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What are the five components of language development?

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What are the five components of language development?

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Join me as we discuss the different componenets of reading and language development.

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Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read.

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Actvitiy #1- Critical Thinking Question

The best way to know if a child understands a text, is to ask question. Asking critical thinking questions allows children to answer the how and why of things. With each read aloud, prepare 3-4 critical thinking questions.

(For example, in Moon Bear's Shadow, what created the bears shadow? Was the shadow present/here all throughout the story?)

Activity #2- Story Sequencing Maps

Story Maps engage children to recall information from a text by dividing information from beginning, middle and end. the best part is choosing a story that the child loves, narrate it then create picture cards to represent parts of the story and have the child arrange in the right chronological order.

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At Home Activity

Allow your child to choose their favorite book and read to them. While reading be sure to pause and ask question (using text evidence) to provide both audible and visual comprehensive learning.

Family Resource

Strategies that Promote Comprehension | Reading Rockets

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1. Cudd, E.T., & Roberts, L.L. (1987). Using story frames to develop reading comprehension in a first grade classroom The Reading Teacher, 41, 75-79.

2. Stauffer, R.G. (1975). Directing the reading-thinking process. New York: Harper & Row.

3. Ogle, D.M. (1986). K-W-L: A teaching model that develops active reading of expository text. The Reading Teacher, 39, 564-570. and Ogle, D.M. (1989). The know, want to know, learn strategy. In K.D. Muth (Ed.), Children's comprehension of text: Research into practice (pp. 205-233). Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

4. Beck, I.L., McKeown, M.G., Hamilton, R.L., & Kucan, L. (1997). Questioning the author: An approach for enhancing student engagement with text. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

5. Palincsar, A. S., & Brown, A. L. (1984). Reciprocal teaching of comprehension fostering and comprehension-monitoring activities. Cognition and Instruction, 2, 117-175.

6. Brown, R., & Coy-Ogan, L. (1993). The Evolution of transactional strategies instruction in one teacher's classroom. The Elementary School Journal, 94, 221-233; Pressley, M., El-Dinary, P.B., Gaskins, I., Schuder, T., Bergman, J., Almasi, L., & Brown, R. (1992). Beyond direct explanation: Transactional instruction of reading comprehension strategies. The Elementary School Journal, 92, 511-554.

7. Hoffman, J.V. (1992). Critical reading / thinking across the curriculum: Using I-Charts to support learning. Language Arts, 69, 121-127.Language Arts, 69, 121-127.

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Based on research and effective practice, these strategies help students learn how to coordinate and use a set of key comprehension techniques before, during, and after they read a variety of texts.

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To support children with exceptionalities, reading resources as moral stories (three little pigs, goldilocks and the three bears, etc) are great opening text to support cognitive development of comprehension.

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Fluency is the ability to speak or write a in a language easily and accurately.

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Activity #1- Sentence tree

Sentence tree activity engages the children to focus on each word, improving accuracy and speed by building a full sentence in a specific order and arrangement.

Activity #2- Read Aloud

Real Aloud is a great activity to model and demonstrate what fluency reading sounds like.

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Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and what they mean.

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Activity #1- Weekly Word

Each week provide the child with a new word. You can decide whether it will be a part of a specific word family or based on a specific category.

Activity #2- Word Journal

Each week, the teacher will introduce a new letter of the week. with each new letter children will choose a word of their choice that begins with that letter and write it in their word journal, along with a picture to represent the word.

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To support students with exceptionalities for weekly word, begin with beginner friendly words that can easily be decoded. Support children in idenitfying the sounds they hear. For the word journal, provide pre-made images and an Print of the letter in the journal.

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At Home Activity

A fun activity around the home would be labeling basic items around the home. Be sure to write the first letter in a distinct color and the rest in black so children can identify the beginning letter and sound of the word.

Family Resources

Here's a great resource on vocabulkary building for your young learner:

Vocabulary | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

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Vocabulary refers to the words children must know to communicate effectively. In school terms, it can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary. Find out more about effective vocabulary instruction, the relationship between vocabulary and comprehension, and practical ways that parents ca…

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Phonics is a method for teaching people how to read and write an alphabetic language.

Examples of Phonics are:
-Recognizing same sound words
-Combining or blending the separate sounds in words to say the word.

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Activity #1- Letter Scavenger Hunt

Teacher will read aloud the Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Martin Bill Jr, prior to the activity. Have students independently pick a letter from the alphabet sets and identify (Lowercase and uppercase).

Activity #2- Word Scramble

Using a sheet of paper, create three boxes side by side. Using letters (cutouts, manipulatives, etc), scramble the letters of a selective group of words and have the children scramble it to make the right word.

For example: BIG (You will scramble it as IGB).

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To support students with exceptionalities for the scavenger hunt you can start with using either lowercase or uppercase (Recommend starting with Uppercase). For word scramble, consider the speech abilities of your students and chose words based on their speech abilities.

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At Home Activity

Practice decoding words with your child(ren). Start with a small amount of words, then gradually build as they begin to build their vocabulary and decoding skills.

Family Resources

Here's a great resource that families can uyse to learn more about Phonics!

Phonics and Decoding: Activities for Your Kindergartener | Reading Rockets

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.

Example of Phonemic Awareness are:
-Phoneme Isolation
- Blending

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Activity #1- Guess the word

Teacher will gather pictures cards of simple words (for example Cat, Map, etc). The teacher will hold up each card and say only the sounds of each letter then ask the children which word is he/she trying to say?

For example: Cat ( Cuh| Auh| Tuh)

This activity is associated with Phoneme Isolation and Identification

Activity #2- Where does this sound belong?

Teacher will use the same picture word cards and gather 3 containers or boxes and letter beanbags (or whichever sorting manipulative you can use). Teacher will label the box/containers 1, 2 and 3 to represent first sound, second sound, and third sound.  The teacher will provide a phoneme to start with ( for example C - Cat). Teacher will present the word and allow students to throw the beanbag for C-A-T in the correct container/box. For example, C would go in the "1" container/box because it is the first sound.

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That's a complicated sounding term, but it's meaning is simple: the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the sounds in spoken language. Phonological awareness is really a group of skills that include a child's ability to:

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a word or in familiar names

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Recognize and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. This is called phonemic awareness.

Strong phonemic awareness is one of the strongest predictors of later reading success. Children who struggle with reading, including kids with dyslexia, often have trouble with phonemic awareness, but with the right kind of instruction they can be successful. Learn some of the warning signs for dyslexia in this article, Clues to Dyslexia in Early Childhood.

For pre-K children, the focus is on rhyming, alliteration, syllables, and beginning sounds. Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Why phonemic awareness is the key to learning how to read

This video is from Home Reading Helper, a resource for parents to elevate children's reading at home provided by Read Charlotte . Find more video, parent activities, printables, and other resources at Home Reading Helper .

Try these speech sound activities at home

Rhyme time

"I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big. What's the animal?" Answer: pig. What else rhymes with big? ( dig, fig, wig)

Body part rhymes

Point to a part of your body and ask your child to think of a rhyming word. For example, what rhymes with hair? ( bear). What rhymes with eye? (pie) What rhymes with head? (bed). Make it more challenging by asking for two or three rhyming words. Nonsense words count, too!

Read books that play with sounds

Try these books featuring rhyme, alliteration, and more:

All About Arthur (An Absolutely Absurd Ape)

Alphabears

Animalia

Buzz Said the Bee

Catch a Little Fox

Each Peach Pear Plum

A Giraffe and a Half

The Hungry Thing

Jamberry

See You Later Alligator

Sheep in a Jeep

Yours Till Banana Splits

Zoophabets

Clap it out

Practice listening for syllables. Explain to your child that syllables are the big chunks in words as you say them: some words have one syllable (hat), some have two (apple), and some have three or more (banana).

You can actually feel syllables! Have your child put her hand under her chin and say the word slowly so she can feel when her mouth goes down. Be sure to explain that each time her chin goes down, she's saying another syllable or part of the same word.

Think of everyday words your child knows (for example: apple, baby, toothbrush). Tell your child that you'll both clap the number of syllables in each word. Show her how to clap one time as you say each syllable: /ap/ (clap) /ple/ (clap). Try it with more words. Kids also love clapping their name!

Tongue ticklers

Alliteration or "tongue ticklers" - where the sound you're focusing on is repeated over and over again - can be a fun way to provide practice with a sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

"I Spy" first sounds

Practice beginning sounds with this simple "I spy" game at home, on a walk, or at the grocery store. Choose words with distinctive, easy-to-hear beginning sounds. For example, if you're in the bathroom you can say, "I spy something red that starts with the "s" ssss sound ( soap)."

Sound scavenger hunt

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. "Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter "p" pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear "

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Pre-K Child

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Phonological awareness is a set of critical pre-reading skills: the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and phonemes. Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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Differentiation

To support students with exceptionalities, teachers will use same ending sound words (such as map, cap, lap). This will provide repetitive learning to allow the students to practice identifying same sound words before encountering words with different sounds. Once mastered, teacher can provide a challenge word when student is comfortable or have reach that targeted goal.

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To support students with exceptionalities, try different media of reading to better support learning. Also point to each word as you read, so that the child can connect the word to the print.

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At Home Activities

Read to your child for about 15-20 minutes each night. As they develop their fluency, invite them to take a turn and read to you.

Family Resources

18 Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities To Build Literacy in Young Readers (weareteachers.com)

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Learning to read starts kids on a lifelong learning journey, but literacy is more than just understanding the words on a page. Reading fluency involves comprehension, speed, accuracy, and prosody (reading with expression). There are many ways to help kids develop reading fluency, both in and out of the classroom. Here are some of our favorite reading fluency activities.

1. Start with a reading fluency anchor chart

Introduce the basics of reading fluency with an anchor chart you can hang in the classroom. It's a good reference for kids throughout the year. Here are more fluency anchor charts to try.

Learn more: Oral Reading Fluency/Teaching With a Mountain View

2. Model fluency with read-alouds

Reading aloud to kids is important for so many reasons, but one of the best is that it teaches kids what fluency sounds like. Adults can model expression, phrasing, pace, and so much more when they read to kids. Try some of our favorite read-alouds, or check out this list of the best read-alouds on YouTube as part of your reading center activities.

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3. Hang reading fluency posters

Post these in your classroom reading center to remind kids what reading fluency really means. They're simple but effective. Get your free set of reading fluency posters here.

4. Try sentence trees

Sentence trees are terrific reading activities that build fluency in younger students. They allow kids to focus on each word, improving accuracy and speed along the way.

Learn more: Sentence Trees/Fun in First

5. Put together poems and nursery rhymes

Kids often memorize nursery rhymes long before they learn to read. By breaking those rhymes apart into individual words and putting them back together again, kids see how words build into sentences and stories in a natural flow.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

6. Use line tracking and word pointers

For some kids, focus is a challenge. Their eyes wander around the page, and they have trouble developing the speed needed for fluency. Use another piece of paper to help them focus on the line they're reading, or try pointing to the words one by one.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

7. Read and reread ... and reread

Fluency involves lots and lots of reading and rereading. When kids read a passage over and over again, they build up their speed and accuracy automatically. One fun way to work on expression is to try rereading with different voices.

Learn more: Improve Reading Comprehension/Teach123

8. Add a timer to rereading

Combine repeated reading with a timer. Students read a passage for 1 minute, working to increase the number of words they read correctly each time. This is a nice tool for working on speed and accuracy.

Learn more: Build Reading Fluency/1st Grade Pandamania

9. Track student progress

While you don't want to overemphasize numbers, tracking a student's fluency is helpful to both you and them. Parents can help with this one at home too.

Learn more: Reading With Fluency/Katelyn's Learning Studio

10. Work on those sight words

One of reasons elementary readers focus so much on sight words is that they help to build reading fluency. Find a roundup of all our favorite sight word activities here.

11. Look to punctuation for expression cues

Punctuation makes passages easier to read, but it also gives a reader cues on proper expression. Help your kids recognize what each punctuation mark sounds like when reading fluently.

Learn more: Teaching Expression in Fluency/The Owl Teacher

12. Answer the fluency phone

These are such a fun tool for helping kids really hear themselves read! They're great for busy classrooms and reading centers. Kids talk softly into the phone, and the sound is amplified in their ear. You can buy fluency phones or make them yourself from PVC pipe.

Learn more: Fluency To Improve Reading Comprehension/Mrs. Winter's Bliss

13. Read with partners

Whether kids are reading together or you pair an adult helper with a student, taking turns reading is a terrific way to get more fluent. When one reader is stronger, have them read the passage first and have the other reader echo it back.

Learn more: Ways To Improve Reading Fluency/The Measured Mom

14. Get a reading buddy

Shy kids will especially appreciate the chance to practice reading out loud to a stuffed animal pal. Encourage them to read as if their fuzzy friend can hear everything they're saying.

Learn more: Ways To Use Stuffed Animals in the Classroom/Stories by Storie

15. Give kids a reading fluency rubric

Use this free printable rubric when evaluating students' reading fluency, or send it home for parents. Kids can even use it to self-evaluate!

Learn more: Reading Fluency Is Not Just About Speed/Teacher Thrive

16. Use a fluency bookmark

A handy bookmark keeps fluency strategies front and center when kids read. We love this idea for kids who are ready for chapter books.

Learn more: Focusing on Fluency/Upper Elementary Snapshots

17. Introduce the concept of scooping phrases

Pointing to words is good for building speed and accuracy, but scooping phrases takes things to the next level. This practice is a great help for developing expression and comprehension.

Learn more: Reading Fluency Phrasing/This Reading Mama

18. Hold a school-wide fluency challenge

Make literacy and reading fluency something the whole school focuses on. Have PE teachers post sight words for kids to read out when they run past. Invite cafeteria workers to join you for story time. Track fluency and celebrate milestones with individual and whole-school rewards! Learn more about holding a school-wide fluency challenge here.

19. Set up buddy reading

Pair older students with younger students to practice and model reading fluency. Older students can read picture books, which have longer sentences and higher vocabulary that challenge older students but are still out of reach for younger students. The older students will get practice with fluency, and younger students will benefit from hearing picture books read aloud.

20. Use highlighter strips

Highlighter strips, bright tape-like strips that students can use to follow along as they read longer books, can help upper elementary students keep their place. And keeping their place helps them read fluently.

Buy it: Highlighter Strips at Amazon

21. Teach robot vs. non-robot reading

Help students understand the prosody or expression part of fluency with a lesson on robot reading vs. fluent reading. Have students practice (silly) robot reading and then fluent reading to hear (and feel) the difference.

Learn more: Arlene Neubarth/Pinterest

22. Put on a play

Readers theater, with a script or a favorite book, is one way to practice fluent reading. Choose a book with lots of dialogue and encourage students to really feel the story.

23. Use the BEST strategy for multisyllabic word reading

When students get to multisyllabic words, they may struggle to get past longer words like "momentarily" and "topography." Teach them a strategy to sound out longer words:

Break the word apart into syllables.

Examine each part.

Say each part.

Try the whole word.

24. Host a poetry jam

Poetry is a great way to practice fluent reading, and it can be used at any grade level. For younger kids, work with simple poems and rhymes. For older children, use poems from Shel Silverstein or Jack Pruletsky. Have each child choose a poem and practice reading it with flare, then host a poetry jam where students read the poems they've practiced.

Learn more: Poetry Cafe/School and the City

25. Record students' reading

Recording audiobooks for your classroom library is one way for students to see how fluent reading benefits everyone. Have students record reading a book on an audio recording app, and save it for other teachers to use with their students.

Learn more: Fluency Activities for Your First Grader/Reading Rockets

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25 Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities To Build Literacy in Young Readers

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Help kids improve their reading fluency with these fun activities and center ideas that cover a wide range of proven strategies.

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At Home Activity

Rhyming is a great activity to do at home with children. Use picture cards and start with simple -at, -en, -ig or -an ending words and see what fun rhyming words your children know!

Family Resources

Here is an informational website that provides extension ideas, activities and deeper understanding of phonemic and phonological awareness:

Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Pre-K Child | Reading Rockets