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Defining phonemic awareness and why it is an important component of literacy.

Reference : Reading Rockets. (2020). Phonological and phonemic awareness: Introduction. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-101-learning-modules/course-modules/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness

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Defining phonics and why it is an important component of literacy.

Reference : Reading Rockets. (2020). Phonological and phonemic awareness: Introduction. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-101-learning-modules/course-modules/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness

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Defining fluency and why it is an important component of literacy.

Reference: Reading Rockets. (2021). Basics: Fluency. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/fluency

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One developmentally appropriate classroom activity to support the development of phonemic awareness would be sound counting. Sound counting is where you have a student show how many sounds make up a word (Reading Rockets, 2021). To further this activity, you would give students a handful of beads and they group together however many beads they need to make up the number of sounds that are in a word (Reading Rockets, 2021).  Like the word “bat” would have three sounds, B-A-T, and they would group together three beads (Reading Rockets, 2021).  This activity would accommodate the needs of learners at various developmental levels as it is an easy activity that can be adjusted to be more challenging or less difficult depending on the words that are being used.

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One developmentally appropriate classroom activity to support the development of phonics would be clap it out. Clap it out is a game where students are practicing listening for syllables in words (Reading Rockets, 2021).  The students clap for every syllable that is in a word. Like cat would be one syllable or one clap, apple would be two syllables or two claps, and so on (Reading Rockets, 2021).  This activity would accommodate the needs of learners at various developmental levels at it is an activity that is easily adjusted to make more difficult or easier, depending on the level of difficulty the words are.

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This graphic provides a visual representation of what fluency is and how it works.

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Visual Representation of Phonemic Awareness

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Visual Representation of Phonemic Awareness

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This graphic provides a visual representation of what phonemic awareness is and how it works.

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This graphics provides a visual representation of what phonics is and how it works.

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One developmentally appropriate classroom activity to support the development of fluency would be choral reading. Choral reading is an activity where students get into groups and read along together to the same text (Texas Education Agency, 2022). The text shouldn’t be too long depending on the students’ developmental levels and should be something they could read independently (Texas Education Agency, 2022). This activity would accommodate the needs of learners at various developmental levels as the difficulty of this activity can change depending on the difficultly of the book or the length of the book.

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Phonemic Awareness in Literacy

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Phonemic Awareness in Literacy

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Attached is a link to a website that provides families with an explanation of what phonemic awareness is, what it all means, when their children should be learning these, and six different activities that can be done at home to help support their child's phonemic awareness development.

Link: https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/6-phonemic-awareness-activities-to-help-your-child-learn-to-read

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You've probably been reading to your child since they were an infant. But now that it's time for them to start reading on their own, how can you help them practice so they become a confident reader? Turns out, a fun game or two can help your little one grasp some essential skills for reading! One important building block to reading proficiency is developing phonemic awareness skills-and with a few sound games and everyday objects, you can practice them at home!

What Is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness builds foundational literacy skills by teaching children that words are made up of individual sounds. Each sound is called a "phoneme," and individual phonemes blend together to build words.

Phonemes are different from letters. While there are 26 letters in the English language, each with an individual letter sound, there are 44 different phonemes, or combinations of letters that make up unique sounds. Twenty-five phonemes have a consonant sound, and 19 have a vowel sound. Phonemes are denoted by / marks around letters to show that they represent sound patterns instead of letters. For example, consider each different letter and sound in the word "bear." There are 4 letters-B, E, A, and R-but there are only 2 phonemes-/b/ and /air/.

An awareness of phonemes helps children who are learning to read because it teaches them about segmenting sounds in unfamiliar words. Because almost every word is made up of an initial sound and ending sound (more complex words have various middle sounds, too), phonemic segmentation activities that break up words can help make them more manageable for new learners.

There are a few key skills to master phonemic awareness:

Recognizing the first sound in a word (ex: words starting with /c/ like cat, cart, cough)

Isolating the first or last sounds in words (this skill helps develop the concept of rhyme)

Combining sounds to make words (this is often called "blending")

Breaking up words into separate sounds (this is often called "segmenting")

Removing a target sound and swapping it out with other sounds to make new words, like removing the /b/ phoneme from "bat" and adding the /r/ phoneme to change it to "rat"

Gaining an awareness of syllables (this skill helps with segmenting)

Phonemic awareness tasks involve listening skills, an awareness with letter knowledge, and a concept of speech sounds. Each phonemic awareness activity may take plenty of practice, but earlier segmentation practice can help transform average readers into confident learners.

Phonics, Phonemes, and Phonological Awareness: What Does It All Mean?

We've established that phoneme awareness activities improve reading ability by pairing phoneme sounds with written words. But there are two other similar and common terms tossed around when discussing childhood reading development: phonics and phonological awareness. What do these terms mean, and how are they related to phonemic awareness?

When kids learn about phonics, they're learning the relationship between letters to one another. Phonics might teach children that the letters "sh" or "ing" often go together. Phonics is a phonological skill that helps students understand how letters interact.

Technically, phonemic awareness is another phonological awareness skill. Phonemic awareness skills build on phonics knowledge by underscoring the sounds that letter pairs make, like understanding that the letters "sh," "ss," or "ch" can make the phoneme /sh/ in words like "mission," "chef," or "ship."

Phonics and phonemic awareness are both key skills that support phonological awareness. Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize similarities between words, like words that rhyme or those that start with the same sound, which is called alliteration. Phonemic awareness is the capstone of phonological awareness and the skill set with the highest difficulty level-meaning it requires plenty of practice at home and in a classroom setting!

If this all sounds quite complicated, don't panic! As you read this article, you're putting into practice phonics knowledge, phonemic awareness skills, and phonological awareness without realizing it. These skills are the foundations of literacy, and many children come to understand them through everyday classroom lessons. You don't need to understand the nuances of each concept perfectly to plan a fun activity or two to help your child learn them. Just focus on developing skills at an appropriate grade level for your child (more on that below), and the average reader will come to enjoy the challenge of trying out new words and sounds.

When Should My Child Start Learning About Phonemes?

Teachers generally start teaching phonemic awareness to preschool children. However, for children with language deficits or those at risk of reading failure, like students with a family history of dyslexia or those learning English as a second language, earlier segmentation practice can be beneficial to help make reading easier once it's taught in the classroom setting. As a parent, you can embrace the challenge and support your child by practicing phoneme awareness activities at home.

6 Easy Phonemic Awareness Activities You Can Do From Home

You don't need a ton of time or specific equipment to teach your child phonemic awareness from home. Grab a few familiar objects, a favorite book, and some plastic letters (if you have them), and you're well on your way to making phoneme awareness tasks fun! Try each phonemic awareness activity for 5-10 minutes to start; you can always build up to more time in the future once your child starts to understand the concepts involved.

Rhyme Time

Each activity for rhyme recognition helps your child to learn how to isolate the ending sounds in words. Rhyming awareness in preschool children helps them to sound out unfamiliar words when they come across them at home or during everyday classroom lessons. There are a few easy activities for rhyme recognition you can try:

If your child has a favorite book that rhymes, like a Dr. Seuss book, pull it off the shelf and read it together. As you read each line, encourage your child to try and guess the rhyming end of the sentence.

Think of a short, simple word, like "cat," and encourage your child to come up with as many rhymes to the word as they can. To add a visual component to help with letter association, you can say and spell the word using magnetic letters or colored blocks with printed letters on them. As your child makes each new rhyme, swap out the magnetic letter or block to show them what the new word looks like.

Pairing imagery with listening activities, like the activity above, can help your child to learn more quickly and easily (when some people say they are a visual learner, this is what they mean!). Another way to pair listening for rhymes with visualizing them is to print off pictures of everyday objects that rhyme. Think up several simple rhyming pairs, like "bat" and "rat" or "book" and "cook." Challenge your child to match each picture card with their rhyming counterpart.

Want an activity that requires no equipment and zero preparation? You got it! Practice phonemic awareness in just a few minutes by slowly saying aloud a list of rhyming words. Somewhere in the list, add in a word that doesn't rhyme. For example, you might say the words "bear," "chair," "desk," "hair," "air." Have your child try to identify which word doesn't rhyme with the others.

I Spy

You've probably heard of "I Spy" as a road-trip game, but it's easy to modify at home to help your child develop their concept of speech sounds. To try this phoneme awareness game, sit with your child in a familiar room, like their bedroom or the kitchen. Look around the room and pick out an object, like "crib," "book," "stove," etc. Once you've selected the first object and spoken its name aloud, challenge your child to identify other items they can see that start with the same sound. For example, "crib" and "cookie," "book" and "baby clothes," or "stove" and "sink."

This is another great activity to help add a visual component to phoneme awareness activities.!

Mystery Bag

This next activity takes a little more planning up front; but if you keep it simple, it can be an easy activity for you and a very fun visualization practice for your child.

To start, gather together a few everyday objects that start with the same phoneme. You might collect a "book," a "block," and a "ball," if you're adding in objects that start with the /b/ phoneme. Put all the objects into a bag or box, so your child can't see what they are. Now comes the fun part! Give clues to help your child guess one of the items in the box. Once they've correctly identified one object, pull it out and explain that all the items in the box start with same sound. Now let the guessing begin! Feel free to keep giving hints if needed, but give your child as much time and as many guesses as they need to identify the other items in the box.

Musical Syllables

For some syllable practice, try this simple activity. Give your child a small instrument, like a drum or maraca. Explain that they need to shake, tap, or clap for each syllable you read. Pick a few words with varying numbers of syllables (try to choose words ranging from one to four or five syllables) and slowly say them aloud while your child taps along!

Super Silly Sentences

Remember tongue twisters? Besides being super fun for young children, they're a great way to practice identifying words that start with the same sound! Challenge your child to see how many super silly sentences (i.e., tongue twisters) they can come up with and try and say them together. For example, "David doesn't dare dust doorbells!"

Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes

To do this fun activity, start by putting together a list of words with one to four different phonemes. Explain to your child that as you read each word, they'll touch their head for the first phoneme, their shoulders for the second, their knees for the third, and their toes for the fourth. For example, as you say "quick" they'll touch their head /k/, shoulders /w/, knees /i/, and toes /k/. This can be a difficult challenge, so be patient as your child tries to sound out each word.

Literacy Is Possible for Every Child

Learning to read is difficult for many children. But you don't have to teach your child to read alone! Voyager Sopris has resources to support the development of every child, such as our literacy programs for elementary schoolsand in math intervention programs. Check out our online reading programs for literacy support in children as young as kindergarten.

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6 Phonemic Awareness Activities To Help Your Child Learn To Read

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You've probably been reading to your child since they were an infant. But now that it's time for them to start reading on their own, how can you help them practice so they become a confident reader?

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Phonics in Literacy

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Phonics in Literacy

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Attached is a link to a website that was specifically made for families to gain some insight into what phonics is, how it is taught in school, there are also links to different videos, songs, and free downloads to use at home. There are also videos for families to watch about phonics lessons.

Link: https://www.thesecretstories.com/free-phonics-resources-for-parents/

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Cracking the Phonics Code for Reading & Writing

No more "It just is....It just does....You just have to remember...."
"I see a Secret in that word!"
Expect to hear this on a daily basis, as anywhere there is text, there will be Secrets....and kids love finding them!

These "grown-up" reading and writing Secrets explain WHY letters make the many different sounds that they do when they get together in words, in a way that kids can easily understand.

In these simple phonics stories, letters behave like kids, which makes their sounds easily predictable, even for kindergartners.

These "secret" stories provide the logical explanations for letter sound behavior that kids' brains crave, so parents don't have to always tell them, "It just is....It just does....You just have to remember...."
(Learn more here)

For example, knowing the "secret" about why /t/ and /h/ are not allowed to sit together in words (because they always stick their tongues out at each other and say, "thhhhhhh!") is as easy for kids to remember as the behaviors of kids in their own class.

Once they know the Secret, they can immediately start using it to read and spell words. So, the next time they spot /th/, whether it's in a bedtime story or on a road sign, ask if they remember its Secret. (And if they need a little reminder, just show them the picture below! :-)

The more Secrets your child knows, the more words they will be able to read and spell.

Decoding and Encoding Words

"Is there a Secret in that word?"

Anytime your child is stuck on a word they cannot read or spell, ask them if there's a Secret in it!

If stuck on a word when READING, ask if they SEE any Secrets they know.
If stuck on SPELLING/WRITING a word, ask if they HEAR any Secret sounds in it.

Note that when writing, it's okay if your child picks the right Secret, but the wrong spelling option, as many Secrets have multiple spellings. This is normal for learners with limited text experience. (Learn more here)

Sight words also have Secrets, which means that most of the time, they can be easily sounded out and don't have to be memorized. (Learn more here.)

With really tricky words, your kids can use the Secrets they know to be word doctors, and here are some simple tricks to help them. This process is made easier in the classroom where kids have access to all of the Secret Stories® posters on the wall to help them recall the sounds (for reading) and spelling patterns (for writing).

If your child's teacher sent home a Porta-Pic, they should be referring to it whenever they are reading and writing. They are provide smaller versions of the Secret Stories® posters that students would typically reference on the classroom wall. Once they've learned the Secrets, kids can independently access the sounds they need for reading OR the spellings they need for writing, just by looking at the pictures. (Note that Porta-Pics do not contain the copy written stories or any teaching information, as they are intended only for student reference.)

Because the Secret Stories® text and graphics are copy written and trademarked, your child's teacher cannot make copies of them to send home. However, your child can still use the Secret strategies they've learned to help them read and write at home. They just might need some additional reminders to "look" and "listen" for the Secrets they know. Learn more by watching the video below.

Parent/Home Kits, Flashcards and the Remote Learning "Bundle" Pack are also available, and have been designed specifically for teaching (and using) the Secret Stories® at home. Ideally, these would be used for all "at-home" reading and writing, so as to learn more Secrets, faster. Learn more here.

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Phonics Resources for Parents | The Secret Stories

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Support your child's reading, writing and spelling instruction at home with Secret Stories® phonics resources for parents.

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Fluency in Literacy

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Fluency in Literacy

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Attached is the link to a website that explains what fluency is and how it is used. This link also provides the reader with multiple point of views of why it is important to have fluency and what it can look like if fluency isn't achieved. This website also provides solutions for how to help develop fluency.

Link: https://www.readingrockets.org/helping-all-readers/why-some-kids-struggle/target-problem/fluency#:~:text=Read%20aloud%20to%20your%20child,along%20in%20the%20print%20copy.

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

Children who do not read with fluency sound choppy and awkward. Those students may have difficulty with decoding skills or they may just need more practice with speed and smoothness in reading. Fluency is also important for motivation; children who find reading laborious tend not to want read! As readers head into upper elementary grades, fluency becomes increasingly important. The volume of reading required in the upper elementary years escalates dramatically. Students whose reading is slow or labored will have trouble meeting the reading demands of their grade level.

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how fluency difficulties in particular affect their reading:

I just seem to get stuck when I try to read a lot of the words in this chapter.

It takes me so long to read something.

Reading through this book takes so much of my energy, I can't even think about what it means.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with fluency:

He knows how to read words but seems to take a long time to read a short book or passage silently.

She reads a book with no expression.

He stumbles a lot and loses his place when reading something aloud.

She reads aloud very slowly.

She moves her mouth when reading silently (subvocalizing).

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with fluency:

Her results on words-correct-per-minute assessments are below grade level or targeted benchmark.

She has difficulty and grows frustrated when reading aloud, either because of speed or accuracy.

He does not read aloud with expression; that is, he does not change his tone where appropriate.

She does not "chunk" words into meaningful units.

When reading, he doesn't pause at meaningful breaks within sentences or paragraphs.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

Track the words with your finger as a parent or teacher reads a passage aloud. Then you read it.

Have a parent or teacher read aloud to you. Then, match your voice to theirs.

Read your favorite books and poems over and over again. Practice getting smoother and reading with expression.

What parents can do to help at home

Support and encourage your child. Realize that he or she is likely frustrated by reading.

Check with your child's teachers to find out their assessment of your child's word decoding skills.

If your child can decode words well, help him or her build speed and accuracy by:

Reading aloud and having your child match his voice to yours

Having your child practice reading the same list of words, phrase, or short passages several times

Reminding your child to pause between sentences and phrases

Read aloud to your child to provide an example of how fluent reading sounds.

Give your child books with predictable vocabulary and clear rhythmic patterns so the child can "hear" the sound of fluent reading as he or she reads the book aloud.

Use books on tapes; have the child follow along in the print copy.

What teachers can do to help at school

Assess the student to make sure that word decoding or word recognition is not the source of the difficulty (if decoding is the source of the problem, decoding will need to be addressed in addition to reading speed and phrasing).

Give the student independent level texts that he or she can practice again and again. Time the student and calculate words-correct-per-minute regularly. The student can chart his or her own improvement.

Ask the student to match his or her voice to yours when reading aloud or to a tape recorded reading.

Read a short passage and then have the student immediately read it back to you.

Have the student practice reading a passage with a certain emotion, such as sadness or excitement, to emphasize expression and intonation.

Incorporate timed repeated readings into your instructional repertoire.

Plan lessons that explicitly teach students how to pay attention to clues in the text (for example, punctuation marks) that provide information about how that text should be read.

Browse our fluency library

Learn more about how to build children's fluency skills through our articles, tips for parents, video, FAQs, and research briefs. Visit our Fluency section

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately.

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Fluency in Literacy

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Fluency in Literacy

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For families with their own unique challenges some ways they can help their child develop fluency is through taped-readings and the game I-spy.

Taped-reading is a simple but effective way that families can always help their children become fluent. Taped-reading is a recorded voice that reads a story out loud while the child follows along on a physical copy of a book. You can also have the child read aloud with the recorded voice to also help with fluency.

I-spy is a simple game that can be done anywhere and at any time to assist the child in becoming fluent with different words. This game can also become increasingly more difficult depending on the objects that are being pointed out.

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Phonics in Literacy

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Phonics in Literacy

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For families with their own unique challenges some ways they can support their child's development of phonics is through interactive games that can be done at home like letter cards and blend it.

Letter cards is a quick and easy game where you write out letters on a piece of paper and then have the child sound out the letter by making the noise that the letter makes. To take it a step further have the child say a word that starts with that letter sound or find a object that starts with that letter.

Blend it, is a game that helps children learn how to blend letter sounds together and how they create words. Taking a card and writing out blended sounds like cr, br, or gr and having the child sound out the letters and then saying a word that has those letter sounds helps with understanding how letters blend together to make different sounds.

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Phonemic Awareness in Literacy

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Phonemic Awareness in Literacy

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For families with their own unique challenges some ways they can support their child's development of phonemic awareness is through games like make up your own rhyme and word cards.

Make up your own rhyme is an interactive game where child create rhymes by listing words out loud that rhyme together, like cat, hat, bat, and sat. This game can be done anywhere and only takes a few minutes.

Word cards is another interactive game that can be done at home that is quick and easy. You create cards with different words on them and then ask the child to say the word and then break down the word into the sounds the letters make.

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This graphic provides a visual representation of what vocabulary is and how it works in literacy.

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Defining vocabulary and why it is important component of literacy.

Reference: Reading Rockets. (2022). Basics: Vocabulary. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/vocabulary

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Defining comprehension and why it is an important component of literacy.

Reference: Reading Rockets. (2021). Basics: Reading comprehension. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/reading-comprehension

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This graphic provides a visual representation of what comprehension is and how it works in literacy.

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Vocabulary in Literacy

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Vocabulary in Literacy

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For families with their own unique challenges some ways they can support their child’s development of vocabulary is through word games. Like Pictionary, scrabble, word charades, and word searches. All of these games are interactive games that can be done at anytime at home. Each of these games promotes children to learn and discover new words that they may be unfamiliar with. And you as the adult help to fill in the meaning of the words with context clues, real life experiences, or even looking up the definition online together.

An online resource that families or parents can use to find new or different activities and resources is : https://www.splashlearn.com/blog/vocabulary-activities-for-kids/

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One developmentally appropriate classroom activity to support the development of vocabulary would be word of the day. Everyday a new word is introduced to the students, as well as the definition of the word (Reading Rockets, 2022). This helps to build up the student’s vocabulary by constantly introducing new words to their everyday life (Reading Rockets, 2022). This activity helps with building a larger vocabulary with the meaning of the word, the pronunciation, and the usage of the word (Reading Rockets, 2022).

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One developmentally appropriate classroom activity to support the development of comprehension would be playing I predict. I predict is a game where students make predictions about what the story you are about to read is about (Reading Rockets, 2020). They make these predictions by looking at the cover art on the book (Reading Rockets, 2020). This activity is good for relating stories to real life experiences that the students might have (Reading Rockets, 2020).

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Comprehension in Literacy

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Comprehension in Literacy

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Attached is the link to a website that explains comprehension, how it is used, provides activities to do, and videos for families to watch to gain a better understanding of comprehension. This website provides families with an overview of comprehension, explains some signs of good reading comprehension, and gives videos on different longer activities that families can do together.

Link: https://www.readingrockets.org/literacy-home/reading-101-guide-parents/your-kindergartener/comprehension-activities

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Just 15 minutes each day makes a big difference! Reading aloud is a great way to help your kindergartener absorb new words and see how stories are structured. It's also one of the best ways to help children learn about the world and make connections between their own lives and what's in the book - that helps children see the world with empathy. And last but not least, it's a wonderful time to snuggle up with your child and share the experience of reading and discovery together.

Remember that reading together should spark curiosity, joy, and a desire to explore and learn. Conversations about books should be enjoyable, and not a set of quizzes and questions. As you try some of the activities listed below, remember to keep it light and lively for your child.

There are so many great nonfiction and informational books for very young kids (such as the popular DK Eyewitness series and National Geographic series). Try to include some of these during your next trip to the public library. Children love learning about the real world and are proud to share what they know!

Even a walk around the neighborhood or a trip to the grocery store can be a rich learning experience for young children. A child may see an urban bunny for the first time on a walk, and then be able to connect it to stories about rabbits. These personal connections help children connect what they read with what they know - a powerful way to build comprehension skills!

Try these comprehension activities at home

"I predict ..."

When you sit down for a read aloud, look at the book's cover together. Ask, "What do you think this book might be about? Why? Can you make some predictions?" Guide your child through the pages, discuss the pictures, and brainstorm what might happen in the story. Talk about any personal experiences your child may have that relate to the story.

Five-finger retell

After reading a story together, have your child tell you five things about the story, using her fingers to talk about each one:

1. Characters: who was in the story?

2. Setting: where did the story take place?

3. Events: what happened in the story?

4. End: how did the story end?

5. Favorite character or part of the story

Active reading

Model active reading when you read with your child. Talk about what's happening as you're reading. Stop and discuss any interesting or tricky vocabulary words. Help your child make pictures of the story in his mind. Ask your child, "What just happened here? How do you think that character feels? Have you ever felt like that? What do you think will happen next?" Not only will this develop your child's comprehension, but critical thinking skills as well.

Mind movies

When you come to a descriptive passage in a book, have your child close her eyes and create a mental movie of the scene. Encourage her to use all five senses. Read the passage over together, looking for details that bring the scene to life. Ask questions like, "How do you know it was a hot day? Which words help you understand that the child was lonely?"

Tell me about it

After a read aloud, one of the best and easiest ways to check for understanding is to ask your child to summarize what the book was about in their own words. You can ask a question or two to help your child clarify her thinking or to add more detail.

Think alouds

Connect the book to your child's own life experience. For example, A River Dream: "This book reminds me of the time my father took me fishing. Do you remember the time we went fishing?"

Connect the book to other books they have read. For example, Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters: "This story reminds me of Cinderella. Both stories are about sisters. Do you know any other stories about nice and mean sisters? Let's keep reading to find out other ways the stories are similar."

Connect the book to big ideas/lessons. For example, Stellaluna: "This story helps me understand that we are all the same in many ways, but it's our differences that make us special."

Wordless

Wordless picture books provide your child with practice using clues to create meaning. There are no wrong stories with wordless picture books, only variations based on what the "reader" sees and puts together. Rosie's Walk, Good Dog, Carl, and Beaver Is Lost are all interesting and fun wordless picture books to explore. Find more wordless books on BookFinder.

Family stories

This is a wonderful activity for a family picnic or for a rainy day when you're snuggled together on the couch. Share a favorite story about your childhood or a family story that's been passed down from generation to generation. Use vivid language and details about people, places, and things. Funny or scary will really get your child's attention! Your child will probably have lots of questions, which keeps the storytelling alive. You could also ask your child if she has a favorite family story of her own.

Map this book!

Draw a map of the book's setting, and be sure to include the places where the main action happens!

Beginning-middle-end

This is a great way to see if your child understands the main parts of a story. After reading a book together, give your child three sheets of paper, with "beginning" on one sheet, "middle" on the second sheet, and "end" on the third sheet. Ask your child to think about the three parts of the story, and then draw what happened on each on the sheets. Arrange the sheets in order, left to right. What happens if you re-arrange the sheets? Does the story still make sense?

Words, words, words

Be sure to include books with rich vocabulary in your read alouds and call attention to interesting words and phrases from the story. This may include repeated phrases or idioms (such as "get cold feet" or "I'm all ears"). Offer a kid-friendly definition and connect the new word or phrase to something your child already knows.Talk about how the author used language or words to make the text interesting, informative, funny, or sad.

Picture walk

Talk about the book before you read it. Show the cover illustration and ask your child to predict what the book is about. Flip through the book, look closely at the pictures together, and talk about what's on the jacket flaps.

Remember when ...?

Connect what your child reads with what happens in life. If reading a book about birds, relate it to birds you've seen on walks in your neighborhood.

Story detectives

As you read with your child, stop and ask questions such as: What's happening in the picture? Why do you think the puppy is sad? Have you felt that way yourself? Why do you think the spider wanted to help the pig? What do you think is going to happen next? How do you think the story will end? Take turns and let your child to "be the detective" and ask you questions about the book. Not only will this develop your child's comprehension, but critical thinking skills as well.

Picture the character (Part 1)

Try this activity from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). The FCRR "At Home" series was developed especially for families! Watch the video and then download the activity: Picture the Character . See all FCRR comprehension activities here .

Picture the character (Part 2)

Try this activity from the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR). The FCRR "At Home" series was developed especially for families! Watch the video and then download the activity: Picture the Character . See all FCRR comprehension activities here .

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Kindergartners are just beginning their journey as readers, yet they are actively absorbing language and experiences to make sense of the world around them. Encourage your child to think and talk about shared oral stories and books that are read aloud.

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Vocabulary in Literacy

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Resources for Families to Assist the Development of Vocabulary in Literacy

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Attached is the link to a website that explains what vocabulary is, how it is used, and why it is an important component of literacy. This website provides families with different activities for them to do with their children that will help them with their development of vocabulary skills. This website also provides videos for families to watch to gain a better understanding of vocabulary in school, how to help their child learn new words, and an explanation of word connections.

Link: https://www.readingrockets.org/literacy-home/reading-101-guide-parents/your-kindergartener/vocabulary-activities

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Overview

Talking to and reading with your kindergartener are two terrific ways to help them learn new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words are easy, non-threatening ways to get new words into everyday talk.

Use rich language in conversations with your child

Even very young children love to hear and learn new words! Help your child expand their word bank and knowledge of the world by using interesting and vivid words instead of simpler language in your everyday conversations. For example, instead of saying, "this ice cream is good" you might say, "this caramel ice cream is scrumptious."

Read with your child every day

Reading aloud exposes your child to lots of vivid language that is not found in books for beginning readers. When you come upon a new and interesting word, take the time to stop and ask your child what they think that word might mean in the context of the story. Then offer a kid-friendly definition of the word and connect it to a similar word and a shared experience.

Patience!

Word learning and vocabulary growth takes time and patience. Don't expect your child to learn a new word after one conversation or one read aloud. True word learning happens after being exposed to words several times. We all learn about words throughout our lifetime. You're getting your child off to a great start by developing an early interest in words.

Talk about new words during read alouds

Talking to and reading with your child are two terrific ways to help them hear and read new words. Conversations and questions about interesting words are easy ways to get new words into everyday talk. "The book says, 'The boy tumbled down the hill,' and look at the picture! How do you think he went down the hill?"

Sharing a new word with your child doesn't have to take a long time: just a few minutes to talk about the word and then focus back on the book or conversation. Choose which words to talk about carefully - choosing every new word might make reading seem like a chore. The best words to explore are ones that are less common to see in the books your child might read. When introducing new words to your young learner, keep the following four helpful hints in mind:

1. Provide a simple, kid-friendly definition for the new word: Enormous means that something is really, really big.

2. Offer a simple, kid-friendly example that makes sense within their daily life: Remember that really big watermelon we got at the grocery store? That was an enormous watermelon!

3. Encourage your child to develop their own example: What enormous thing can you think of? Can you think of something really big that you saw today? That's right! The bulldozer near the park was enormous! Those tires were huge.

4. Keep your new words active within your house. Over the next few days and weeks, take advantage of opportunities to use each new vocabulary word in conversation. Kids often need to hear a new word in context ten times or more before they "know" that word.

Grocery store vocabulary

The produce section is a great place to hear new interesting word s. Words like rhubarb, asparagus, artichoke, and kiwi are fun to say, and fun to eat. As you introduce each one, use descriptive words to help your child learn. "A kiwi has a fuzzy outside, but the inside is bright green with black seeds!"

Start at the root

Begin with a simple root word, such as push. Ask your child to come up with words they know that contain that word, such as pushing, pushed, pushover, push-up. Talk about how all these words have some shared meaning related to the word push.

Consider the prefix

Numeric prefixes like bi- and tri- are a part of many words kids know and use. Discuss words like tricycle, tricep, triangle. All these words share the prefix tri-, which means three. Can they develop a list of words that begin with the prefix bi- (like bicycle and binoculars)? This gives you a great chance to introduce new words, like bicentennial, bicep, and biped. You can generate similar word lists with the numeric prefixes uni, octo, and cent.

Homonym fun

Homonyms - words that sound the same but have different meanings - provide a great opportunity for word fun. Say a word out loud, and see if your child can generate more than one meaning for the word. For example:

bark: the sound a dog makes ring: jewelry you wear on your finger
ring: the sound a doorbell makes
bark: the covering on a tree

Explore your world

Visits to a museum, the zoo, the botanical garden, historical sites, and even your neighborhood park are terrific opportunities to introduce your child to new words. Spend some time looking at the signage and identifying new words, then connecting them to what you see right there.

"What's another word for ..."

This game helps your child learn there's more than one word for everyday things. For example, look around you and say, "what's another word for couch?" ( sofa, ottoman). Or, "what's another word for cup?" ( glass, mug). You can extend the game by talking about how two things are similar but not exactly alike ( glass, mug). That helps your child learn about the subtle differences in related words.

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Vocabulary: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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Building a large "word bank" is one of the best ways to help children with reading comprehension. Beginning readers use knowledge about words to help them make sense of what they're reading. The more words a reader knows, the more they are able to comprehend what they're reading or listening to.

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Comprehension in Literacy

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Resources for Families with Exceptionalities to Assist the Development of Comprehension in Literacy

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For families with their own unique challenges some ways they can support their child’s development of comprehension is through interactive games that can be done at home. Focusing on your child’s interests when it comes choosing books can help keep them interested in what they are doing. Even using audio books and giving your child a physical copy of the book can be super beneficial for their comprehension skills. I attached a link to a website that provides families with simple and easy explanations of comprehension and why it is so important. This link also provides families with different resources they can use and different activities they can use at home to support their child.

Link: https://www.readabilitytutor.com/how-parents-can-help-with-reading-comprehension-at-home/

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Developing strong reading comprehension skills is crucial to your child's future success. But many children struggle to master these important skills in the classroom. The good news is that there are plenty of ways for parents to help their children improve reading skills outside of the classroom. Here's how parents can help with reading comprehension at home:

Start A Family Book Club

Use Online Reading Comprehension Worksheets

There are a number of websites that allow parents to print reading comprehension worksheets for free. Each worksheet will include a short passage followed by questions about the passage.

Ask your child to complete these worksheets so they can practice their reading comprehension skills at home. The more they practice, the more they will improve their reading comprehension skills.

Create Graphic Organizers

If your child is a visual learner, creating a graphic organizer is a great way to improve their reading comprehension skills .

There are several ways to use graphic organizers to improve your child's reading comprehension skills. For example, create Venn diagrams to compare and contrast characters in a story. Or create a storyboard that shows the sequence of events that took place in the story.

Creating these graphic organizers can help your child understand the relationship between characters and events, the chronological order of events, and other concepts.

Play Audio Books

Some children are auditory learners, so they may benefit from listening to audio books . Instruct your child to follow along with the narrator while you play an audio book. Auditory learners may be able to extract more meaning from the text by listening and following along as opposed to reading independently.

Encourage All Types of Reading

Practice is the key to improving reading comprehension , so encourage your children to practice as much as possible. Don't limit your children to books, either. Encourage them to read anything they may find interesting, which may include comic books, newspapers, and magazines.

Focus On Your Child's Favorite Topics

Studies show that reading multiple books on the same topic can actually help your child improve their reading comprehension skills more than reading multiple books on various topics.

Use this research to your advantage by finding books related to your child's favorite topics. Does your child love baseball? If so, check out a handful of different baseball-themed books from the local library. Is your child interested in the solar system? Find five or six books on the planets.

Discuss the books with your child once you're done reading. Ask your child to compare and contrast the books to check their comprehension and keep them engaged.

Compare Books and Movies

Download the Readability App

Let your child work on their reading comprehension skills anytime, anywhere with the Readability app, which is available for Apple and Android devices.

Readability's Interactive Voice-Based Questions & Answers (IVQA) feature allows your child to communicate with the app just like they would with a reading tutor. The app will ask your child questions about the text and listen to their answers to keep them engaged and improve their reading comprehension skills.

You can even keep a close eye on your child's progress using the parent dashboard, which will . Use the dashboard to watch as your child drastically track your child's pronunciation accuracy, comprehension, and time spent reading improves their reading comprehension skills over time using this innovative app.

Download the app on your smartphone or tablet to start your free 7-day trial today.

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How Parents Can Help With Reading Comprehension At Home

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Learn how parents can help with reading comprehension at home so you can improve your child's crucial reading skills.

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Resource List of Supports for the Components of Literacy

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Resource List of Supports for the Components of Literacy

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This link takes families to a website that provides different resources for them to use to support the learning of the components of reading. There are also multiple different links on this website that take families to different resources that they can use to help with child with their reading development.

Link: https://www.theliteracybug.com/journal/2020/29/3/suggested-online-resources-to-support-reading-development-across-age-groups

This link goes to a website which provides multiple different resources that families can use to support their child in learning the skills that they need for the components of reading. This website also provides explanations for families about all the different components of reading. There are also multiple videos on this website that families can use to gain a better understanding of reading development.

Link: https://www.lynnekenney.com/post/25-science-of-reading-resources

This link goes to a podcast website. This website provides families with ten different links to different podcast videos that they can watch with their children to gain a better understanding of the science of reading.

Link: https://amplify.com/blog/science-of-reading/top-10-science-of-reading-podcasts-to-get-you-started/

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Hello, from The Literacy Bug,

At this time, we'd like to take the opportunity to share some links to a few quality (mostly free) educational resources that we have come across in the last few years.

We appreciate that many of you may be home schooling children during the present COVID-19 outbreak, or you may be organising remote teaching/support for children. The following may serve as useful resources.

We'd also like to ask the community to share their own suggestions. If you have further recommended resources, please add a comment to the blog or send us an email at info@theliteracybug.com. We'd love to hear from you.

Please note: The following suggestions are not designed to replace the teaching ideas that dedicated teachers are sending home for parents. It's important to work together to avoid a significant disruption to children's education.

If you are looking for suggestions consistent with the "Big Six", then look here ...

Research clearly demonstrates that budding readers benefit from activities that develop the "Big Six" skills: oral language, phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension.

This is where the FLORIDA CENTRE FOR READING RESEARCH (FCRR) can help. Their comprehensive set of Student Centre Activities provides a wealth of teaching ideas across the Big Six skills for a wide range of ages (preschool to Grade 5). All materials are available freely to the public.

We do note that it can be a bit daunting to teach using just the activities above, which is why FCRR also includes further planning, teaching and monitoring resources:

We all know how to read to our preschoolers ... right? ... here are a few extra ideas to support children's early literacy skills

Developed by the Crane Centre for Early Childhood Research and Policy at Ohio State University, READ IT AGAIN-PREK! is a practitioner-friendly, scientifically based, and relevant curricular supplement designed to develop and strengthen young children's early foundations in language and literacy.

All lessons are organized around adult-child readings of high-quality storybooks.

Each lesson idea is designed to systematically build children's language and literacy abilities in four areas key pre-literacy areas:

Please note that each lesson is centred around particular picture books. In many cases, you will not have access to these exact books, but you can explore the teaching ideas in the support material and apply these ideas to the book you have access to.

There are a lot of phonics apps out there, so we have a couple recommendations that may spark your interest

FEED THE MONSTER is a free, engaging Android game that helps children develop basic understanding of vowel sounds, consonant sounds and simple words. In other words, children:

What's more important is that Feed the Monster is available in over 40 languages including English, Español, Français, Kiswahili, Hindi, and Farsi. The game was initially developed with support from the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation and USAID and was a winner in the EduApp4Syria contest. It is being further developed by Curious Learning, a global nonprofit focused on promoting literacy.

The various Feed the Monster games (including English) can be found on GooglePlay at https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=Curious%20Learning

SOUNDS ENGLISH PHONICS is an innovative new learn-to-read app from the educational company Zaprendo.

It is important to note that the game is NOT a beginning phonics app. It is designed for students who have reached the 'early reading phase' (a reading age of about 6.5 years) and is based on 92 written sounds that occur most frequently in early reading material. Many of these are vowel dipthongs as well as blended consonant sounds - such as 'bl'. This makes good sense for early readers (as opposed to emergent readers) as this extends students who have already mastered basic short vowels and CVC constructs.

The app recommends that learners focus on three sounds per day (with accompanying words). All learning is organised around the "Great Learning Tree", which provides a visible indications of the learner's progress.

What is most impressive is the adaptive learning feature, which monitors the words that children get right and wrong. The system uses this information to determine and modify the sequence of letter-sounds that learners encounter in the game.

Please explore and enjoy! And note, this is a paid app.
https://zaprendo.com/apps/

Are you looking for free reading materials for early readers in English but also in a range of other languages?

STORYWEAVER is a digital repository of multilingual stories for children from Pratham Books. Storyweaver is designed to provide children with richly illustrated, open-licensed children's stories in mother tongue languages (including English). The stories are levelled by reading difficulty, so you can find free texts at the right level for your emerging reader.

All the stories are available online and offline. They are downloadable as PDFs for easy printing, and there are also a number of readalong stories in the repository.

https://storyweaver.org.in

Another resource with a similar intent is the GLOBAL DIGITAL LIBRARY from the Global Book Alliance. Keep a look out for the following resource as it is sure to grow in the coming months.

https://www.digitallibrary.io

Are you looking for accessible, information texts for developing readers?

TEXTPROJECT'S "FYI FOR KIDS" resource provides a wealth of free, short, accessible texts with accompanying activities. These texts can be used to help developing readers focus increasing attention on how to extract key information as they read.

There are texts in a range of difficulties and in diverse subject areas, including science, social studies, arts, music, history and culture. The website also now includes an easy-to-use search tool to filter text by difficulty and topic.

http://textproject.org/teachers/students/fyi-for-kids/

Are you looking for even more reading materials to help expand learners' understanding of the world around them?

NEWSELA is an innovative site with resources designed to build reading comprehension from a relevant, contemporary source of nonfiction: the daily news.

Newsela includes articles ranging from sport, the arts, to politics, and more. All articles are sourced from reputable new outlets like the Washington Post, Scientific American, the History Channel, and much, much more.

The key is this, though: Newsela creates multiple versions of each article for different skills and abilities. In other words, there will be version written at a Grade 3 level, a Grade 5 level, a Grade 7 level, and so on.

It makes it easy for an entire class to read the same content yet differentiated to suit differing levels of reading skills. In other words, academically challenging content can be presented within the zone of proximal development of the learner.

Please explore and enjoy. You'll be pleased that you did.

https://newsela.com

Are you wishing to challenge learners with academic vocabulary and enagaging topics?

WORD GENERATION is a research-based program for late primary and middle school students which is designed to teach academic vocabulary in language arts, math, science and social studies classes. It is a program that builds academic vocabulary across subject areas by facilitating deep discussion about concepts and issues of concern to children and young people.

Each unit introduces approximately five or six high-utility academic "focus words" and is designed to offer a variety of texts, word-learning activities, writing tasks, and debate and/or discussion opportunities. Specifically, each unit helps:

expand general and content-oriented academic vocabulary;

build the reasoning and argumentation skills that are necessary for learning in all content areas; and

build reading comprehension and content-area literacy by providing students with motivating text, opportunities for discussion and debate, and weekly writing.

Please explore and enjoy:

Do you need resources to help adolescent readers develop key fluency and deep comprehension skills?

Serp Institute's STARI program (or Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention) is a literature-focused intervention for students in grades 6-9 who read two or more years below grade level. STARI addresses gaps in fluency, decoding, reading stamina, and comprehension, aiming to move struggling students to higher levels of proficiency whilst providing cognitively challenging content that is aligned to the Common Core and other 21st century standards.

Each units includes a range of materials to support growing fluency, comprehension, critical thinking and academic development.

Check this one out: https://www.serpinstitute.org/stari

COMMONLIT is a nonprofit education technology organization dedicated to ensuring that all students develop strong reading, writing, communication, and problem-solving skills.

The system includes over 2,000 high-quality free reading passages for grades 3-12, complemented by questions, paired readings and activities to promote deep consideration of important social, environmental and historical issues.

This includes:

individual texts (organised by grade level and theme);

texts organised into units of study; and

novel (book) studies that guide students into deep, critical thinking.

Please note that CommonLit now includes a range of Spanish content, as well.

https://www.commonlit.org

Last but not least, the COMPREHENSION CIRCUIT TRAINING (CCT) resource from The Meadows Centre provides a range of scaffolds to support youth to read with an analytical and critical mind. The CCT resource is part of the broader PACT project (Promoting Adolescents' Comprehension of Text)

Please stay connected and reach out if you have further ideas and resources that you'd like to share

We are really pleased to share this list with you. It's not a comprehensive list, but hopefully it has some useful ideas. To explore further, please visit our list of recommended links.

If you'd like to add any further recommendations, please let us know. We are keen to hear from you. Please add a comment to the blog or send us an email at info@theliteracybug.com.

Bye for now.

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12 Recommended Resources to Support Reading Development Across Age Groups - The Literacy Bug

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Hello, from The Literacy Bug, At this time, we'd like to take the opportunity to share some links to a few quality (mostly free) educational resources that we have come across in the last few years.

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Resource List of Supports for the Components of Reading for Students with Exceptionalities

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Resource List of Supports for the Components of Reading for Students with Exceptionalities

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This link takes families to a website that is specific for English Language Learners. This website provides families with an explanation of the five reading components. As well as provides information about instructions for English Language Learners. Plus this website provides links to other websites that provide more information on these topics.

Link: https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/english-language-learners/articles/english-language-learners-and-five-essential-components

This link takes you to a website that is specifically for students with Autism. It provides information about different reading programs that have been proven to be effective for children with autism. As well as providing information about different reading instructions and provides links to different resources that can be used once downloaded.

Link: https://autismclassroomresources.com/resources-for-teaching-reading-to-students-with-autism/

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August, D., Hakuta, K. (1997). Improving schooling for language-minority children: A research agenda. Washington, DC: National Research Council.

Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. (2001). Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read. The Partnership for Reading: National Institute for Literacy; National Institute of Child Health and Human Development; and U.S. Department of Education.

Clay, M. (1993). Reading Recovery in English and other languages. Keynote address presented at the West Coast Literacy Conference, Palm Springs, CA.

Collier,V. & Thomas, W. (1992). A synthesis of studies examining long-term language minority student data on academic achievement. Bilingual Research Journal, 16(1-2), 187-212.

Cummins, J. (1989). Empowering minority students. Sacramento, CA: California Association for Bilingual Education.

Cummins, J. (1992). Language proficiency, bilingualism, and academic achievement. In P. A. Richard-Amato and M. A. Snow (Eds.), The multicultural classroom: Readings for content-area teachers. White Plains: Longman.

Escamilla, K. (1987). The relationship of native language reading achievement and oral English proficiency to future achievement in reading English as a second language. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Univer-sity of California, Los Angeles.

Hiebert, E. H., Pearson, P.D., Taylor, B.M., Richardson, V., Paris, S.G. (1998). Every child a reader: Applying reading research to the classroom. Center for the Improvement of Earl Reading Achievement. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan School of Education.

International Reading Association. (2001). Summary of the National Reading Panel Report, "Teaching Children to Read." Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Reading Association, Washington, DC, July 2001.

Moats, L.C. (1999). Teaching reading is rocket science: What expert teachers of reading should know and be able to do. Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers.

National Clearinghouse for Bilingual Education (2002). Survey of the states' limited English proficient students and available educational programs and services, 1999-2001. Washington, DC: NCBE.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000a). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (2000b). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

National Reading Panel (2001). "Frequently asked questions." [Online]. Available: http:// www.nationalreadingpanel.org/faq/faq.htm

New York State Education Department, Office of Bilingual Education. (2000). The teaching of language arts to limited English proficient/English language learners: A resource guide for all teachers. Albany, NY: Author.

Peregoy, S. F. & Boyle, O. F. (2000). English learners reading English: What we know, what we need to know. Theory into practice, 39(4), 237-247.

Ramirez, J.D. (2001). Bilingualism and literacy: Problem or opportunity? A synthesis of reading research on bilingual students. A Research Symposium on High Standards in Reading for Students in Diverse Language Groups: Research, Policy, and Practice. Washington, D.C.: Office of Bilingual Education and Minority Languages Affairs, U.S. Department of Education.

Rodriguez, A. (1988). Research in reading and writing in bilingual education and English as a second language. In A. Ambert (Ed.), Bilingual Education and English as a Second Language. New York: Garland Pub.

Snow, C., Burns, S., & Griffin, P. (Eds.). (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

U.S. Congress, No Child Left Behind Act (P.L. 107-110), 2001.

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English Language Learners and the Five Essential Components of Reading Instruction

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Find out how teachers can play to the strengths and shore up the weaknesses of English Language Learners in each of the Reading First content areas.