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Oral language, sometimes called spoken language, includes both speaking and listening- how human beings communicate with each other.

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"Oral language skills provide the foundation for word reading and comprehension. They are at the heart of listening and reading comprehension, serving as a predictor for both."
-Literacy How
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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Phonological awareness is the ability to manipulate oral language at the level of word, rhyme, or syllable. This is essential to the development of word recognition and automatic word reading.

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Phonics is the study and use of sound/spelling correspondences and syllable patterns for helping students read written words.

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Fluency is the ability to read orally with sufficient accuracy, appropriate rate, and suitable expression.

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"Oral language lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills children will develop as they enter and progress through school. Having a solid foundation in oral language will help children become successful readers and strong communicators as well as build their confidence and overall sense of well-being."
-The Importance of Oral Language for Literacy Success

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The Importance of Oral Language for Literacy Success

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Oral language lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills children will develop as they enter and progress through school. They will use oral language in all aspects of their education, in the classroom as they connect with their peers and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into adulthood. Having a solid foundation in oral language will help children become successful readers and strong communicators as well as build their confidence and overall sense of well-being.
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When Oral Language Skills Are Missing

In 2002, the National Reading Panel (NRP), a team appointed by George W. Bush to review and summarize scientific evidence on reading and its implications for teaching children to read, published a report naming five components of a reading curriculum that are essential to its success: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency development, vocabulary development, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2002).

This report set the standards for many literacy programs, especially those receiving Reading First federal funding, which were required to follow the guidelines in the report in order to qualify for the funding (Gamse, Bloom, Kemple, & Jacob, 2008). However, many English language arts scholars believed other critical components, such as oral language development, had been left out (Garan, 2001; Krashen, 2001; National Education Association, 2013).

Lily Wong Fillmore and Catherine Snow, language and literacy researchers and authors of the first chapter of the book What Teachers Need to Know About Language, tell us that, "Oral language functions as a foundation for literacy and as the means of learning in school and out" (Fillmore & Snow, 2002). However, oral language development is often missing from reading and writing programs, leaving teachers to wonder why their students are still struggling or taking longer than expected to become proficient speakers and readers.

While the essential components listed by the NRP all contribute to a successful literacy program, if children do not have a solid foundation in oral language, communicating effectively and learning to read can be a long and difficult process. "Children's speaking and listening lead the way for their reading and writing skills, and together these language skills are the primary tools of the mind for all future learning" (Roskos, Tabors, & Lenhart, 2009).

The Challenge Presented by the Word Gap

Oral language proficiency has a major impact on students. All standardized testing in the United States is done in academic or standard English, therefore, children whose personal language is not an academic language are at a disadvantage. Children need to be able to speak academic oral language in order to become successful learners and readers in the classroom while their personal language is still valued and maintained.

In 1995, child psychologists Betty Hart and Todd R. Risley from the University of Kansas published the results of their oral language development study (Hart & Risley, 1995). They wanted to try to determine why preschool-aged children from low-income homes did not perform as well in school at the age of nine as their economically advantaged peers. They recorded and analyzed the words spoken between parents and children one hour a month over a period of two and a half years. What they found was astonishing. By the age of three, there was a large gap between children whose parents provided rich language experiences, such as talking to children, singing, reading, and so on, and children who grew up with fewer languages experiences at home. Children with rich language experiences heard about 45 million words compared to the latter group of children who heard only 13 million words.

This 30 million word gap (2003) presents a problem for classroom teachers across the country in today's high-stakes educational environment. The students are not starting out on an even playing field, and teachers are charged with the responsibility of getting the children who are behind caught up and reading at grade level. The good news is, just like math and science, academic oral language can be taught.

Building a Foundation in Oral Language

Again and again research shows that repeated exposure to rich language can help children become successful communicators, readers and writers (Simmons & Kameenui, 1998; Himmele, 2009). Educating parents on the importance of oral language and encouraging them to communicate and read with their children as early as possible can help prepare them for school.

Additionally, providing students with high-quality early childhood education enriched with a supplemental program promoting oral language and literacy development can help young students become proficient readers by third grade.

GrapeSEED is a research-based oral language acquisition and critical listening program that is helping 4 to 8-year-old students close the achievement gap in oral language. The program supplements existing Language Arts and Literacy curricula and is proven to help students develop into proficient readers by third grade. It is used in a variety of settings, including early childhood classrooms, Response-to-Intervention (RTI) initiatives, Title programs for struggling learners, ESL/ELL classrooms, as well as with subgroups of students struggling with oral language.

Oral language and critical listening is the heart of the GrapeSEED program for young learners. A focus on building these essential skills is one of the reasons the program is so successful and sets it apart from other literacy programs. Through carefully designed multi-sensory materials, GrapeSEED keeps children engaged and helps them learn oral language naturally. As a result, independent research showed that GrapeSEED students reached proficiency in speaking and reading faster than the national average (Smith & Smith, 2014).

Reading proficiency by the end of third-grade can predict a child's success in school and in life (Donald Hernandez, 2011). Stephen Covey, an educator and author, states that we should, "Begin with the end in mind" (Covey, 1990). If we want to give our children the best chance to graduate high school and become successful contributors to society, we must start as early as possible in their young lives. We must give them a solid foundation in oral language to build upon.

References

Covey, Stephen (1990). The 7 habits of highly effective people. New York City, NY: Free Press.

Fillmore, Lily W. & Catherine E. Snow (2002). What Teachers Need to Know about Language. McHenry, IL: Delta Systems.

Gamse, Beth C., Howard Bloom, James J. Kemple, Robin Tepper Jacob (2008). Reading First Impact Study: Interim Report. Retrieved from MDRC website: http://www.mdrc.org/publication/reading-first-impact-study.

Garan, Elaine (2001). Beyond the Smoke and Mirrors: A Critique of the National Reading Panel Report on Phonics, Phi Delta Kappan, volume 82, pp. 500-506.

Hart, B. & T. R. Risley (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes.

Hart, B. & T. R. Risley (2003). The early catastrophe: The 30 million word gap by age 3. American Educator, Spring 2003, 4-9.

Hernandez, Donald (2011). Double Jeopardy: How Third-Grade Reading Skills and Poverty Influence High School Graduation. Baltimore, MD. Retrieved from The Annie E. Casey Foundation website: http://www.aecf.org/resources/double-jeopardy/.

Himmele, P. & W. Himmele (2009). The Language-Rich Classroom: A Research-Based Framework for Teaching English Language Learners (pp. 30-33). Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

Krashen, Stephen D. (2001). More Smoke and Mirrors: A Critique of the National Reading Panel (NRP) Report on "Fluency". Phi Delta Kappan, vol. 83, pp. 119-23.

National Reading Panel (2002). Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction. Rockville, MD;

Roskos, Kathleen A., Tabors, Patton O., & Lenhart, Lisa A. (2009). Oral language and early literacy in preschool: Talking, reading, and writing. Newark, DE: International Reading Association

Simmons, & Edward J. Kameenui. (1998). What reading research tells us about children with diverse learning needs: Bases and basics. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

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The Importance of Oral Language for Literacy Success

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Oral language lays the foundation for the reading and writing skills children will develop as they enter and progress through school. They will use oral language in all aspects of their education, in the classroom as they connect with their peers and teachers, and throughout their lives as they grow into adulthood.

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Group, individual, or paired presentations

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Classroom debates: two teams go head to head in a topic chosen by the class

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Picture books: students creating illustrations of ideas they have read in stories, and discussing those pictures with classmates

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Babies can discriminate all the sounds of all languages, no matter what country or what language! Babies can do this, and adults cannot.

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Patricia Kuhl shares astonishing findings about how babies learn one language over another -- by listening to the humans around them and “taking statistics” on the sounds they need to know. Clever lab experiments (and brain scans) show how 6-month-old babies use sophisticated reasoning to understand their world.

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This article from Reading Rockets explains some of the ways that PreK-elementary school teachers can enhance vocabulary development of young children.

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Sequenced activities for teaching words to young children

Activities that encourage children to interact with words

Teacher responses that further build word knowledge

Reinforcing connections between words and meanings

Adding to children's network of related words

Suggesting ways to apply the word

The article is excerpted with permission from Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, by Isabel Beck, Margaret G. McKeown, and Linda Kucan, the Guilford Press, New York, © 2002.

For any reprint requests, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Taking Delight in Words: Using Oral Language to Build Young Children's Vocabularies

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Learn some of the ways that pre-kindergarten through elementary school teachers can enhance the vocabulary development of young children. It focuses on teaching words from texts that are read aloud to children and presents activities that help young children make sense of new words.

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Comprehension is the ability to make meaning, and is the ultimate goal of reading.

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Vocabulary refers to the body of words and their meanings that students need to understand to comprehend text.

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Writing refers to a highly complex, cognitive, self-directed process.

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"Phonemic awareness (PA) is an awareness of and the ability to manipulate the individual sounds (called phonemes) in spoken words".
-Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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This short YouTube clip explains how to recognize the sounds of spoken language. How do we
take apart the words that we speak? This video provides skills and tips to improve phonological awareness in kids.

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This critical early literacy skill helps kids recognize and work with the sounds of spoken language.

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Basics: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness

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Before children learn to read print, they need to become aware of how the sounds in words work. They must understand that words are made up of individual speech sounds, or phonemes. A child's skill in phonological and phonemic awareness is a good predictor of later reading success or difficulty.

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This TedTalk, by Deb Roy, explores how Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with video cameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water."

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MIT researcher Deb Roy wanted to understand how his infant son learned language -- so he wired up his house with videocameras to catch every moment (with exceptions) of his son's life, then parsed 90,000 hours of home video to watch "gaaaa" slowly turn into "water."

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Read-alouds with rhyming books, pointing out repeated sounds.

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Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. This skill is a foundation for understanding the alphabetic principle and reading success.

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An early skill in learning to read has as much to do with hearing how words sound as it does with seeing how words are written. Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. An example of phonological awareness is hearing in your mind the word created by replacing the first sound in "fish" with the first sound in "day," to make the word, "dish".
Phonological awareness is a foundation for understanding the alphabetic principle and reading success.
It is not a coincidence that the individual sounds in words map onto the letters of the alphabet. This mapping is a key part of the role phonological awareness plays in learning to read. However, being able to identify the sounds in words is not as easy as it seems. Many students enter kindergarten already knowing a lot about how the sounds in words map onto letters, but some students do not. For example, students with dyslexia often have more difficulty hearing the sounds in words and mapping them onto letters than other students. For students with dyslexia high-quality instruction and intervention to develop phonological awareness skills is critical.

Learning to identify the sounds in words through instruction happens best when the sounds are explicitly connected to the letters they represent. This mapping is the essence of the alphabetic principle. When this mapping is well developed, it allows readers to accurately read, or decode, about 70% of the single-syllable words they will encounter in text. In addition, when readers encounter a word in print for the first time, and understand the alphabetic principle, the odds are very good they will read the word correctly.

There are several ways to effectively teach phonological awareness to prepare early readers:

TEACH STUDENTS TO RECOGNIZE AND MANIPULATE THE SOUNDS OF SPEECH

Teachers should show and teach students how to break down units of speech into smaller units. For example, an excellent instructional sequence that helps students learn to hear the sounds of speech involves progressing from easier activities to those that are more difficult. Teachers can show students how to identify

words within sentences,

syllables within words,

the first and last sounds within words (onset and rime, respectively),

and finally, all of the individual sounds in a word (phonemes).

TEACH STUDENTS LETTER-SOUND RELATIONS

Teachers should demonstrate and teach students letter-sound relations they will first encounter in print, such as consonants and short vowels.

Teach these letter-sounds in the context of words where letters represent their most common sound (e.g., teaching "a" in "bat" vs. "was").

More complex letter-sound relations should be taught next, such as consonant blends , consonant digraphs , and other predictable but more complex patterns (e.g., vowel digraphs such as "oa" in "boat"; words with long vowels and a silent e, such as in the word, "like").

A STRONG INSTRUCTIONAL SEQUENCE MIGHT LOOK SOMETHING LIKE THIS:

The teacher says the name of the letter and introduces the symbol for the letter (show the letter "b").

Then, the teacher gives students a picture that represents the sound (e.g., a "bat") with a brief backstory as an anchor or memory aid.

Finally, students can practice demonstrating their letter-sound understanding by identifying the sound and writing the letter in various contexts.

Good early literacy instruction also provides opportunities for students to review recently taught letter-sound relations over time, so that students can better remember and more fluently identify and produce them.

TEACH STUDENTS TO MANIPULATE LETTER-SOUNDS IN PRINT USING WORD-BUILDING ACTIVITIES

Teachers should also encourage students to connect their knowledge of how to manipulate sounds in spoken language with their knowledge of letter-sound relations.

Students can be taught to apply their knowledge of sounds to form words in print through an activity that uses letters on tiles or magnets that are easily manipulated to build or change words.

After practicing with the teacher, students can work and practice on their own or with a partner, adding and substituting sounds and building harder words, such as those with a silent e.

This type of activity helps students understand how to spell and read words using their awareness of the sounds in language and the letter-sound relations they have been taught.

Infographic

Enlarge Infographic

Suggested Citation

Baker, S.K., Beattie, T., Nelson, N.J., & Turtura, J. (2018). How We Learn to Read: The Critical Role of Phonological Awareness. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from http://improvingliteracy.org.

References

Foorman, B., Beyler, N., Borradaile, K., Coyne, M., Denton, C. A., Dimino, J., Furgeson, J., Hayes, L., Henke, J., Justice, L., Keating, B., Lewis, W., Sattar, S., Streke, A., Wagner, R., & Wissel, S. (2016). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade (NCEE 2016-4008). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance (NCEE), Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education. Retrieved from the NCEE website: http://whatworks.ed.gov.

Smith, S.B., Simmons, D.C., & Kame'enui, E.J. (1998). Phonological awareness: Instructional and curricular basics and implications. In E.J. Kame'enui & D.C. Simmons (Eds.), What reading research tells us about children with diverse learning needs: Bases and basics (pp. 129-140). Mahway, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Abstract

Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words. This skill is a foundation for understanding the alphabetic principle and reading success. There are several ways to effectively teach phonological awareness to prepare early readers, including: 1) teaching students to recognize and manipulate the sounds of speech, 2) teaching students letter-sound relations, and 3) teaching students to manipulate letter-sounds in print using word-building activities.

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How We Learn to Read: The Critical Role of Phonological Awareness

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An early skill in learning to read has as much to do with hearing how words sound as it does with seeing how words are written. Phonological awareness involves being able to recognize and manipulate the sounds within words.

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"The ultimate goal of phonics instruction is to ensure that students can read each and every word accurately and automatically–that is, as a sight word." -Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. Children's reading development is dependent on their understanding of the alphabetic principle — the idea that letters and letter patterns represent the sounds of spoken language. "Decoding" is the act of sounding out words using phonics.

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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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What is decoding and what is phonics? That's a good question for those who are still taking their initial steps in teaching their kids the English language and helping them to spell the letters and words correctly.

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What is Decoding|What is Phonics|How to Sound Out Words|Phonics for Kids | Teaching Phonics| Phonics

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Reading expert Linda Farrell works with Calista, an early stage reader, on short vowel sounds, blending and manipulating sounds, reading whole words, and fluency. Ms. Farrell starts by making sure Calista has a strong foundation in short vowel sounds by teaching her hand motions to remember those sounds more easily.

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Mastering Short Vowels and Reading Whole Words with Calista, First Grader

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All kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade teachers — as well as reading interventionists — should teach students to keep their eyes on the words on the page so that they do not have to later struggle with breaking a habit that hampers effective, efficient reading.

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I've worked with hundreds of struggling readers ages 5 to 81. Almost all students I meet who have decoding weaknesses share a common behavior. Can you guess what it is? They look up from the page before they finish reading a word or sentence.

Many just glance at the word and guess what it is as they look at me for approval. Others may look at the word more carefully, yet they still look at me for approval after they say what they think the word is. A few look at the word before staring at the ceiling or somewhere in space while they try to figure out what the word is. Every elementary school teacher and every reading interventionist I meet recognizes these behaviors and can associate them with specific students.

Teachers often ask how to help their struggling readers. My first response is, "Make sure all students keep their eyes on the words the entire time they read." I also suggest that teachers avoid saying things like "good job" or "nice work" when the student looks up for approval. The only time a student should look up from the page when reading is to say, "I need help with that word." In that case, the teacher either helps the student sound out the word or gives the word if it is too difficult for the student to decode.

Many teachers tell us they need to give students, especially struggling readers, positive feedback for the student's self-esteem and confidence. At first blush that seems reasonable because beginning and struggling readers want to know if they read correctly, and teachers want students to feel good about reading. In reality, teachers are training students to rely on them for affirmation rather than helping students develop confidence in their emerging skills. Instead of saying "good job" or "nice work" when a student looks up, the teacher can reinforce the importance of looking at the words by saying, "Remember to keep your eyes on the words when you read. I'll let you know when I need to help you."

Recently I was in a school to work with students, and the reading coach was with me all day. I started with four students in a low second-grade reading group who were working on phonics at the silent "e" level. These students had scored between 28 and 42 words-correct-per-minute on mid-year DIBELS Oral Reading Fluency (benchmark is 68). Their accuracy ranged from 76 to 91 percent. They were reading decodable text focusing on words with silent "e." All four students had the habit of looking up for approval at the end of each sentence. And, not surprisingly, all four often misread the final words in the sentence. I had them practice keeping their eyes on the words for all four or five sentences that were on the page. Their habit of looking up was not easy to change. By the end of 25 minutes, albeit with conscious effort on the students' part, all four were keeping their heads down and their eyes on the words while they read. Just this small change in behavior noticeably increased their accuracy.

The reading coach and I spent the afternoon working one-on-one with four third-grade and fourth-grade students who had the lowest reading scores in their grade. They were all receiving decoding intervention. We assessed the students' decoding skills by having them read words in isolation. None of the students did more than glance at words and look up before saying the word, and none read more than 18 of 30 decodable and high-frequency words accurately. It was apparent that these students weren't looking at the words long enough to apply any decoding strategies. We worked with each student for about 20 minutes, reviewing the short vowel sounds and encouraging them to keep their eyes on the words. After this short time, they were all able to read with greater accuracy and more confidence. None had fully overcome their habit of taking their eyes off the words before finishing reading, but all were catching themselves every time they did look up.

Early in the day, the reading coach remarked that she was surprised at my "fixation" on teaching students to look at the words until they finished reading. At the end of the day, she told me she fully understood why I was such a zealot about insisting students keep their eyes on the page. Yes, I am fixated on having students look at the words when they read because we can read only when we look at the words.

I implore all kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade teachers - as well as reading interventionists - to teach students to keep their eyes on the words so that they do not have to later struggle with breaking a habit that hampers effective, efficient reading. After all, the first step good readers take is to look at the words they are reading. In my experience, many struggling readers have difficulties partly because they never mastered this first step.

About the author

Linda Farrell is a founding partner at Readsters, an Alexandria, VA-based firm that helps schools implement research-based reading instruction. She is committed to effective early reading instruction in, to helping struggling readers become strong readers, and to ensuring that strong readers achieve their full potential. Linda works in schools throughout the U.S. training and coaching teachers and modeling effective reading instruction. She also has designed curricula in Niger and Senegal for children to learn to read in their local languages. Linda is a former English teacher. She was a National LETRS trainer for seven years. She has co-authored assessments and curricula for teaching reading, as well as several other published works. Linda can be reached at linda@readsters.com.

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First Rule of Reading: Keep Your Eyes on the Words

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All kindergarten, first-grade, and second-grade teachers - as well as reading interventionists - should teach students to keep their eyes on the words on the page so that they do not have to later struggle with breaking a habit that hampers effective, efficient reading.

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Print awareness is a child's earliest introduction to literacy. Children with print awareness understand that print has different functions depending on the context in which it appears — for example, menus list food choices, a book tells a story, a sign can announce a favorite restaurant or warn of danger.

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More resources: Roots of Reading (PBS Launching Young Readers series) Looking at Reading Interventions: Letter Names Print Awareness: self-paced course Print awareness is a child’s earliest introduction to literacy. Children with print awareness understand that print has different functions dependin…

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"Our model expands fluency to encompass all aspects of literacy development. Fluent—automatic—performance in both discrete (word recognition) and complex (comprehension, composition) literacy skills is essential for proficient reading and writing."- Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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When fluent readers read silently, they recognize words automatically. They group words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking.

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Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression.Fluent reading builds stamina for reading lengthy or complex texts. Reading fluency serves as a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

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Learn what reading fluency is, why it is critical to make sure that students have sufficient fluency, how we should assess fluency, and how to best provide practice and support for all students.

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References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Daane, M.C., Campbell, J.R., Grigg, W.S., Goodman, M.J., and Oranje, A. (2005). Fourth-Grade Students Reading Aloud: NAEP 2002 Special Study of Oral Reading (NCES 2006-469). U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.

Fuchs, L.S., Fuchs, D., Hosp, M. K., and Jenkins, J.R. (2001). Oral reading fluency as an indicator of reading competence: A theoretical, empirical, and historical analysis. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), 239-256.

Good, III, R.H. and Kaminski, R.A. (Eds.) (2002). Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS), 6th Ed. Institute for the Development of Educational Achievement. Eugene, Ore.:University of Oregon.

Hasbrouck, J. and Tindal, G.A. (2006, April). ORF norms: A valuable assessment tool for reading teachers. The Reading Teacher, 59(7), 636-644.

Hintze, J.M. and Christ, T.J. (2004). An examination of variability as a function of passage variance in CBM progress monitoring. School Psychology Review, 33(2), 204-217.

Hudson, R.F., Lane, H.B., and Pullen, P.C. (2005, May). Reading fluency assessment and instruction: What, why, and how? The Reading Teacher, 58(8), 702-714.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) (2000). 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, D.C.:U.S. Government Printing Office.

Read Naturally (2002). Reading fluency monitor. Minneapolis: Author.

Shinn, M.R. (1989). Identifying and defining academic problems: CBM Screening and eligibility procedures. In M. R. Shinn (Ed.). Curriculum-based measurement: Assessing special children, 90-129. N.Y.:Guilford.

Stecker, S.K., Roser, N.L., and Martinez, M.G. (1998). Understanding oral reading fluency. In T. Shanahan and F.V. Rodriguez-Brown (Eds.), 47th yearbook of the National Reading Conference, pp. 295-310. Chicago:National Reading Conference.

Wolf, M. and Katzir-Cohen, T. (2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5(3), 211-239.

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national assessment of educational progress fluency scale

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dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills

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Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Daane, M.C., Campbell, J.R., Grigg, W.S., Goodman, M.J., and Oranje, A. (2005). Fourth-Grade Students Reading Aloud: NAEP 2002 Special Study of Oral Reading (NCES 2006-469). U.S. Department of Education. Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Statistics. Washington, D.C.:Government Printing Office.

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This program highlights successful strategies for helping children become fluent readers and shows how early testing and intervention can help struggling readers. Hosted by television anchor Deborah Norville and Theo Lion from PBS's Between the Lions

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Fluency, reading in a fast and fluid manner, is what often distinguishes to observers the reading performance of a good reader from a poor reader. Find out what the research says about the two most common instructional methods for developing fluency: guided oral reading and independent silent reading.

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Fluency, reading in a fast and fluid manner, is what often distinguishes to observers the reading performance of a good reader from a poor reader. Find out what the research says about the two most common instructional methods for developing fluency: guided oral reading and independent silent reading.

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"Comprehension is much more than a collection of skills and strategies that students apply to text. It requires metacognitive skills, vocabulary, background knowledge, and verbal reasoning ability." -Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyze it, make sense of it, and make it their own.

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Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand or connect to what they are reading, they are not really reading. Good readers are both purposeful and active, and have the skills to absorb what they read, analyze it, make sense of it, and make it their own.

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This Reading Rockets video introduces Jigsaw. Jigsaw is a cooperative learning strategy that enables each student of a "home" group to specialize in one aspect of a topic and become the "expert."

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This video clip shows a Seattle school using a technique called Reciprocal Teaching to help students improve their reading comprehension.

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This video clip shows a Seattle school using a technique called Reciprocal Teaching to help students improve their reading comprehension. For more information about teaching kids to read and helping those who struggle, visit www.readingrockets.org. Reading Rockets is a national education service of public television station WETA.

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This Reading Rockets article explains the Simple View of Reading. The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Research studies show that a student’s reading comprehension score can be predicted if decoding skills and language comprehension abilities are known.

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Aouad, J. and Savage, R. (2009). The component structure of preliteracy skills: Further evidence for the simple view of reading. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 24 (2), 183-200.

Catts, H., Adlof, S., and Weismer, S. (2006). Language deficits in poor comprehenders: A case for the simple view of reading. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 278-293.

Gough, P., Hoover, W., and Patterson, C. (1996). Some observations on a simple view of reading. In C. Cornoldi and J. Oakhill (eds.), Reading comprehension difficulties: Processes and intervention (pp. 1-13). Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

*Gough, P. and Tunmer, W. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.

Hoover, W. and Gough, P. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 127-160.

*Kamhi, A. (2007). Knowledge deficits: the true crisis in education. ASHA Leader, 12 (7), 28-29.

*These articles are short and easy to read.

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The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Research studies show that a student's reading comprehension score can be predicted if decoding skills and language comprehension abilities are known.

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"Vocabulary knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension."-Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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Vocabulary plays a fundamental role in the reading process and is critical to reading comprehension. Children learn the meanings of most words indirectly, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. Other words are learned through carefully designed instruction.

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More resources: Vocabulary: self-paced course Target the Problem: Vocabulary Vocabulary Apps Topics A-Z: Vocabulary Vocabulary refers to the words we must understand to communicate effectively. Educators often consider four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we hear.

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During read alouds, exploring expressive language through movement, listening, and discus boosts interest among these first graders while increasing their vocabulary. This clip was excerpted from Stenhouse Publishers' "Organizing for Literacy" video.

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Strengthening Vocabulary with Read Alouds

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"Drawing on instructional materials, classroom images, and observational data from research, the authors illustrate these principles: establishing efficient, rich routines for introducing target word meanings; providing review activities that promote deep processing of word meanings; responding directly to student confusion; and fostering universal participation in and accountability for vocabulary instruction." Reading Rockets

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Four Practical Principles for Enhancing Vocabulary Instruction

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Drawing on instructional materials, classroom images, and observational data from research, the authors illustrate these principles: establishing efficient, rich routines for introducing target word meanings; providing review activities that promote deep processing of word meanings; responding direc…

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In Houston, Lynn Reichle and her second-grade students go on a writing adventure called the Writers' Workshop. This is a Reading Rockets video clip.

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Connecting Vocabulary to English Language Arts

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Connecting Vocabulary to English Language Arts

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"Higher order components include planning, translating (drafting), reviewing and revising. The translation process includes lower-level transcription skills (i.e., handwriting and spelling) and text generation at three different language levels–word, sentence, and text" -Literacyhow
Gillis, D. M. (2000). The Literacy How Reading Wheel. Retrieved from Literacyhow: Empower teaching excellence: https://www.literacyhow.org/literacy-how-reading-wheel/

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Writing is a complex process that requires a wide range of skills — a strong vocabulary; an understanding of genre, text structure, and voice; basic mechanical skills (grammar and punctuation); organizational skills; and higher order thinking.

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More resources: Writing and Spelling (PBS Launching Young Readers series) Growing Writers (PBS Launching Young Readers series) Looking at Writing Writing: Course Module Writing Apps Topics A-Z: Writing A child's writing development parallels the child's development as a reader.

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Reading Rockets on YouTube: Go inside Shana Sterkin's third grade class as she engages her students in writer's workshop. Everyone shares their writing, including Miss Sterkin.

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Reading Rockets: A writer’s notebook is a place where you can write all kinds of things: ideas, questions, thoughts, true stories, invented stories, rough drafts for poems, songs, or stories, bits of dialogue that you overhear, and more. It’s different from a diary, which is a record of your own life experiences.

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Mary Amato's Tips for Keeping a Writer's Notebook

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Find out why it's a good idea for young aspiring writers to keep a journal, and get practical tips on journal writing from children's author and writing coach Mary Amato. She says, don't forget to bring a writing journal everywhere you go!

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Reading Rockets: RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their roles as writers, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they'll be writing about. By using this strategy, teachers encourage students to write creatively, to consider a topic from a different perspective, and to gain practice writing for different audiences.

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RAFT is a writing strategy that helps students understand their roles as writers, the audience they will address, the varied formats for writing, and the topic they will be writing about. By using this strategy, teachers encourage students to write creatively, to consider a topic from a different pe…

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The Questioning the Author procedure involves discussion, strategy instruction, and self-explanation. It encourages students to reflect on what the author of a selection is trying to say so as to build a mental representation from that information. Teacher and students work collaboratively, reading to resolve confusion and to understand the meaning of the text.
Focusing on a segment of text, the students respond to teacher questions such as the following:

What is the author trying to say?

What does the author mean by this?

o Why is the author saying this?

What is the author getting at?

Through modeling, the teacher helps students to understand that some parts of a text can cause confusion and hinder comprehension. The teacher then discusses with students what they can do when comprehension problems occur. Students learn to "grapple" with text by emulating the teacher's questioning techniques.

Texas Education Agency. (n.d.). Strategies that Promote Comprehension. Retrieved from Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/strategies-promote-comprehension

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Connecting Oral Language to English Language Arts

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Connecting Oral Language to English Language Arts

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Encourage conversation

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Modeling syntax structure

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Maintaining eye contact with students during instruction

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Remind students to speak loudly and articulate clearly

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Explain tone: how the pitch, volume, speed, and rhythm can change the meaning of what someone says.

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Oral Language's Role in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Oral Language's Role in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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"Whenever possible, provide information, instructions, and content through an alternative method, such as visual or audio. This allows ELLs to connect with the content not just through words but also through other senses. Encourage the use of other methods as well if they're creating the content. For example, multimedia can help them tell a story or write a response".

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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Connecting Phonological Awareness to English Language Arts

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Connecting Phonological Awareness to English Language Arts

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Make syllables easier to understand by clapping the “beats” you hear in words. Let’s say you choose the word elephant. Pause as you say each syllable — e-le-phant — and clap out each syllable together. You can also get up and moving by stomping or jumping with each syllable.

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You can use LEGO bricks: Give students two attached LEGO bricks to represent parts of the word. Then have the students physically take the LEGO pieces apart while removing part of the word.

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Make a collage of items that start with the same sound using pictures from magazines. Sock puppets can be another fun way to work on these skills. Make one that likes to munch on words that start with a certain sound. Students can have fun “feeding” the puppet different objects or pictures that start with that sound.

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Guessing games such as “I spy” can be used to work on almost any phonological skill. Want to practice noticing what sounds word begin with? Try “I spy something red that starts with /s/.” Want to work on rhymes? “I’m wearing something warm that rhymes with boat."

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Phonological Awareness in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Phonological Awareness in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Ensure a fair assessment for ELLs. When we assess this population, we must remember to separate language skills from content skills. Some of these language skills include vocabulary, comprehension, phonology, grammar (syntax), and meaning (semantics). Content assessment focuses on whether or not the student was able to grasp the subject matter. Duverger (2005) suggests that "another way of disentangling the effects of language proficiency on content proficiency is to have a double scale of criteria: criteria relating to the content being delivered and criteria relating to the language being used." This is a helpful strategy as it allows the teacher to create some sort of scale or rubric to easily identify the language skills during and after assessment.

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Anchor charts
Coloring in beginning sounds
Build words with a chart of beginning sounds
Learn digraphs with clip wheels
Walk the word

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Connecting Phonics to English Language Arts

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Connecting Phonics to English Language Arts

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Mix-and-match cups to make words

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Turn pool noodles into phonics tools

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Make phonics cubes

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Phonics in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Phonics in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Allow students to use a dictionary and/or thesaurus.

This can help them a great deal in understanding instructions and content to help them answer questions on a test, quiz, or any other form of assessment.

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Model Robot Reading

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Read and re-read!!!

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Perform echo reads

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Connecting Fluency to English Language Arts

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Connecting Fluency to English Language Arts

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We can teach our students to analyze syllables and word parts by explicitly teaching them the six syllable types and providing them with practice blending and segmenting known syllables to form and read words, phrases and sentences created from those syllables. We need to teach our students to look for meaningful chunks in unknown words. Understanding how to break words into syllables will aid them in pronunciation of words that they do not recognize.

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Choose grade-level texts and passages from grade-level texts that you are using in your classroom instruction.

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Choose lists of words (for oral reading) that demonstrate the six syllable types.

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Fluency in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Fluency in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Connecting Comprehension to English Language Arts

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Connecting Comprehension to English Language Arts

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Retelling involves having students orally reconstruct a story that they have read.
Retelling requires students to activate their knowledge of how stories work and apply it to the new reading. As part of retelling, students engage in ordering and summarizing information and in making inferences. The teacher can use retelling as a way to assess how well students comprehend a story, then use this information to help students develop a deeper understanding of what they have read.

The teacher uses explicit instruction, explaining why retelling is useful, modeling the procedure, giving students opportunities to practice, and providing feedback. As the following chart shows, students' retellings should become more detailed as they become better readers.

Texas Education Agency. (n.d.). Strategies that Promote Comprehension. Retrieved from Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/strategies-promote-comprehension

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Story maps are visual representations of the elements that make up a narrative. The purpose of a story map is to help students focus on the important elements of narratives-theme, characters, settings, problems, plot events, and resolution-and on the relationship among those elements.

Story maps to be used with younger students can be very simple-like the one that follows. These maps focus on a single element, such as the sequence of a simple plot.

With older students, the maps can be more complicated, focusing on several elements. As with retellings, the teacher uses explicit instruction to introduce the procedure, explaining why story maps are useful, then modeling the procedure, giving students opportunities to practice, and providing feedback.

Texas Education Agency. (n.d.). Strategies that Promote Comprehension. Retrieved from Reading Rockets: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/strategies-promote-comprehension

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Comprehension in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Comprehension in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Allow translations.

It's totally fine if students need to write in their first language and then translate into English. By permitting students to do this, you not only ensure them an equitable opportunity at learning, but you also help them catch up to their peers in learning the content and material without leaving them behind.

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Vocabulary in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Vocabulary in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Voice typing in Google Docs (under the Tools menu) provides students with a voice-to-text option that can help learners who have some oral language but struggle with spelling and writing. By clicking the arrow next to the language, students can even dictate a text in their native language, if need be, and then use Google Translate to translate it.

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Give students a “language toolbox,” a notebook full of pages of illustrated vocabulary words organized by theme that students can use as a reference. This is like a simplified version of an illustrated dictionary that younger ELLs can look through by theme to see vocabulary related to the colors, days of the week, classroom items, family members, and so on. In my classroom, I put these pages in plastic page protectors inside a binder for each student to flip through quickly. They can pull it out to help them fill in missing vocabulary when they write or as an easy reference whenever they need it.

Alrubail, R. (2016, July 7). Equity for English-Language Learners. Retrieved from Edutopia: https://www.edutopia.org/blog/equity-for-english-language-learners-rusul-alrubail

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Connecting Writing to English Language Arts

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Connecting Writing to English Language Arts

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Use the same graphic organizers for writing and reading. The graphic organizers that help students gather details during prewriting can also help them analyze details after reading. For example, if students use a Venn diagram to prepare to write a comparison-contrast essay, have them also use a Venn diagram to analyze a comparison-contrast essay. Graphic organizers, after all, are mind maps—ways of making thinking concrete. Using the same strategy to synthesize ideas as to analyze ideas helps students understand that reading and writing are opposite vectors of the same process.

Thoughtful Learning. (2021, October 27). 6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs. Retrieved from Thoughtful Learning: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells

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Writing in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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Writing in Supporting Equity and Inclusion

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To introduce ELL students to a new writing activity, present simple models that students can emulate. Read through at least one model out loud, highlighting features or techniques you would like your students to practice.

Thoughtful Learning. (2021, October 27). 6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs. Retrieved from Thoughtful Learning: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells

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Write-Aloud Models
After sharing mentor texts and reading models, talk through your own process for completing the same writing activity as students. Follow these steps:

1. Introduce the lesson by explaining what you are modeling and why.

2. Model brainstorming. Use a quick list or other graphic organizer.

3. Model your writing process. Explain what you are thinking as you write each part of a paragraph: a topic sentence, supporting sentences, and a concluding sentence.

4. Allow students to follow the pattern of your model when they write.

Thoughtful Learning. (2021, October 27). 6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs. Retrieved from Thoughtful Learning: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells

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Sentence Frames
Sentence frames (or sentence starters) are partially completed sentences with blank spaces for students to fill in. Frames work well for students who struggle to write complete sentences or need practice with new sentence structures.

One of my favorite family traditions is ______________.

We always ______________, ______________, and ______________.

While other people may think ______________, the truth is ______________.

Thoughtful Learning. (2021, October 27). 6 Ways to Scaffold Writing for ELLs. Retrieved from Thoughtful Learning: https://k12.thoughtfullearning.com/blogpost/6-ways-scaffold-writing-ells