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What is it?  Phonics is the ability to match sounds to letters or groups of letters (Arizona Department of Education, n.d.).

Strategy:  Once students know their sounds and are beginning to read words,  a great strategy to try is the "word slide" (Hildebrand, 2020).  Hildebrand explains that students use their arms to pat the sounds in words.  They should begin with their hand near their shoulder then pat down their arm saying a sound for each letter in the word.  They can then "slide" their hand down their arm to blend the sounds more smoothly into the word.  This activity is wonderful for lots of students because it includes a multi-sensory approach to phonics.

How does phonics support reading and writing?  In order to be proficient readers, students must be able to decode words quickly and accurately (Scholastic, n.d.).  Similarly, writers must be able to apply what they know about letters and sounds in order to write words.

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What is it?  Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate sounds in spoken words.  Phonemic awareness includes hearing, identifying, manipulating, and substituting phonemes in words (Wierman, 2018).

Strategy:  Oral sound manipulation activities are proven to help students develop phonemic awareness skills (Reading Rockets, 2020).  Reading Rockets (2020) includes examples of phonemic awareness activities which include:

recognizing words that begin with the same sound

isolating the beginning or last sound in a word

blending separate sounds in a word to say the word (/c/, /a/, /t/ = cat)

segmenting a word into separate sounds

How does phonemic awareness support reading and writing?  Children understand spoken language before it is possible for them to understand written language (McCullough, 2018).   Building the foundation of phonemic awareness in children sets them up for later success when they begin to then match letters to sounds.  Phonemic awareness is a prerequisite for reading and writing.

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What is it?  Fluency is the ability to read accurately, quickly, and expressively (Wierman, 2018).

Strategy: An effective way to help students build reading fluency is by having them practice repeated readings (Reading Rockets, 2021).  There are a number of ways to do this.  One option is for students to repeatedly read an appropriately leveled passage in order to meet a goal.  The goal could be a words per minute reading rate goal or an accuracy goal.  Students could record themselves reading and then listen back to reflect on their own fluency.  Using a fluency graph to note progress also motivates many students to reach their goal.

How does fluency support reading and writing?  Fluent reading also leads to better comprehension (Reading Rockets, 2020).  When students are able to decode quickly and read smoothly, more of their energy can be devoted to making meaning.

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What is it?  Vocabulary is the collection of words that students understand, use in conversation, and recognize in text (Wierman, 2018).

Strategy:  A strategy for teaching vocabulary is to teach root words (The Flocabulary Blog, 2018).  An example would be to teach students that the word root "spect" means to see.  Students would study how "spect" affects the meaning of the words.  For instance, "spectacles" is another word for glasses, which help you see.  A "spectacle"  is a visually appealing display.  A "spectator" is a person who watches a game or show.  By teaching  word roots, students categorize the words by meaning rather than arbitrarily learning a bunch of unrelated words.

How does vocabulary support reading and writing?  Reading Rockets (2019) explains that vocabulary plays an important role in helping children to comprehend what they read.  The more words students know, the easier time they will have understanding the meaning of a text (Reading Rockets, 2019).  Having a strong vocabulary also helps students to fully express themselves and communicate effectively in writing (Seifert, 2016).

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What is it?  Comprehension is the ability to make meaning from text. A student must be able to understand and remember what has been read (Wierman, 2018).

Strategy:  There are many ways to teach comprehension strategies to students.  Most techniques involve explicit instruction and modeling from the teacher before students attempt the strategy on their own.  One simple but effective strategy is to teach students to paraphrase.  Paraphrasing can help students monitor their understanding as they read (ReadWriteThink, n.d).  The teacher should model reading a portion of text, then stopping and put what she read into her own words.  Students can easily try the same approach.  If students are finding it difficult to paraphrase, they learn they need to reread to clarify information before continuing (ReadWriteThink, n.d.).

How does comprehension support reading and writing?  The purpose of reading is comprehension.  All pillars play an important role in helping a student understand what they read.  Rosa (2021) explains that reading comprehension supports writing in that students who are strong readers are often effective writers.   The more a student reads, the more he or she develops a strong vocabulary, understands proper grammar and spelling, and learns stylistic writing techniques.  It is interesting that strong readers are not always strong writers but almost all students who write well, read well (Rosa, 2021).

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Arizona Department of Education (n.d). 5 Pillars of Early Literacy [Infographic]. https://www.azed.gov/sites/default/files/2017/11/5%20pillars%20infographic%20Poster.pdf?id=5a1c969e3217e10144257f54

Effective Vocabulary Instruction: Five Best Practices for Teachers. The Flocabulary Blog. (2018, August 13). http://blog.flocabulary.com/best-practices-k12-vocabulary-instruction/.

Everything You Wanted to Know about Repeated Reading. Reading Rockets. (2020, May 27). https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/everything-you-wanted-know-about-repeated-reading.

Hildebrand, K. (2020, December 12). 13 Strategies for Phonics Reading Intervention You Need to Try. Katelyn's Learning Studio. http://katelynslearningstudio.com/2019/12/strategies-for-phonics-interventi.html.

How Phonics Contributes to Reading Success. Scholastic. (n.d.). https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-phonics-contributes-reading-success/.

I Used My Own Words! Paraphrasing Informational Texts. ReadWriteThink. (n.d.). http://www.readwritethink.org/resources/resource-print.html?id=1177.

McCullough, J. (2018, September 5). Reading 101: The Importance of Phonemic Awareness. PediaSpeech Services. https://www.pediaspeech.com/reading-101-the-importance-of-phonemic-awareness/.

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness. Reading Rockets. (2020, October 16). https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/phonemic.

Rosa, R. (2021, March 7). The Reading-Writing Connection Is Much Stronger in One Direction Than the Other. Psychreg. https://www.psychreg.org/reading-writing-connection/.

Seifert, D. (2016, September 29). Top 5 Reasons Why Vocabulary Matters. InferCabulary. https://infercabulary.com/top-5-reasons-why-vocabulary-matters/.

Vocabulary. Reading Rockets. (2019, December 10). https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/vocabulary.

Wierman, M. K. (2018, February 21). [The Five Pillars of Reading] Breaking Down the Elements of Successful Literacy Instruction. Edmentum Blog. https://blog.edmentum.com/five-pillars-reading-breaking-down-elements-successful-literacy-instruction.