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The National Reading Panel (2000) has named these five essential elements of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. In this workspace of the online bulletin board, we explore all five essential components of reading instruction. All of them are fundamental to the development of effective, independent readers. These factors enable teachers to establish research-based methods to instruct and measure literacy skills, particularly in multilingual and diverse classrooms

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Phonemic Awareness

Definition:

Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that speech sounds can be divided into individual sounds (phonemes). The listening process denotes removing, partitioning, combining, and manipulating tones and words without letter representations.

Classroom Activity:

Sound Hop - Lay down mats with phonemes attached to them. Students hop on every syllable that is articulated by the teacher when she pronounces a word (e.g., a cat): /k/. /ae/. /t/.

·In the case of younger learners: Go with three-sound CVC words.

·More complex students only: Take up blends and phoneme replacement (e.g., complement /m/ in mat with s - sat).

Family Resources:

1. Starfall Phonemic Games - Free and interactive. This program assists children in practicing phoneme recognition.

2. Clap the sounds in words activity sheet- This activity sheet is a printable guide (free in English and Spanish) with simple vocabulary that should be given out to families with lower time/literacy levels to nurture the children and help them hear the sounds in a word (Cho et al., 2021).

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Phonemic awareness is the knowledge that speech sounds can be divided into individual sounds (phonemes). The listening process denotes removing, partitioning, combining, and manipulating tones and words without letter representations.  Classroom Activity:  Sound Hop - Lay down mats with phonemes attached to them. Students hop on every syllable that is articulated by the teacher when she pronounces a word (e.g., a cat): /k/. /ae/. /t/.

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Definition:

Phonics is the correspondence of letters and sounds. It provides students with the skills of decoding written text using the knowledge of sounds and symbols, or reading and spelling, as it is fundamental to reading and spelling.

Classroom Activity:

"Word Building Tiles”- The students will be able to use letter tiles to construct words once they have had words read to them.

·Young learners: Pay attention to CVC words such as "map" or sun".

·Stan intermediate learners: Digraphs and vowel teams ("ch" and, sh" a, u).

·Extended learners: Multisyllables and irregular spelling practice.

Differentiation:

Provide colored tiles and visuals to assist the students with learning differences and ELLs. Peer modelling by partners is facilitated through partner work, whereas challenge words facilitate more advanced learners (Cho et al., 2021).

Family Resources:

1. PBS Kids Games - Both are interesting phonics games for different grades.

2. Teach Your Monster to Read App - Free, does not require an internet connection, and is not culturally biased. Best suited towards family members who have a constrained or non-English-speaking family.

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Definition:

The first is fluency, which is the power to read with speed, accuracy and expression. By desensitizing cognitive capacity during understanding text, it transfers between decoding and comprehension (Harikumar Pallathadka et al., 2022).

Classroom Activity:

"Echo Reading and Performance: In this one, the teacher reads a short work using expression; students provide the so-called echoing. They later practice in pairs and perform the class.

·Emerging readers: Predicting readings, repeat readings.

·Higher level fluency practice: Higher level fluency practice involving reader-theatre scripts among the higher level students is required.

Differentiation:

This activity is beneficial for constructing oral language and creating fluency, especially for ELLs and nervous students.

Family Resources:

1. Storyline Online - free videos of actors reading aloud of children's books and demonstrating expression and fluency.

2. Library Audio Book Pairings – Families can borrow print books with matching audio to support reading fluency, even if parents aren't fluent in English.

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Definition:

Vocabulary is the collection of words a person knows and understands, and it directly supports reading comprehension. In inclusive classrooms, teachers must use strategies that make vocabulary accessible for all learners, including ELLs, students with disabilities, and gifted students.

Classroom Activity:

“Word Detective”

Students read a short passage with 4–5 target words.

They circle unfamiliar words and, in pairs, use context and pictures to guess meanings.

Teacher confirms with visuals, then students record each word in a “Word Detective Notebook” (definition, picture, sentence).

Differentiation:

ELLs → bilingual glossary/pictures.

Special needs → fewer words with visuals.

Gifted → use words in a creative paragraph.

Family Resources

1. Read-Aloud Routine – Encourage families to read daily with their child and stop to discuss unfamiliar words.

2. Word Jar Activity – Families collect interesting words from books, conversations, or TV shows and review them together.

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Definition:

Comprehension is the ability to understand, interpret, and gain meaning from what is read. It’s the ultimate goal of reading instruction. In inclusive classrooms, comprehension must be taught using multiple strategies that support diverse learners, including explicit instruction, modeling, and collaborative practice.

Classroom Activity

"Retell & Draw Story Map"

After a story read-aloud, students fill in a simple story map (characters, setting, problem, events, solution).

They draw one key scene and retell the story using their map.

Differentiation:

ELLs → sentence frames.

Special needs → pre-filled word banks/icons.

Gifted → explain theme or moral.

Family Resources

1. Family Story Discussions – After reading together, parents ask “who, what, when, where, why, how” questions. (Works even if families have limited books as well as short stories online or oral storytelling).

2. Graphic Organizer Templates – Simple story maps (provided in print or free apps) help families guide children through retelling, especially for families who may face cultural or communication barriers.

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Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2013). Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Second Edition. In Guilford Press. Guilford Press.

Cho, Y., Kim, D., & Jeong, S. (2021). Evidence-based reading interventions for English language learners: A multilevel meta-analysis. Heliyon, 7(9), e07985. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2021.e07985
Harikumar Pallathadka et al. (2022). Word recognition and fluency activities’ effects on reading comprehension: An Iranian EFL learner’s experience. Education Research International, 2022, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/4870251

Coyne, M. D., McCoach, D. B., & Kapp, S. (2007). Vocabulary Intervention for Kindergarten Students: Comparing Extended Instruction to Embedded Instruction and Incidental Exposure. Learning Disability Quarterly, 30(2), 74–88. https://doi.org/10.2307/30035543

Duke, N. K., Ward, A. E., & Pearson, P. D. (2021). The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction. The Reading Teacher, 74(6), 663–672. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1993

National Reading Panel (US), National Institute of Child Health, & Human Development (US). (2000). 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. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health.

Reading Rockets (Director). (2014, April 24). Comprehension: Helping ELLs Grasp the Full Picture [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0txgn2qbQE