow et al., 1998).6
The National Research Council Committee cautioned educators about

use of the word “balance” proposing that “integration” is more appropriate.
Balance does NOT mean dividing one’s time equally among the components
of a comprehensive reading program, but, instead, developing an approach
that is coherent and adjusts to the developmental reading needs of students.7
While the term “balanced” may be used more frequently, to reflect the NRC
Committee’s suggestion, the term “integrated” will be employed in the
current review of the critical components of effective reading programs.
The consensus regarding the five components described below evolved
from the work of the National Research Council Committee and the National
Reading Panel, which subsequently became the foundation for the Reading
First initiative found in NCLB. Evidence regarding these components is
shaping state- and school-district decisions regarding reading program
adoption as is clear in the list of accepted Reading First Programs. In many
cases, it has significant financial and instructional implications. For example,
it was recently reported that Anne Arundel County in Maryland was
purchasing the Open Court reading series, which has a heavy phonics
emphasis that has been promoted by reading experts and credited with rising
test scores, including nearby Baltimore. The adoption would be an $8 million
expense at a time when the district’s budget was being cut by $13 million.
Although concerns have been voiced that the program limits teacher
flexibility, Arundel had begun implementing the program in schools with the
lowest performance and reported that the curricular assessments indicated
progress. Also, administrators noted that teachers were reluctant when the
program began, but were more accepting after working with the series.8
Effective implementation of reading programs is influenced by such fiscal
pressures and educators’ difficulty accepting change.
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Instructional Components of Teaching Reading
Quality instruction “includes explicit explanations, modeling, and

scaffolded practice that is engaging and meaningful …meeting students
where they are with respect to affect, motivation, and cognition; explicitly
teaching them strategies for taking charge of tasks, situations, and personal
styles; and scaffolding the successful completion of academic tasks.”9 While
the full parameters for quality instruction cannot be included in this review
of reading components, we will incorporate as many as possible. Each of the
components will be described with several examples of how it may be
integrated into reading instruction and, finally, how the component may
apply to high-poverty/highly mobile students.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonemic awareness is one of the underlying language skills

considered highly predictive of later reading success. CIERA identified10
phonemic awareness instruction in kindergarten as closely related to
emergent literacy skills. Some researchers suggest that the best predictor of
reading difficulty in kindergarten or first grade is the inability to segment
words into their sound units.11 Even among children with limited English
proficiency, strong phonological awareness in their native language was a
strong predictor English reading success.12 Before describing this component
in early reading instruction, it is helpful to recognize that phonemic
awareness is a subset of phonological awareness.
Phonological awareness. Recall that phonemes refer to the smallest
units of sounds, but there are other units of oral language that are easier to
hear and manipulate, such as words and syllables. The ability to hear and
manipulate words, syllables, and phonemes is known as phonological
awareness. Children acquire the ability to identify and play with words and
syllables before they can do the same with individual sounds. These simpler
tasks are common preschool activities and the types of games that youngsters
often play with their parents and other caregivers. Phonological awareness,
including phonemic awareness, does NOT involve written alphabetic letters
or words. It focuses exclusively on oral language. While some children who
have difficulty hearing differences in sounds may benefit from the visual
representation, this component involves prereading skills. The following
tasks are samples of activities related to phonological awareness, starting
with the skills that are mastered earlier and progressing in complexity.
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Type of Task Description Example
Rhyme Being able to match the Hit, pit, sit, lit, mitt
ending sounds in words. (remember this is sounds,
not letters)
Alliteration Being able to generate Six, silly, squirmy, seals

words that begin with the sang
same sound.
Sentence segmentation Being able to break spoken Tia hit the ball.
sentences into separate
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words.
Syllables Blending syllables into /pup/ /pet/ - puppet

words or segmenting words seven - /sev/ /en/
into the corresponding
syllables. This skill begins
to emerge about the age of
4.
Blending or segmenting the
Onsets and rimes /m/ /op/ - mop
initial consonant or
consonant cluster (onset) stripe - /str/ /ipe/
and the vowel and
following consonant sounds
(rime). Around the age of 4
to 5, this skill becomes
evident.
Phonemes Blending, segmenting, and /t/ /r/ /o/ /t/ - trot
manipulating individual stick - /s/ /t/ /i/ /k/
sounds in words.
sound substitutions: change
the /h/ in hat to /b/ - bat
Table 4. A Continuum of Phonological Awareness Tasks
Instructional considerations for developing phonemic awareness.

Rhymes and alliteration can be reinforced through a variety of children’s
literature, including nursery rhymes and poems, and children often enjoy
making up their own. (How many of us can remember our names being
manipulated to rhyme with words we would rather not have linked, such as
plain Jane or fatty Patty!) The activities listed in Table 4 involve greater
manipulation of speech sounds, both blending and segmenting. Several
simple techniques can be used regardless of the level being addressed. For
46
example, words, syllables, onset-rimes, and phonemes can be clapped, tapped

on fingers, or manipulated with concrete objects such as blocks. A technique
that incorporates the use of concrete objects is the Elkonin sound boxes.
Boxes (parking spaces or other terms that attract the children’s attention)
can be drawn on a board or sheet of paper and blocks, coins, counters, M&Ms
or any other item can be used to present each word, syllable, onset-rime, or
sound. The following examples model these activities using one of the speech
units; however, the same activities can be interchanged for different units.
1. Clapping words: the – dog – barks (3 claps)

2. Tapping fingers for syllables: de-li-cious (3 taps)
3. Blocks on onset-rimes: s – and (2 blocks) (push the blocks together to
blend or pull them apart to segment)
A word about onset-rime: Awareness of individual sounds within rime

units usually requires direct instruction. There are 37 rimes that appear
in over 500 different words commonly seen in early grades. These rimes
provide a more stable pattern for vowels than individual phonemes.
There is conflicting research regarding whether to start with phonemes
or with rimes.13 Starting with the phoneme level may provide the best
results after some consonant and vowel knowledge is mastered; however,
rimes may assist children in making the leap to “chunks” and seeing
patterns when learning to decode.
Elkonin sound boxes for phonemes: Move one smiley face counter into
each box for each sound in “take”; slide the counters together
and say the word “take.” (A “parking lot” format with cars or
trucks may be used, as well as many other motivators.)
/t/ /ā/ /k/
take
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Notice that throughout these activities no written language is used.

Phonological awareness, including phonemic awareness, addresses speech,
not print. As a result, many of these activities can begin during preschool
years. The development of phonemic awareness is considered an important
component of reading instruction in kindergarten and first grade. When
explicit instruction is used to introduce a concept or skill, small-group and
one-to-one grouping is recommended.14 Whole-group instruction for read-
alouds and incidental reminders through daily activities is appropriate for
reinforcement of previously introduced skills.
High-poverty/high-mobility and phonological skill development. The

development of phonological awareness and phonemic awareness, in
particular, are dependent upon language-rich environments. The quality and
quantity of verbal interactions young children experience play a significant
role in building reading readiness.15 Children in poverty are less likely to be
exposed to the kinds of language play that nurture this foundation to
emergent literacy. Families who are moving frequently and facing the
stressors related to poverty may be focused on survival, making the adults
less “available” to their children, resulting in fewer verbal interactions.
Further, depression, whether clinical or situational, is common given the
challenges of poverty. Depression also suppresses the quantity of verbal
expression a child experiences.16 The story books and nursery rhymes of
middle-class America may not be part of the culture of children moving
frequently and living in poverty, and the limited access to books in poor
communities compared to more affluent communities has been well
documented.17
Also noted is a relationship between high school dropout and poverty.
Thus, it is parents without diplomas who are most likely to benefit form
quality preschools as a means to counter the limited resources in their homes
and communities; yet, these are the parents least likely to have access to
quality programs.18 This is illustrated by the limited funding for Head Start,
which allows programs to serve only approximately 40% of those eligible and
the most recent USDE Homeless Child Estimate in which states identified
over 250,000 preschoolers who experienced homelessness and reported that
only 15% had access to preschool.19 Programs serving these children may
need to consider how to incorporate the creative language-based play that
will nurture the development of such skills. That is, it may be necessary to
review or even introduce preschool-level skills when students have not had
the benefit of experiences to develop the phonological skills that form part of
the building blocks for early reading acquisition and to ensure that the
continuum of phonological awareness is addressed by beginning with larger
linguistic units and moving to phonemes as students are ready.
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Phonics
While phonological and phonemic awareness focus on speech without

print, phonics brings speech sounds and print together. Knowledge of the
alphabetic principle and how letters are combined to represent the sounds of
our speech is phonics. The National Reading Panel noted that phonics taught
early is more effective than if introduced after first grade. Similarly, the
authors of the CIERA20 studies for grades 1 through 6 reported a high level of
phonics instruction was NOT found to be helpful for students’ growth in
fluency in grades 2-3 or to their phonemic awareness development in
kindergarten. This does not mean phonics should be ignored at these levels,
but the proper mixture of a well-integrated reading program should include
more direct phonics during early reading in first grade and gradually
decrease in terms of direct instruction. Teachers continue to explore phonics
with their students, as needed, in other grades.
English is notorious for its lack of one-to-one correspondence between
letters (graphemes) and phonemes. The adoption of words from other
languages that have different pronunciation and spelling rules and the
introduction of the printing press have been identified as causes for some of
these challenges. In the 15th and 16th centuries, many words were pronounced
as they were spelled. Over the years, we have changed pronunciation, but
little has changed in the way the words are translated into their written
form.21
The English language has only 26 letters to generate approximately 45
different sounds.22 Some researchers have found that most comprehensive
phonics programs provide direct instruction in about 90 rules, yet there are
over 500 spelling-sound rules in English.23 That means that we must use a
variety of letter combinations to produce the unique sounds. To further
confound this challenge, the same letter combinations can represent a variety
of phonemes. Consider the following unusual spelling for a common word
proposed by the author George Bernard Shaw:
ghoti
What word could this represent? Well, the “gh” refers to the /f/
phoneme as found in the word “enough,” the “o” refers to the /i/ phoneme as
used in the word “women,” and the “ti” refers to the /sh/ phoneme as in
“nation.” By mapping these sounds to the letter combination, we would arrive
at the word “fish!”24
Instructional considerations for teaching phonics. Despite the number

of irregular letters and sound combinations, an understanding of the sound-
symbol relationship and mastery of basic rules is strongly associated with
early reading success. Some educators who work with students who are
highly mobile have noted their inadequate progress with whole language
approaches that lack structured phonics instruction as the explicit structure
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is seen as a critical building block for these students.25 Thus, explicit phonics
instruction in the primary grades, as noted in previously cited studies, was
associated with more effective classrooms as defined by acquisition of reading
skills; however, an emphasis on phonics in later grades was less effective.
Table 5 outlines developmental steps children go through in developing word
recognition skills, which is the purpose of phonics instruction.26
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Phase Description
Pre-alphabetic Children attend to distinctive visual cues.

For example, they focus on logos to
recognize brands or locations such as the
golden arches for MacDonald’s.27
Partial alphabetic Students have knowledge of some letters

and sounds and use those phonetic cues
when trying to read.
Full alphabetic Students can fully analyze the spellings of

words.
Consolidated alphabetic With reading practice, spelling patterns

become joined into “multiletter units
consisting of blends of letter-sound
matches”28 and students use these larger
units to read sight words (e.g., onset-rime
patterns).
Table 5. Stages in Developing Word Recognition Skills
Despite the ability to directly teach all possible phonics rules and letter
combinations, this component of reading instruction plays an important role
in early reading development. Rather than ensuring students master all the
rules for decoding words, phonics provides children with an awareness of
word structure, and this awareness, in turn, allows them to generalize the
rules they have mastered to read new words. Practice in writing letters to
represent words, a common way to practice phonics skills, allows children to
recognize that their spoken words can be separated into smaller units of
sounds and a visual representation can be assigned. “Armed with this
awareness, a child can then go on to induce for himself the multitude of
spelling-sound correspondences that are actually required to read.”29
Students need to understand the goals and rationale for the
instruction they receive as it allows them to develop metacognitive control
over the word-learning process. For example, they can think about how they
are learning words, the relationship between their reading and classroom
instruction, and even how to adjust their approach to reading tasks when
they are not successful.
There are several approaches to teaching phonics. Synthetic phonics
emphasizes letter-by-letter phonological decoding to combine sounds into
whole words, whereas analytic phonics focuses on breaking words into their
component sounds. A third approach involves the use of analogies with onsets
and rimes taught through the use of keywords or other known words to
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identify unknown words.30 These processes are similar to those described

under phonemic awareness, and similar activities may, therefore, be used for
instruction. The major difference is the addition of written words to the
verbal cues. Steps teachers or tutors may use include:
 Modeling of self-talk (verbalizing how you approach a new word so the
student understands the internal process);
 Guided practice where the students explain why number of sounds and
number of letter might not match;
 Letter substitution practice with Elkonin boxes (e.g., here is the word
“hat” if I change the “h” to “m,” the word is …“mat.”);
 Reading texts with controlled vocabulary and predictable rhyme pattern
or easy trade book;
 Reading to students having students point to the words and follow along;
 Echo and choral reading (students repeat after the teacher or everyone
reads along aloud together);
 Solo reading; and
 Maintaining “What-I-Know-About-My-Language” journals that allow
students to review features of our language. Students develop their own
observations of rules, which can be motivating because it gives them
control over their own word learning.
Despite such a variety of activities, teachers and students face

challenges when working with phonics to provide practice in the phonics
rules that have been taught. Reading is not intended to mean decoding words
in isolation, but rather getting meaning from print. As noted above, actual
stories and expository writing are needed. A variety of controlled vocabulary
texts and trade books are available that emphasize particular patterns and
gradually increase in complexity. The benefit of these books is that they give
students the opportunity to practice words they know and be successful. One
drawback to such controlled texts is that the limitations on word choices can
make the readings less interesting and sometimes force sentence structures
that are less common for students. This, in turn, can impede motivation to
learn if the students view the stories as dull or difficult to understand.
Teachers must balance the need for practice with the use of engaging
reading. The percentage of words that needs to appear in such texts is
another area for continued research.31 Some researchers suggest phonics
texts may be considerably reduced and still achieve the goal of the text.32
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“If children successfully negotiate all the texts normally encountered by the
end of eighth grade, they will encounter over 80,000 words. In third grade
alone, they will encounter over 25,000 distinct words”33
Not all words can be deciphered by applying phonics rules; such words
are described as “sight words.” Students will need to learn additional
strategies to tackle the texts and storybooks they want to read. Juel and
Minden-Cupp34 explored primary-grade reading to determine which and how
many strategies for word recognition should be used with first graders. (It
should be noted that the classrooms involved in the study were stable.
Whether these results would apply to classrooms with high mobility is
unknown.) The researchers observed students and teachers in four first-grade
classrooms that used different reading approaches (e.g., structured phonics or
trade book emphasis) and tracked when and how students were encouraged
to:
 Sound out words,

 Make an analogy,
 Use context clues (use the surrounding text meaning to predict the
unknown words; e.g., “Does it make sense?”),
 Apply a combination of strategies, or
 Have the teacher just tell the word.
In addition, the researchers looked at which students were encouraged to use

certain strategies and under what conditions (such as group size). Less
skilled decoders were encouraged to sound out words more frequently, and
those with some decoding skills were more likely to use the onset-rime
approach. The results suggested:
 Differential instruction may be helpful in first grade. While low-group

members in a trade book classroom tend to be relatively poor readers
at the end of first grade, their classmates in higher groups make
exceptional progress;
 Children who enter first grade with low literacy benefit from early and
heavy exposure to phonics; once they can read independently, however,
these children then profit from the increased vocabulary work, text
discussions, and variety of text types that is characteristic of their
higher range peers’ reading curriculum; and
 A structured phonics curriculum that includes both onsets and rimes
and sound and blending phonemes within rimes appears to be very
effective.35
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Furthermore, the most structured phonics classroom had the

strongest, statistically significant overall outcomes despite the lack of
beginning-of-year differences across classrooms; peer coaching was not
successful with poor readers, yet students with some reading skill benefited
from such coaching, suggesting that a threshold of competence may be
required before students can benefit from such a strategy.36 The following
classroom practices were identified for students with minimal reading skills
as having the greatest success in learning to read:
1. Teachers modeled word recognition strategies by (a) chunking words

into component units such as syllables, onset/rimes, or finding little
words in big ones, as well as modeling and encouraging the sound and
blending of individual letters or phonemes in these chunks; and (b)
considering known letter-sounds in a word and what makes sense.
2. Children were encouraged to finger-point to words as text was read.
3. Children used hands-on materials (e.g., pocket charts for active sorting
of picture cards by sound and word cards by orthographic pattern).
4. Writing for sounds was part of phonics instruction.
5. Instructional groups were small with word recognition lesson plans
designed to meet the specific needs of children within that group.37
How to balance the needs of highly mobile students who may be older
but lack mastery of phonetic relationships has not been addressed in the
literature to date and is an area for further research.
While meaning is the ultimate goal of reading, it is believed that
decoding must come first. A good reader uses meaning to determine if
decoding was done properly, but readers should not start by looking at
picture clues or context. They must attend to letters first. For skilled readers,
this occurs at such a rapid rate that it is almost automatic and they often are
unaware that the decoding process is occurring.38
Automaticity is fostered by the intervention of a teacher who

provides explicit instruction in the use of externalized dialogue
to control learning (Lovett, et al., 1994), teaches students to fully
analyze words (Stanovich, 1991), and provides daily
opportunities for students to read connected text containing
words with high-frequency phonograms or spelling patterns
(Ehri, 1992). Students need plenty of practice reading words in
order for words to be stored in memory as fully connected sight
words that can be read automatically.39
The goal of instruction should be to motivate students to be reflective and

analytic—in other words, to become “word detectives.”
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Vocabulary
The knowledge that students have for many words is far more
complex than could be attained through instruction that relies
primarily on definitions. Not only are there too many words to
teach them all to students one by one; there is too much to learn
about each word to be covered by anything but exceptionally rich
and multifaceted instruction.40
Vocabulary in readings refers to students’ understanding of the

meanings of the words they encounter while reading. Part of the complexity
of this process may be explained by realizing that many aspects of language,
as well as reading, come into play at this stage. Knowledge of morphology,
syntax, semantics, and even pragmatics influences the student’s ability to
understand what a word means, both in general terms and, with time, the
subtle nuances of meaning that different words evoke in different contexts.
The concept of a “word” can be challenging for 5-year-old preschoolers,
who may have difficulty dissociating a word from its referent.41 For example,
when a young child hears or reads the word “table,” he thinks about the
concrete object and cannot separate that object from the written or spoken
“word.” For young children, the object IS the word, and the word IS the
object. The ability to manipulate this abstract component of language usually
does not begin to emerge until age 7, and deeper understanding seems to
occur around age 9 or 10.42 Thus, it takes time for children to realize that the
label we choose to use to identify an object is arbitrary and not inherently
linked to the object. (Why couldn’t a table be called a “splosh”? For a young
child, the answer may likely be, “No! It’s a table!”)
In one study of children’s vocabulary growth, Anglin found that the
number of root words children knew increased by about 4,000 words between
first and fifth grade. When derivations of these words (changes based on the
addition of a prefix or suffix) were included in the count, the increase in
vocabulary acquisition reached about 14,000 words! Anglin found a “veritable
explosion in children’s knowledge of derived words, especially between third
and fifth grades. . . the bulk of this increase appears to reflect morphological
problem solving, that is, interpreting new words by breaking them down into
their component morphemes.”43 Incidental discussions and direction
instruction in root words (including etymology), suffixes, and prefixes have a
place in reinforcing this skill development.
The high rates of vocabulary growth seen in many children occur

only through immersion in massive amounts of rich written and
oral language. Students who need help most in the area of
vocabulary—those whose home experience has not given them a
substantial foundation in the vocabulary of literate and
55
academic English—need to acquire words at a pace even faster

than that of their peers, but by no means do they always find
this process easy or automatic.44
The fact that exposure to rich written and oral language is so critical
for this component of reading makes it a likely area for further research for
children who are highly mobile as a result of poverty or other family
stressors. Such families are less likely to have the mental energy to engage in
rich dialogues with their children (or such interactions may not be part of
their cultural experience).45 In addition, families living in poverty and moving
frequently are not likely to have expansive libraries in their homes, nor may
they find it easy to access books through the public library. Checking out
books is often tied to residency—something families on the move may have
difficulty substantiating.46 Similarly, students with limited English
proficiency may have little access to print, especially in the family’s native
language, compared low income and middle income schools and
neighborhoods. There tend to be significantly fewer written sources in
preschools, libraries, and neighborhoods in high-poverty communities.47
Spanish is a common language found in U.S. schools today, especially
among one subpopulation of highly mobile students—those of migrant
families. Certain characteristics of Spanish may assist these students in
acquiring English vocabulary. For example, researchers have noted that both
languages share many cognates with similar spelling, pronunciation, and
meaning. The large number of English words with Latin roots reinforces this
claim. Thus, researchers found that Spanish-English bilingual students’
ability to recognize morphological relationships increased dramatically
between 4th and 8th grade. Whether this was due to increased ability or
greater sensitivity at this age was unclear.48 Looking for such commonalities
and sharing the similarities with all students in the class may provide
students who are learning English with an opportunity to be the “expert” and
instruct their classmates. Such acknowledgment of the special skills these
students have can enhance their self-esteem, build greater understanding of
similarities rather than differences, and strengthen community in the
classroom.
Effective vocabulary instruction must provide students with multiple
and varied encounters with words.49 Table 6 summarizes key elements that
are part of the development of vocabulary skills.
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Element Description Examples

Incrementality Students develop Simplified scale of increments: 50
progressive o Never saw it before
approximations of adult o Heard it but don’t know what it means
understanding of words.
o Recognize in text, know it has
something to do with …
o Knows it well
o Can use it in a sentence
While research supports that learning can
be incremental, we know less about what
limits the effectiveness of different
exposures to the word.51
Multidimensionality Word knowledge consists Examples: spoken form, written form,
of qualitatively different frequency, association with other words,
types of understanding. semantic relationships (synonyms and
antonyms, morphological relationships
There are many ways to (affixes)
categorize words and no Learning tasks: new concepts, new labels
one aspect predicts how for known concepts, moving words into
well a student will grasp students’ working/productive vocabularies
another.
Polysemy Understanding that words Students “must not only be taught to
can have multiple choose effectively among the multiple
meanings, even when meanings of a word offered in
spelled exactly the same dictionaries, but to expect words to be
way (e.g., “bear” – the used with novel shades of meaning”52
animal and bear as a verb (e.g., the use of figurative language).53
– to carry a load).
Interrelatedness Word knowledge is Students must learn that words are not
dependent on isolated units of meaning. Students benefit
understanding of other from linking new knowledge to prior.
words. Therefore, a high level of mastery of
previous relationships among concepts
facilitates learning new words.54
Heterogeniety What it means to know a This requires understanding of syntax and
word differs substantially being able to identify parts of speech and
depending on the kind of how the word is being used grammatically
word. influences meaning (e.g., You have two
“eyes” differs from Tom “eyes” the
dessert table).
Table 6. Elements of Vocabulary Acquisition
57
Instructional considerations for developing vocabulary skills. Many of

us recall the weekly vocabulary lists with words whose definitions were found
in a dictionary and copied verbatim. The culminating event was a Friday
test.55 You may have memorized a word for Friday’s test, but did you recall
its meaning the following Monday? Could you use the word spontaneously in
your speech or writing? While definitions provide explicit information for
students and many such practices may be better than waiting for chance
encounters, traditional approaches to vocabulary run counter to what the
research tells us and do not address the nuances of meaning and usage. For
example, it will not help a student differentiate the subtle difference between
saying, “Maria was annoyed.” or “Maria was furious.”
So, what can we do if there are too many words to learn for teachers to
teach directly and the subtleties needed for deep understanding and effective
usage are missed by those common vocabulary tests? Here are a few
suggestions identified by researchers:
 Students need at least some information about the nature of words if they
are to take an active role in word learning and assume increasing
responsibility for their own vocabulary growth.56
o Talk about words—where they come from, how they are used.
o Read aloud from high-quality children’s literature that uses rich,
descriptive language and discuss the author’s choice of words
and why they make the story more exciting and engaging.
o Provide students with opportunities to copy an author’s style in
their own writing or have them suggest alternative words to
make a dull passage more lively.
 Context training can increase students’ ability to learn words.57
o Since meaning is not clear when words are in isolation, play
word games in which the same word has different meanings
depending upon the rest of the sentence or passage. Help
students identify cues surrounding the word that assist in
understanding its meaning.
o Use cloze passages (passages in which words are omitted) and
have students practice identifying possible ways to fill in the
blank. Discuss how those different options can change the
meaning of the passage.
 Metacognition (thinking about thinking), as used in strategy instruction,
can provide a structure for thinking about the meanings of words.
o When reading, model the thought process you use when
approaching an unknown word.
o Have students share their approaches to figure out words that
are unfamiliar.
58
 Metalinguistic awareness, in other words, knowledge of morphology,

correlated with reading ability into high school58 and makes a difference
even when phonemic awareness is taken into account.59 Give the students
an opportunity to add to their skills as “word detectives.”
o Look at different parts of speech, and how they impact word
usage.
o Provide direct instruction in root words, prefixes, and suffixes.
o Find children’s books that emphasize a play on words.60
Caution – for some irregular words, morphology must be used

strategically and flexibly as a strategy. Context also is needed to recognize
the difference between an “s” added to a present tense verb (runs fast) or
added to make a plural (runs in stockings).61 Areas for future research
include the effects of varying levels of metalinguistic awareness on
students’ ability to profit from different types of vocabulary instruction
and what effects instruction has on word consciousness and students’
vocabulary growth.
 Syntactic awareness training can lead to improvement in reading
comprehension since knowledge of syntax impacts contextual
predictions.62
o Grammar lessons do not need to be the drill-and-practice
activities out of a textbook. The ability to play with words and
grammatical structures is the basis for many children’s jokes
and our humor as adults.
The quality of vocabulary instruction must therefore be judged,

not on whether it produces immediate gains in students’
understanding of specific words, but also on whether it
communicates an accurate picture of the nature of word
knowledge and reasonable expectations about the word learning
process.63
Fluency
Fluency refers to the ability to read smoothly with proper pacing to

ensure the meaning is captured. Three components are included in fluent
reading: rate, accuracy, and prosody (or intonation; i.e., reading with
expression).
Rate. Speed in reading is calculated by looking at the number of words

read per minute (wpm). This can include reading isolated word lists (such as
one-minute probes) or short passages that are timed. The timing can be done
for oral or silent reading on passages. Second graders should average
approximately 100 wpm silent reading passages, while fifth graders will have
59
doubled that rate. For oral reading, the target rates listed in Table 7 are
suggested.64
Grade Level Target Rate
Second 85 wpm
(50-80 wpm range at beginning of year)
Third 110 wpm
Fourth 120 wpm
Fifth 130 wpm

Table 7. Oral Reading Rate Targets
Accuracy. As would be expected, high levels of accuracy while reading

are associated with greater fluency. Reading experts often looks at students’
accuracy to determine the appropriateness of texts and other reading
materials being used by students. The following three levels are suggested:
 Independent reading level: When a student can read at least 98% of

the words accurately, the reading should be easy enough to be read
without teacher direction. This is the level to seek for work students do
on their own. In addition, when working on increasing other fluency
elements materials should be at the student’s independent reading
level.65
 Instructional level: Materials that can be read with 95-97% accuracy
are appropriate when the teacher will be providing support while the
student is reading.
 Frustration level: Materials that a student reads with less than
95%accuracy is difficult for the student to navigate successfully, even
with teacher support.
Prosody. To read with expression, a student must be comfortable with

the text. The student must be able to decode the words accurately and
quickly in order to attend to the meaning as well. This will allow the student
to read questions as questions, that is, with a rising tone at the end of the
sentence, show excitement when reading exclamations, and even vary voices
when dialogue.
Instructional considerations for improving fluency. To nurture growth

in reading fluency several considerations should be addressed. Materials
should be carefully selected to ensure they are at the student’s independent
60
reading level. Repeated readings of familiar texts is one way to help students
increase their rate of speed while reading and become more expressive while
reading. How do we get students to reread materials they have already read?
Here are some practices teachers frequently employ that can be used in
tutoring programs as well as classrooms:
 Young children naturally enjoy rereading their favorite books. The

many parents who know a large repertoire of Dr. Seuss books can
attest to this! Use books the child enjoys. It will make the repeated
readings fun rather than work.
 Choosing the proper level of difficulty will increase a student’s
willingness to reread. It is reinforcing to successfully perform a
passage.
 Provide opportunities for the students to perform. This gives a reason
for practicing. It may involve reading to peers, parents, or younger
children.
 Practice reading into a tape recorder. Students can listen and evaluate
their own performance. Keep samples so students can compare early
readings with later efforts.
 Read along with the student or have a taped version of the passage
that the student can listen to while reading along for independent
practice.
 Graph the results of reading probes with the student. This provides a
visual representation of improvement in reading rate and accuracy.
Many students find such a concrete measure of progress motivating. If
the student is not progressing, the graphing provides documentation
and can be part of student-teacher discussions.
While practice does not make perfect, practice is a critical component

to improve reading fluency.
Comprehension
“All children have a hunger to read, think, and discuss ideas in

literature as a way of understanding the world around them.”66
The fifth component in the reading process is comprehension. The

ability to understand what is read is the ultimate goal of all our reading
instruction. Gaining meaning from texts read requires the ability to
orchestrate all previously described components. Reading for meaning should
begin with the earliest reading activities; however, the focus on
comprehension and its direct instruction gains greater emphasis as students
master other reading components. A common expression is that the primary
61
grades focus on learning to read while the intermediate elementary grades

shift to reading to learn.
The National Reading Panel concluded that the most effective
instruction for comprehension uses strategies rather than relying on skill
instruction. The Panel described skill instruction as teaching in which
“students are engaged in traditional, lower level thinking activities, such as
identifying main idea, cause-effect, or fact-opinion. When students are
engaged in using a comprehension strategy, the skills used will transfer to
other reading, and explaining how the skill transfers is part of the
instruction. For example, predicting what will happen next can be addressed
as a skill with students simply practicing predictions for materials being
read. If the instruction includes how to identify clues and foreshadowing and
the teacher discusses how the process being used in a novel study can be used
when reading a history text, the skill instruction has been enriched and
would be considered more strategic in nature.67 Strategy instruction for
comprehension also has been identified as a critical component when serving
students with limited English proficiency.68
Instructional considerations for improving comprehension.

Comprehension skills vary based on the type of text being read. For example,
the structure of a storybook is very different from that of a history text, a
newspaper article, or a user’s manual to set the time on your VCR. Despite
the different types of reading materials (and writing expectations) students
are expected to navigate effectively by the time they reach middle school,
there tends to be a scarcity of informational texts in primary-grade
classrooms.69,70 Researchers have analyzed the types of reading materials in
classrooms. Results included the following:71
 A 1998 study found a mean of 16% for the ratio of expository texts to
total text types in classrooms compared with 38% on standardized
tests;
 A 2000 study found 14% of materials primary teachers read to their
classes was informational; another study identified only 6% of all
material read (read aloud and by students) was expository;
 There was a discrepancy in percentage of informational texts between
high and low SES districts with the gap more than doubling at middle-
high school levels. Higher poverty classrooms tended to have fewer
informational resources for students to read.
Stories and literature can be balanced with different informational

sources from early grades, especially when the informational materials are
linked closely with the students’ own experiences. Whether it is reading the
directions to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or an ice cream sundae
62
or describing the animals and their habitats that were seen on a visit to the
zoo, young students can benefit from such exposure.
Duke72 offered the following arguments in favor of informational texts:
 Students become better readers and writers of such works;

 Facility with informational texts is an important survival skill,
especially as the world becomes more technological;
 Students gain increased content knowledge, vocabulary, and
comprehension skills and become better readers and writers of
informational texts;
 Results on the NAEP suggest that higher reading achievement
correlated with students’ self-report that informational works were
part of their reading habits. (Note: This is a correlation, and no
causality can be assumed. It may be that good readers are more likely
to select informational text.);
 Since there is more informational reading outside school (newspapers
and magazines in homes), reading more informational texts in school
could create a stronger link between school and home.
Instructional techniques for use with informational texts include read-

alouds, independent reading, writing, and research. Given proper scaffolding
and materials at the students’ independent reading level, even second
graders can begin creating research reports. Descriptions of comprehension
strategies for various text forms will be included in the Tool section.
In addition to providing a variety of reading materials, teaching
comprehension strategies, as the NRP recommended, should be incorporated
into activities with students. Samples of strategies may be found in the Tools
section of this document. One of the challenges noted for schools in high-
poverty areas is the presence of lower expectations for student learning.
Effective comprehension instruction requires changes in teachers’ perceptions
and common practices. Drill and practice with lower-level thinking skills
must give way to greater emphasis on higher-level thinking skills. Increasing
teachers’ use of inquiry-based instruction for all students, including the least
proficient readers, can improve reading skills and increase motivation.
Higher-level thinking skills depend less on finding the “right” answer and
more upon analyzing and supporting one’s position. This open-endedness can
be very engaging for students, but it may take teachers some time to adjust
to less control when leading a discussion and letting the students direct the
dialogue.73 Finally, higher-order questioning is associated with higher
achievement and more effective schools.74
63
Other Factors to Consider
The five components identified in the National Reading Panel Report and
incorporated in the Reading First Act were selected based on the presence of
research to support their importance; however, additional elements play a role in
successful programs, even if they are less objective and more difficult to measure.
One of these critical factors has been included in justifications for instructional
practices already listed. That is, a student must be excited and interested to remain
engaged in reading tasks. In other words, educators should consider motivation
when selecting instructional practices and materials. Allowing students to choose
topics of interest, collaborate with one another, and work with materials with which
they can experience success increases their motivation and interest in reading.75
In addition, relationships are a powerful force. Building rapport with
students and being able to enjoy one another’s company even when tackling
challenging skills is important with all students. For students experiencing
mobility, the opportunity to feel connected to an adult, whether a teacher, tutor, or
mentor, can provide a needed anchor. For older students who have experienced
much moving, building rapport may require extra effort, as these students may be
cautious about establishing a relationship that will soon end. Patience and
consistent efforts to learn about the student while respecting personal boundaries
as trust is established may help the student feel more comfortable. Sometimes
asking another staff person or peer to take the role of mentor works well. Different
students may be more comfortable with different partners. While true for many
students, but especially for students experiencing mobility, feeling welcome, safe,
and valued is the foundation that must be established for learning to occur.
Summary
What is the ultimate goal for adult proficiency in reading? The answer to this
question will shape how teachers craft benchmarks and goals for interim levels
throughout students’ educational careers. To be considered literate in today’s highly
technological society requires a variety of skills, including the ability to read,
comprehend, critically analyze, and apply information from a vast array of sources.
Reading for pleasure and having a working knowledge of traditional and new
“classics” may impact one’s impression of being culturally literate; however, the
ability to read technical manuals in the course of carrying out one’s job or installing
a new home appliance, to analyze stock performances when deciding upon a
retirement plan, or to sift through the massive amounts of media information to
decide which candidates to support in an election are among the day-to-day reading
skills required to be a competent adult. Given the increasing demands of a literate
society for economic survival, there is an increasing expectation for our schools to
ensure 100% of the population is literate, a significant shift from the days of the
industrial revolution or the expectations of many other societies outside the United
States.76
64
It is this expectation for a fully literate society that has led to the increasing
attention to early literacy experiences that are seen as critical to preventing reading
failure and may be the key to achieving high levels of adult literacy. As Snow and
her colleagues described, early reading difficulties are highly indicative of future
reading success or failure. Research is emerging to suggest that if we can intervene
to change those early difficulties, we can prevent young readers from experiencing
later reading failure. One of the initial steps to providing appropriate instruction
and intervention (when needed) is to identify developmentally appropriate reading
skills that children should acquire at different ages and grades. A summary table
that identifies critical skills expected from preschool through the elementary grades
can be found in the Tools section. The guidelines for these benchmarks are based on
the work of the National Research Panel. It is important to note that these are
benchmarks, not hard and fast rules for each child. In fact, the NRC commented in
an addition to the preface of the third printing of their report concern regarding
over-interpretation of the recommendations for grade levels. Use these as general
guidelines, remembering that individual students have unique needs and may be a
different level of development than their peers or even vary in their mastery of
different components of reading. Identifying students’ unique needs requires the
ability to assess students in ways that inform effective instruction.
Endnotes for Chapter 5

1
The information in this section is based on the work of Elizabeth Wiig, Paula Menyuk and the following text:
Fromkin, V., & Rodman, R. (1974). An introduction to language. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
2
Snow et. al. (2001). p. 22.
3
Ibid., p. 46.
4
Ibid., p. 46.
5
Ibid. p., 17.
6
Fisher, C., & Adler, M. A. (1999). pp. 3-4.
7
Snow et al. (2001). pp. vii-viii.
8
Loh, S. (2003, January 12). Smith adopts plan on reading. The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved January 13, 2003, from
http://www.baltimoresun.com.
9
Gaskins, I. (1998). p. 536.
10
Taylor, B. M., Pressley, M., & Pearson, D. (2000).
11
Lyon, G. R. (1995). Toward a definition of dyslexia. Annals of Dyslexia, 45, 3-27.
12
Cohen & Horowitz. (2002). What should teachers know about bilingual learners and the reading process? Literacy
and the Second Language Learner, 1, 29-52. Citing Durgunoglu, Nagy, & Hancin-Bhatt, 1993. p. 42.
13
Juel, C., & Cupp-Minden, C. (2000). Learning to read words: Linguistic units and instructional strategies. Reading
Research Quarterly, 35(4), 458-492. (Page 463 discusses the work of Barbara Foorman, 1998.)
14
See Table 3 for a review of first-grade studies.
15
Hoff, E. (2003). The specificity of environmental influence: Socioeconomic status affects early vocabulary
development via maternal speech. Child Development, 74(5), 1368-1378. and Gordon, S. B. (1970). Ethnic and
socioeconomic influences on the home language experiences of children. Retrieved June 21, 2004from Ovid,
(ED043377).
16
USDE. (1999). Round table meeting on early literacy and homelessness. Washington, DC:Author.
17
Allington, R. (2000). Keynote address at the Project STARS Conference. Williamsburg, VA.
18
National Center for Educational Statistics. (1999).National household education survey. Washington, DC: USDE.
19
USDE. (2000). Education for homeless children and youth program, Title VII, Subtitle B of the McKinney-Vento
Homeless Assistance Act: Report to Congress fiscal year 2000. Washington, DC: Author.
65
20
Taylor, B. M., & Pearson, P. D. (2002). The CIERA school change project: Supporting schools as they implement
home-grown reading reform. Retrieved July 29, 2003from Ovid, (ED468690). CIERA.
21
Fromkin & Rodman. (1974). pp. 297-298.
22
Depending on the linguist, the estimate of distinct sounds (phonemes) in English ranges from 34 to 52. Websites
of interest include: http://www.antimoon.com/forum/posts/4025.htm and
http://www.putlearningfirst.com/language.08sounds/08sounds.html
23
Juel, C. (1994). Learning to read and write in one elementary school. New York: Springer-Verlag.
24
Fromkin & Rodman. (1974). p. 33.
25
Anderson. (2003). p. 20.
26
Gaskins, I. W., Ehri, L. C., Cress, C., O’Hara, C., & Donnelly, K. (1997). Procedures for word learning: Making
discoveries about words. The Reading Teacher, 50(4), 312-327.
27
Lerner, J. (2000). Presentation at the International Association for Research in Learning Disabilities (IARLD),
Williamsburg, VA.
28
Gaskins et al. (1997). p. 316
29
Juel & Minden-Cupp. (2000). p. 461.
30
Gaskins. (1998). p. 539.
31
32
Beck, I. L., & Juel, C. (1995). The role of decoding in learning to read. American Educator, 19(2), 8, 21-25, 39-
42.
33
Juel & Minden-Cupp. (2000). Citing Adams, 1990, and Carroll, Davies, & Richman, 1971. p. 461.
34
Ibid.
35
Juel & Minden-Cupp. (2000). p 459.
36
37
Juel & Minden-Cupp. (2000). pp. 487-488.
38
See, for example, the work of Michael Pressley and Joe Torgesen for further discussion of this topic.
39
Gaskins. (1998). p. 317.
40
Nagy & Scott (2000). Vocabulary processes. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds),
Handbook of reading research, Volume III. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 269-284. p. 273
41
Roberts, E. (1992). The evolution of the young child’s concept of word in text and written language. Reading
Research Quarterly, 30, 158-218.
42
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 279.
43
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 275.
44
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 280.
45
Hunter, P. (2003). Keynote address for the National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and
Youth Conference, Arlington, VA.
46
Allington. (2000).
47
Neuman, S., & Celano, D. (2001). Access to print in low-income and middle-income communities: An ecological
study of four neighborhoods. Reading Research Quarterly, 36, 8-26; and Pucci, S. L. (1994). Supporting Spanish
language literacy: Latino children and free reading resources in schools. Bilingual Research Journal, 18(1-2), 67-
82.
48
Hancin-Bhatt, B., & Nagy, W. (1994). Lexical transfer and second language morphological development. Applied
psycholinguistics, 15, 289-310.
49
Stahl, S., & Fairbanks, M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of
Educational Research, 56, 72-110.
50
Paribakht, T. S., & Wesche, M. (1997). Vocabulary enhancement activities and reading for meaning in second
language vocabulary acquisition. In J. Coady & T. Hucking (Eds.), Second language vocabulary acquisition (pp.
174-200). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
51
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 271
52
Ibid.
53
Ibid., pp. 271-272.
54
Ibid., p. 272.
55
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 270.
56
Ibid.
57
Kuhn, M., & Stahl, S. (1998). Teaching children to learn word meanings from context: A synthesis and some
questions. Journal of Literacy Research, 30, 119-138.
66
58
Nagy & Scott. (2000). Citing Nagy, Diakidoy, & Anderson, 1993, p. 274.
59
Carlisle, J. (1995). Morphological awareness and early reading achievement. In L. Feldman (Ed.), Morphological
reality (pp. 804-849). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
60
See for example Gwynne, F. (1988). A chocolate moose for dinner. A little girl pictures all the things her parents
talk about, such as chocolate moose, a gorilla war and shoe trees. ISBN: 0671667416 and Gwynne, F. (1988). The
king who rained. Confused by the different meanings of words that sound alike, a little girl imagines such unusual
sights as a “king who rained” and the “foot prince in the snow.” ISBN: 0671667440.
61
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 276.
62
Ibid.
63
Nagy & Scott. (2000). p. 281.
64
University of Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts (UTCRLA). (2001). Essential reading strategies for
the struggling reader: Activities for an accelerated reading program. Austin, TX: Author. Retrieved May 21,
2004 from http://www.texasreading.org. p. 9.
65
UTCLRA. (2002). Supplemental instruction for struggling readings, grades 3-5: A guide for tutors. Austin, TX:
Author. Retrieved May 21, 2004 from http://www.texasreading.org. p. 4.
66
Wheelock, A. (2000). The Junior Great Books Program: Reading for understanding in high-poverty urban
elementary schools. ERIC Document: ED441927 (EDRS) p. 6.
67
Taylor & Pearson. (2002). p. 18
68
Muniz-Swicegood, M. (1994). The effects of metacognitive reading strategy training on the reading performance
and fluent reading analysis strategies of third grade bilingual students. Bilingual Research Journal, 18, 83-97.
69
Duke, N., Bennet-Armistead, S., & Roberts, E. (2002.) Incorporating informational text in the primary grades. In
C. Roller (Ed.) Comprehensive reading instruction across the grade levels (pp. 40-54). Newark, DE: International
Reading Association.
70
Taylor & Pearson. (2002). p. 26.
71
Duke, Bennet-Armistead, & Roberts. (2002).
72
Ibid.
73
Wheelock. (2000). p. 7.
74
Taylor & Pearson. (2002). p. 26.
75
Gaskins. (1998). Citing Deci (1995). p. 543.
76
Snow et al. (2001). pp. 19-20.
67

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Chapter 5: Components of Language & Reading

The Components of Language and Reading Instruction

Multiple references have been made in preceding chapters to the use of

The study of speech structure within a language, including both the

 The boy hit the ball.

Syntax also allows us to accept “I went to the store” as a meaningful

“‘Pragmatics’ refers to the ways the members of the speech community

Facility with language is critical to social interactions. Our ability to

Developing an Integrated Reading Program

Effective and powerful instruction from knowledgeable teachers

The National Research Council Committee cautioned educators about

Instructional Components of Teaching Reading

Quality instruction “includes explicit explanations, modeling, and

Phonemic awareness is one of the underlying language skills

Type of Task Description Example

Alliteration Being able to generate Six, silly, squirmy, seals

Syllables Blending syllables into /pup/ /pet/ - puppet

Instructional considerations for developing phonemic awareness.

example, words, syllables, onset-rimes, and phonemes can be clapped, tapped

1. Clapping words: the – dog – barks (3 claps)

A word about onset-rime: Awareness of individual sounds within rime

/t/ /ā/ /k/

Notice that throughout these activities no written language is used.

High-poverty/high-mobility and phonological skill development. The

While phonological and phonemic awareness focus on speech without

Instructional considerations for teaching phonics. Despite the number

Pre-alphabetic Children attend to distinctive visual cues.

Partial alphabetic Students have knowledge of some letters

Full alphabetic Students can fully analyze the spellings of

Consolidated alphabetic With reading practice, spelling patterns

identify unknown words.30 These processes are similar to those described

Despite such a variety of activities, teachers and students face

 Sound out words,

In addition, the researchers looked at which students were encouraged to use

 Differential instruction may be helpful in first grade. While low-group

Furthermore, the most structured phonics classroom had the

1. Teachers modeled word recognition strategies by (a) chunking words

Automaticity is fostered by the intervention of a teacher who

The goal of instruction should be to motivate students to be reflective and

Vocabulary in readings refers to students’ understanding of the

The high rates of vocabulary growth seen in many children occur

academic English—need to acquire words at a pace even faster

Element Description Examples

Instructional considerations for developing vocabulary skills. Many of

 Metalinguistic awareness, in other words, knowledge of morphology,

Caution – for some irregular words, morphology must be used

The quality of vocabulary instruction must therefore be judged,

Fluency refers to the ability to read smoothly with proper pacing to

Rate. Speed in reading is calculated by looking at the number of words

Grade Level Target Rate

Third 110 wpm

Fourth 120 wpm

Fifth 130 wpm

Accuracy. As would be expected, high levels of accuracy while reading

 Independent reading level: When a student can read at least 98% of

Prosody. To read with expression, a student must be comfortable with

Instructional considerations for improving fluency. To nurture growth

 Young children naturally enjoy rereading their favorite books. The