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The Big Picture and Structure of English  

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The Big Picture and Structure of English  

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Reading is required to fully function our society

63% of fourth graders and 64% of eighth graders scored at or below the basic level of reading achievement

Researchers have discovered that brain activation patterns of students with dyslexia and other poor readers are different from those of good readers

Parieto-temporal and occipito-temporal areas in the back of the brain are especially important to skillde reading but have different roles. Parieto —> slow, analytic , step by step decoding. Occipito —> express way to reading

Reading Excellence Act of 1998 “The application of rigorous, systematic, and objective procedures to obtain valid knowledge and relevant to reading development, reading instruction, and reading difficulties

Five essential components of reading instruction: phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension

Print is a communication device

There are 42-44 different phonemes

25 consonant phonemes or sounds

18 vowel phonemes

A letter is a grapheme

Morphemes are the meaningful parts of words

Affixes are bound morphemes

Prefixes are word parts that are “fixed” to the beginning of the root word

Derivational suffixes are word parts that are “fixed” to the end of root words

I believe that reading is one of the most important skills we teach children, as they will use it forever. I think that ensuring students have this foundation and giving them the best resources is the greatest thing we can do for them. Phonics is a difficult concept to teach and I have taught it recently in classrooms as part of my sub plans I have been given. I do think that having this knowledge of concept helps a lot. The intro is something that has differed in instruction from each age group of teachers and I find it extremely interesting.

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Print is everywhere so it is important that we start teaching our students and children as soon as pre school if not then we will start in kindergarten.

Print is a form of communication.

It is everywhere! When student have print awareness they know how to handle a book and where to read.

At the end of kindergarten a student should know; parts of a book, how to hold a book, where to identify a book title and what authors and illustrators do, follow print from left to right, understanding that the images reflect the words on a page, ans several other components of print awareness.

Informal Assessment questions:

Can you show me how to hold this book?

Can you show me the front cover of the book?

Can you show me the title of the book?

Can you show me a word?

Can you show me a space?

Can you tell me how many words are in this sentence?

Can you show me where I can start reading?

Print Awareness is crucial for children in their literacy development. It will teach children how to read a book properly and hone in their reading skills. It allows them it become familiar with words and where to to begin reading on a page. It is important that all students gain this knowledge because everything else will build upon this reading foundation.

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Print Awareness Activities for Your Pre-K Child

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Print awareness is understanding that print carries meaning, that books contain letters and words, and how a book "works" - such as identifying the front and back covers, knowing that pages are turned, and that print in English reads from left to right.

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Phonological awareness can be broken into four developmental levels; word, syllable, intrasyllable, and phoneme.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to detect, identify, and manipulate phonemes in spoken words.

Progression teaches students; blending, segmentation, and manipulation of syllables and intrasyllabic units.

Phonemes are the smallest units of sound.

Phonological awareness instruction should be explicit and include clear explanations and teacher modeling tasks as well as lots of opportunity for students to practice.

Instruction should be systematic.

Phonological instruction is fundamental for students to understand before they start phonics instruction.

WHEN?

Pre kinder and Kinder

10 - 15 mins of instruction per day

First Grade

10 mins per day for first three months of school

Second +

Usually only necessary for students who do not automatically recognize words

Teaching letter- sound knowledge along with phonemic

awareness improves readiness for decoding instruction

Phonemic and phonological awareness are extremely important for students to learn as it is a foundation for future reading skills to build upon. If students are not properly grasping the concepts further intervention is required and small group learning may be beneficial in addition to regular class time lessons.

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10 Phonological Awareness Activities to Grow Your Childs Reading Skills

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Free phonemic awareness activities for supporting early reading skills at home with fun, educational activities to enhance phonological awareness.

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Letter names supply convenient verbal labels that uniquely identify each letter and that are important if a child is to understand the language of literacy. - Share 2004

Letters are the components of written words.

All known letter-name systems are iconic- the names of letters contain the sound that letter represents. (Treiman and Kessler 2003)

Characteristics of letters can affect students' learning of letter names.

In learning lowercase letter names, a factor is wether the shape of the lowercase letter is almost identical in uppercase.

Students most often confuse lowercase b and d and p and q.

Children appear to use letter names to help learn and remember letter sounds. - Teriman et al 2006

Students acquire phonological clues by implicitly noticing that kind of relationship between a letters name and the sound that it makes is not arbitrary. (Treiman et al 2006)

As students are taught how to recognize letters, they should also learn how to write those letters.

There are many forms of print handwriting, but one of the most often recommended is one that uses a continuous stroke. The continuous stroke reduces opportunities for reversals.

Teach proper handwriting posture, paper position, and pencil grip.

Verbalize consistent, precise directions for writing each letter shape or stroke.

There are many pieces to teaching students letters but the most challenging part is when a letter does not necessarily make the same sound as its name. Such as y /y/ because when the letter name is spoken it sounds like /w/ instead of y. For these letter we must work on the iconicity of the letters themselves to help the student grasp them. Just as detrimental as learning the letters is learning how to write them correctly. Pencil grip is crucial to proper handwriting and there are many different tools available to help students properly hold their pencils. Handwriting instruction needs to be consistent and precise for the benefit of students.

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6 Alternative Writing Tools & How to Introduce Them

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Look beyond the pen. Consider alternative writing tools to support diverse needs and foster a love for handwriting in special needs children.

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Learning to read is fundamental to understanding text

Phases of word recognition development

Pre Alphabetic

Children remember words by their shape or pictures, not by connecting letters to sounds.

Partial Alphabetic

Children know some letter sounds and use them to guess words (like recognizing the first letter).

Full Alphabetic

Children can sound out and read words using their complete knowledge of letter-sound relationships.

Consolidated Alphabetic

Children recognize chunks or patterns in words (like -ing, -at) and read more quickly.

Automatic

Children read easily and fluently without needing to sound out most words.

"The aim of phonics instruction is to help children acquire alphabetic knowledge and use it to read and spell words" Ehri, 2004

Phonics instruction is a method of instruction that teaches students the systematic relationship between between letters and letter combinations and the individual sounds in spoken language and how to use these relationships to read and spell words.

Students who receive systematic and explicit instruction during phonics are better readers at the end of instruction than those who did not receive systematic and explicit instruction.

Synthetic Phonics

Students learn how to transform letters and letter combinations into sounds and then blend (synthesize) the sounds together to from recognizable words

Analogy Phonics

Students learn to use a phonogram or rime in a familiar word to identify an unfamiliar word having the same rime.

Analytic Phonics

Instruction begins with the identification of a familiar word, then the teacher introduces a particular sound/spelling relationship within the familiar word. The teacher then points out that the new word and the familiar word have the same spelling and then asks volunteers to read the whole words aloud without blending the individual sounds.

Embedded Phonics

Instruction is embedded in the context of "authentic" reading and writing experiences.

Good Phonics instruction

Develops the understand of the alphabetic principle

Incorporates phonemic awareness

Provides sufficient practice in reading words

Leads to automatic word recognition

is one part of a comprehensive reading program

Explicit Teaching

I do, We do, You do

There are many important parts to teaching phonics, and each one supports students’ reading growth. Understanding the phases of word recognition helps teachers provide the right support at the right time.

Effective phonics instruction—whether synthetic, analytic, analogy-based, or embedded—builds decoding skills and leads to confident, fluent reading. When taught clearly and systematically, phonics gives students the tools they need to read and understand text independently.

Phonics is more than just learning sounds; it’s the key to unlocking meaning, building confidence, and developing a love for reading.

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Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle - the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech.

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Irregular words cannot be decoded by sounding it out

An irregular word contains one or more sound/spelling correspondences that a student does not know and therefore cannot use to decode the word

There are two types of irregular words; Permanent net and Temporary

Permanent

Contains one or more sound/spellings that are not pronounced conventionally and are unique to that word or a few words

Irregular

are irregular at one point in a beginning reading program but may eventually become regular after all the sound/spellings have been taught

Instruction should focus students' attention on all the letters in a word

Practice facilitates students automatic recognition of irregular words

The more difficult an irregular word, the more practice is necessary

Word walls and Word banks give teachers a method to organize irregular words that have been taught and learned so that students can continue to practice them

Sequence of Introduction

Word Frequency

Introduce high frequency irregular words before low frequency irregular words

Word Similarity

Some pairs of irregular words are frequently confused by students, such as; off and of, there and their, and where and were. Therefore these words should not me taught in close succession

Word Relationship

Some pairs of irregular words belong to the same word family; they contain similar letter patterns, or phonograms.

Words like; should, could, and would can be taught in succession

Decoding is a highly reliable strategy for identifying regular words but irregular words do not always conform to what is taught in phonics instruction

To help students understand irregular words to the best of their ability it is important to use explicit instruction and systematic practice

Irregular words need to be introduced in a systematic and reasonable order

Starting out one irregular word should be introduced per lesson then gradually increased but no more than five to seven words per lesson

Spell out Strategy

Introduce the word: For

This pen is for you.

Ask students what the word is

How do we spell the word? f o u r

Have students read the word again

Spell the word again

To provide ample practice of these irregular words use connected reading material with students

In the journey of learning to read, not all words follow the predictable rules of phonics. Irregular words present unique challenges for young learners, as they often cannot be decoded using common sound/spelling patterns. Understanding that some irregular words are permanently unpredictable while others are only temporarily irregular helps us approach instruction with intention and clarity. By introducing these words in a thoughtful sequence starting with high-frequency words, avoiding confusing pairs, and grouping related words, teachers can build a strong foundation for word recognition. Through explicit instruction, frequent review, and connected reading practice, students develop the ability to recognize irregular words automatically and confidently. With the right support and strategies in place, every child can become a more fluent, capable reader one word at a time.

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Syllable - a word or part of a word pronounced as a unit

Syllabication - the division of a multisyllabic word into separate syllables with each syllable containing one vowel sound

3 Different Researched - Based methods for teaching

Using syllable types and division principles

Identifying affixes or word parts

Using flexible syllabication strategies

Syllable Types

Closed

Open

Vowel combination

Consonant -le

Vowel Consonant -e

R Controlled

The instruction of multisyllabic words can be conducted after students have mastered decoding of single-syllable words

Testing for intervention should begin in mid second grade

Understanding syllables and syllabication is a key component of developing strong reading skills. A syllable is a unit of pronunciation that contains one vowel sound, while syllabication refers to the division of multisyllabic words into individual syllables. Effective instruction in this area begins once students have mastered decoding single-syllable words, typically by mid second grade. Research supports several instructional methods for teaching syllabication, including the use of syllable types and division principles, identifying affixes and word parts, and applying flexible syllabication strategies. Students should be introduced to the six main syllable types closed, open, vowel combination, consonant-le, vowel-consonant-e, and r-controlled to build a strong foundation in decoding multisyllabic words. These tools equip students with strategies to decode complex words independently, supporting their overall reading fluency and comprehension.

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Structured Literacy | Pride Reading Program

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My Favorite Multisyllabic Word Activities

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Here are some multisyllabic word activities that will help your student practice decoding and breaking up difficult to read and spell words.