# data[].attributes.body
As I began to research various sites regarding literacy resources, I was intrigued by all the rabbit holes I found myself falling into. It was interesting to see how all of the six components we researched seemed to connect to one another. For example, I began to better understand the way vocabulary development and comprehension go hand in hand. A student can read a word and not comprehend the meaning behind the word. This can become an issue when the student is trying to make sense of a sentence that pertains to the instructions of their homework assignment. Misreading any sort of instructions can lead into academic inaccuracy because of a misinterpretation of a word or sentence. It is important to grasp the understanding of a word as well as reading the word correctly to make an entire sentence make sense. I chose to lay out my Padlet in order from left to right because when reading we read from left to right. I believe when a young student begins to read and write letters and words they especially thrive from visually seeing the word as well as hearing the word, all at the same time. I have recently learned about zoo-phonics and see what a difference it makes when you combine hearing, speaking, seeing and moving all at once. Zoo-phonics is a development that helps students become strong readers and spellers. There were so many different approaches to take when introducing the literacy component to young readers. I can't wait to learn more!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Credit: Malcolm Eaton / 826 Valencia

We have all been reading the news about disappointing literacy rates in California, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic and online learning. Last month, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced a plan to improve literacy rates aimed at having all third graders in the state at reading level by 2026.

While this issue has made the news, it isn't new. In fact, low literacy rates have been persistent and prevalent for decades, especially for students from low-income communities and students of color. Policymakers often exclusively focus on reading when addressing literacy gaps. However, research shows that writing skills help students become better readers and ultimately understand all subjects better.

On a national policy level, the critical importance of writing was underscored with the adoption of Common Core standards in 2010, which emphasize how writing must be taught and addressed across every subject area. Despite the focus on writing in the state standards, results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress ( NAEP) in 2011 found that nationwide, only 27% of high school seniors and 10% of Black and Hispanic students are proficient in writing. In 2016, a national survey found that half of teachers felt that they did not have sufficient professional development to successfully implement the current writing standards. We know a focus on effective writing instruction is essential to any effort to improve literacy rates.

Whereas reading is knowledge, writing is agency, power and influence.

Writing not only helps students master new material, but it also serves as a tool for self-expression, reflection and community building. Writing can create new worlds and bring imagination to life. In a society that has historically devalued the voices of young people of color, writing empowers them to tell their own stories, succeed in school and career, engage in our national dialogue and become leaders in a global information economy. Writing skills are essential to building a just, equitable and democratic society where every voice matters.

In our research report, The Truth About Writing in America, we interviewed 19 experts in literacy education, including leading researchers, educators and writers, on the current state of writing education - its benefits as well as challenges. While the field has moved forward in some ways, many of the challenges remain. And while the data is daunting, we know that our students are capable of achieving so much more with the right support.

Let's bring writing instruction front and center. From our conversations with the expert panel, we put forward four recommendations that policymakers and practitioners can follow to strengthen writing education:

1. Redefine the classroom: Encourage and support students to continue writing anywhere, anytime, and on anything, and with any platform.

2. Reunite reading and writing: Make the relationship between reading and writing explicit through discussion, examples and publishing student work. And start early.

3. Identify teachers as writers: Establish communities of practice for teachers to learn, share and grow as writers.

4. Level the playing field. Invest in responsive writing programming that meets the needs of students from low-income communities, students of color and English Learners.

As Hattie Bellino, a former 826 Valencia student, says, "My voice is important because my perspective and experiences have the power to shift my reality and my community's reality towards equity."

It is time to improve literacy WRITE NOW.

***
Bita Nazarian and Jaime Balboa are the executive directors of 826 Valencia and 826LA, nonprofit organizations dedicated to supporting under-resourced students ages 6 to 18 with their creative and expository writing skills and to helping teachers inspire their students to write. Laura Brief is the CEO of 826 National.
The opinions in this commentary are those of the authors. If you would like to submit a commentary, please review our guidelines and contact us.
To get more reports like this one, click here to sign up for EdSource's no-cost daily email on latest developments in education.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
COMMENTARY: To improve literacy, focus on writing

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Credit: Malcolm Eaton / 826 Valencia We have all been reading the news about disappointing literacy rates in California, which have been exacerbated by the pandemic and online learning. Last month, State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced a plan to improve literacy rates aimed at having all third graders in the state at reading level by 2026.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Writing and literacy are two subjects which are deeply intertwined; so much so that success at one depends entirely on the success of the other. Becoming a strong writer requires the development of two particular literacy skills representative of a strong reader: print awareness and reading comprehension. A child cannot write without first being able to read and recognize the purpose of writing. This is why both writing skills, as well as literacy skills, tend to develop at the same rate-during a child's early to middle childhood, usually between the ages of 6 and 11 years old. Essentially, possessing strong writing abilities correlates directly with having strong reading abilities, although, interestingly, the inverse is not always true.

Print Awareness Impacts Writing Ability

Writing and literacy skills develop simultaneously in most children during the first or second-grade. Since writing and reading are so linked, a child cannot begin to write with intention until they understand what words do. The path to that understanding lies with print awareness. Awareness of the written word is very important because it allows a child to explore the various purposes of writing. For example, the more a child is exposed to text in the real world such as advertisements on billboards, menus in restaurants, or even to-do lists on the fridge, the more a child is able to recognize printed text can hold different meanings.

Easily practice this skill by pointing out the signage on your favorite family restaurant. Or take care to notice the printed text on your child's favorite brand of food next time you are at the grocery store. This is how a child realizes that print holds meaning and conveys clear messages. Once they understand that writing serves to communicate messages, learning how to write will be more exciting and less difficult.

Reading Comprehension Produces Strong Writing

Reading comprehension is a literacy skill which plays a vital role in becoming a successful writer. Children who actively work on developing their reading comprehension skills by learning new vocabulary and practicing their spelling skills will have an easier time when it comes to writing. After all, a child who does not understand the meaning behind a word cannot be expected to then write logically about it. Help develop these important skills by reading frequently with your child and encouraging them to participate in fun spelling and vocabulary activities.

Be The Example

It is natural for a strong love of reading to lead to a strong aptitude for writing. Luckily, it is also natural for a child to begin developing these passions at a young age simply through observation and imitation. Everyone has heard the phrase that children are like sponges; it is quite common for a child to first learn about reading and writing simply by observing and imitating their teachers and parents.

The challenge is in nurturing these passions; allowing them to develop into full-fledged skills which can then lead to academic success. So next time you are writing a note to a friend or making a grocery list, allow your child to watch and encourage them to participate by signing their name or adding their favorite food. In addition, give your children access to the writing tools they need to develop their abilities such as paper, markers, and crayons. These are all great tools and activities which will have a positive impact on literacy for your child.
Learn more about why childhood literacy is so important in today's world.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Relationship Between Writing & Literacy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Writing and literacy are two subjects which are deeply intertwined; so much so that success at one depends entirely on the success of the other. Becoming a strong writer requires the development of two particular literacy skills representative of a strong reader: print awareness and reading comprehension.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Although many children can read, reading and reading comprehension are two different things. While reading involves translating and decoding text into sounds and spoken words, reading comprehension involves taking what was just read and deriving m ea ning from those words. In simpler terms, reading comprehension is the ability to read, understand, process, and re call what was just read.

The importance of reading comprehension

Ways to improve your child's reading comprehension

● Before :

● During :

● After :

Make inferences and predictions. Making inferences and predictions goes hand-and-hand with asking questions. Inferring is the ability to take clues and given knowledge from a text and conclude what will happen next. To help them infer, ask them to predict what might happen next in the story.

read. Some confusion can come from a lack of Fix any type of confusion.It is important to go back and reread a story in case your children are confused. Reread the story with them, look at pictures, and identify the terms that are confusing. Go over the story with them patiently to make sure they have fully grasped what was being vocabulary or language arts. If you child is struggling with the meaning of a word or the structure of a sentence, make sure you take the time to go over these questions with them. At first it might seem like small thing, but giving your child an increasing vocabulary is essential to reading comprehension.

References:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Although many children can read, reading and reading comprehension are two different things. While reading involves translating and decoding text into sounds and spoken words, reading comprehension involves taking what was just read and deriving m ea ning from those words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Learning reading comprehension strategies has many benefits for both adults and children. It makes for better personal and professional life for adults, as they'll be more effective in the workplace. Children will excel in school as their academic progress depends on their ability to understand and answer questions related to what they read.
Reading comprehension strategies are also paramount for people with medical conditions that harm their ability to understand written text. People can improve their comprehension skills and become more efficient readers with just a few techniques.

This post uncovers why learning reading comprehension strategies is essential.

Read on to discover the benefits of improving your comprehension skills.

What is reading comprehension?
Reading comprehension is the ability to process what you read, understand it, and integrate it with what you already know. Comprehension combines reading with thinking and reasoning. Readers who have a strong understanding can draw conclusions after reading a text.
You need two interconnected abilities to understand written material: word reading and language comprehension. Word reading is the ability to decode symbols on a page, and language comprehension means knowing the meaning of words and sentences.

Good comprehension is vital if a reader engages with a text and enjoys what they are reading. You can't learn from a text without comprehending its meaning. Reading comprehension involves many processes, such as understanding the text, imagining what the words describe, and answering questions related to a text.

You have good comprehension skills if you can think about a book you read and summarize it. Children who can answer questions about a book, explain key happenings in a story and have an opinion about why certain events occurred have excellent comprehension skills.

How can I improve my reading comprehension skills?
You can improve your reading comprehension skills by developing a strategy for reading and tracking your progress. Read in a calm environment and practice active reading to minimize confusion and mind-wandering. Self-check your understanding by listing what you understood from the text from memory.
Here's what to do before, during, and after reading to improve your reading comprehension skills :

Before reading

Have a goal: Develop a strategy for reading to help track your progress. Read in a quiet environment with minimal distractions. See reading as an exercise and practice regularly to improve your comprehension.

Scan through the text: Take note of headings, keywords, diagrams, tables, summaries, and every noteworthy text in the material. Read introductions and conclusions to get the main idea.

Determine which reading medium works for you: Some people prefer reading printed documents to digital versions. In this case, downloading the document and printing it out is the way. If you can't print the copy and have to read on screen, ensure to take breaks when necessary.

This way, you won't have headaches from too much screen time. You can also switch between different screens (mobile or desktop).

Incorporate prior knowledge: Keep in mind your second-hand knowledge of the text you're about to read. Any related personal experiences you may have can also come in handy for reading comprehension.

During reading

Practice active reading to minimize confusion and mind-wandering. Here are a few techniques to help you comprehend what you read:

Monitor yourself: Try to keep your mind focused on reading the text. If your mind wanders, bring it back by engaging in activities that increase concentration. You can move to a more convenient reading environment or play background music.

Summarize: Write down important details after reading.

Annotating: Take note of unclear words, significant points, keywords, and key phrases.

Ask questions: Engage your brain by asking critical questions.

After reading

Reading comprehension strategies can help you understand what you read and remember it long term. These tips will help you improve your reading comprehension:

Self-check your understanding: There are different ways to do this. You can discuss what you read with a reading partner. Alternatively, use more straightforward writings on the topic you read to cross-reference the text.

List what you understood from the text from memory. Try to remember the key concepts. If you miss anything, refer to the text.

Investigate further: Search for additional resources to help boost your understanding of the topic.

Use flashcards to test your understanding: Flashcards are excellent for remembering what you read. Create and use them to test your comprehension.

Why do you need to learn reading comprehension strategies?
By learning and implementing reading comprehension strategies, you can improve your personal and professional life and become more effective in the workplace. If you're still in school, your academic progress depends on your ability to understand what you read.
The main reason we read is to comprehend the meaning of the text. Without reading comprehension skills, you'll struggle with understanding and analyzing what you read. The process of comprehension is both strategic and interactive.

It comes easily for experienced readers. But for others who practice passive reading, comprehension can be a struggle. Instead of passively reading a text, it is better to analyze it, internalize it, and make it your own.

Developing readers must read with some proficiency to comprehend what they're reading. It also helps to learn reading comprehension strategies.

Here are the benefits of learning reading comprehension strategies for adults and children.

Benefits for children

Reading and comprehension skills help kids grow academically. Without these skills, they will struggle in school. Reading is a surefire way to excel in any subject such as mathematics, history, science, and more.

Comprehension skills in children can influence their ability to write. Kids who can easily comprehend what they read also have reading fluency. Your child will find it tough to understand a text if they spend much time decoding the words.

Children with poor reading comprehension foundation face academic issues due to a lack of understanding. They struggle to analyze and apply the information they gathered through reading. By implementing reading comprehension strategies, you can change how they read and improve comprehension.

Benefits in adult life

Adults can change how they read and bolster their reading comprehension abilities by learning and implementing reading comprehension strategies. This way, reading will become easier and more enjoyable.

Improving your reading comprehension has benefits for your personal and professional life. People looking to become more efficient in their workplace will benefit from taking the Iris Reading Productivity Course . The course provides quick life hacks to maximize your productivity plus top productivity apps for students and professionals.

Reading comprehension strategies can make you more knowledgeable in certain areas and enhance your reading enjoyment. You'll be able to learn new information and skills faster.

Other benefits of good reading comprehension abilities include:

Better enjoyment of and motivation to read

Improved ability to write clearly and effectively

Ability to analyze, understand, and respond to written communication in your workplace

Ability to comprehend and engage in current events in written form, like newspapers

Increased ability to focus on reading for longer periods of time.

Instances where reading comprehension is essential
Reading comprehension is a top priority for people suffering from certain medical conditions, including learning disabilities, stroke, brain injury, Asperger's syndrome, and Autism spectrum disorder. These medical conditions can affect a person's ability to learn.
Here are some examples when reading comprehension is essential:

Stroke

Stroke has a devastating effect on reading comprehension. This medical condition cuts off oxygen from the brain, leading to comprehension, speech, and retention issues. Stroke affects many parts of the brain and makes communication challenging for its victims.

People suffering from a stroke may also have to deal with aphasia articulation, a disorder that directly affects communication. These medical conditions cause issues with speaking, reading, and comprehension. People with aphasia can't formulate words quickly, and interacting with other people is usually a challenge.

Reading comprehension is extremely important in the rehabilitation of stroke victims. They benefit from practicing words, sounds, and context with a speech therapist.

Traumatic Brain Injury

Our brain helps us to do everything. It is an essential part of the human body. Without it, we can't function, live, and surely can't learn.

The brain connects the pieces of information you read to help you understand them. People with traumatic brain injuries find it difficult to learn new things. In this case, reading comprehension is essential.

Brain injuries can harm a person's reading comprehension abilities. If the injury has to do with the temporal lobe, it can damage the victim's retention ability. The injured person will also face difficulties stringing together words, sounds, and phrases.

When the brain injury results from loss of oxygen to the brain, concussions, and motor accidents, its effects can be pretty devastating. In this case, the person could lose their ability to speak and comprehend. Therapists prioritize reading comprehension when dealing with people with brain injury.

The goal is to rehabilitate the brain through reading comprehension strategies. Reading is an excellent way to boost your comprehension skills. People with brain injuries often start with speech therapy to help relearn reading skills.

Language and Learning Disability

Reading comprehension is often a challenge for people struggling with a learning or language disability, or the two combined. These people easily get overwhelmed when they have plenty of text to read.

In this case, implementing reading comprehension strategies will be a great idea. People with learning disabilities will benefit from speech therapy, and they should start as soon as possible.

Asperger's Syndrome and Autism Spectrum Disorder

Asperger's syndrome and Autism Spectrum disorders can affect reading comprehension. These two conditions directly impact communication, affecting more people each year.

It helps to detect them early in children and begin appropriate therapy. It is wise to commence speech therapy as soon as you notice either of these disorders in a child.

A teacher who knows how to teach reading skills can help kids with their communication issues.

Final thoughts

Comprehension can be challenging for some children and adults with learning disabilities. Building reading comprehension skills has many benefits for struggling readers.
Reading comprehension strategies are extremely important as they help adults improve their personal and professional lives. Your kids will thrive academically when they have excellent reading comprehension. They'll be more skilled in understanding what they read in school.
You can optimize your reading comprehension strategies by using a speed reading tool . Iris Reading aims to make you a more efficient reader with this easy-to-use tool. By combining this strategy with an online course, you'll boost your reading comprehension in no time.
Take the Iris Reading Advanced Comprehension & Memory today!

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Why Is It Important to Learn Reading Comprehension Strategies? | Iris Reading

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Learning reading comprehension strategies has many benefits for both adults and children. It makes for better personal and professional life for adults, as they'll be more effective in the workplace. Children will excel in school as their academic progress depends on their ability to understand and answer questions related to what they read.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
What Research Tells Us About Reading, Comprehension, and Comprehension Instruction

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The purpose of reading is comprehension — getting meaning from written text. Find out what else research tells us about the active process of constructing meaning, and how good readers consciously employing comprehension strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Reading is the act of processing text in order to derive meaning. To learn to read, children must develop both fluent word reading and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer, 1986). Language comprehension encompasses vocabulary and morphology, knowledge, syntax, and higher-level language skills.

How Vocabulary and Morphology Contribute to Reading Development

Vocabulary refers to "all of the words of our language. One must know words to communicate effectively. Vocabulary is important to reading comprehension because readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. Vocabulary development refers to stored information about the meanings and pronunciation of words necessary for communication" ( Florida Center for Reading Research Glossary of Reading Terms).

"[T]he role of vocabulary in academic success increases through the grades, and that early vocabulary knowledge predicts reading comprehension skill in later grades" (Pierce, Wechsler-Zimring, Noam, Wolf, & Tami Katzir, 2013).

Morphology refers to "the knowledge of meaningful word parts in a language (typically the knowledge of prefixes, suffixes, and/or roots and base words)" ( Foorman et al., 2016 ). Knowledge of word structure and how words are formed is linked to both greater vocabulary development and stronger reading comprehension (Prince, 2009; Wolter & Green, 2013). Research has shown that in children as young as first grade, knowledge of word parts has influenced their literacy development (Wolter, Wood, & D'zatko, 2009).

Promoting Vocabulary and Morphology Development in the Classroom

Vocabulary and morphology knowledge are supported by explicit teaching in word meaning, word parts, and spelling. "Current vocabulary research confirms the benefits of explicit teaching over implicit teaching in promoting vocabulary development" ( National Reading Technical Assistance Center, 2010 ). Also, "teachers need to show the spellings of new vocabulary words when they discuss their meanings. Students need to stop and pronounce unfamiliar words rather than skip them during independent reading" (Ehri & Rosenthal, 2007). "Instructional implications are that teachers should include written words as part of vocabulary instruction and that students should pronounce spellings as well as determine meanings when they encounter new vocabulary words...Students who see the spellings of words actually learn the meanings of the words more easily - orthographic knowledge benefits vocabulary learning" (Rosenthal & Ehri, 2008).

When teaching vocabulary, activities that support deeper understanding allow students to:

make connections between a new vocabulary word and other known words

relate the word to their own experiences

differentiate between correct and incorrect uses of the word

generate and answer questions that include the word (Foorman et al., 2016 )

To support students with vocabulary and morphology, teach word parts: roots, prefixes, suffixes, tenses, and plurals. See the Basic Morphology section of this sample LETRS scope and sequence for Word Study, Spelling, and Reading.

Selecting Vocabulary for Instruction

When selecting vocabulary for instruction, approaches that support students to make connections and build knowledge include:

Focusing on new word meanings from oral sources such as content rich read alouds (Beimiller, 2015)

Deriving vocabulary from content learning materials so students can readily use them in many contexts (National Reading Panel, 2000)

Presenting words in integrated contexts to support students in remembering not only the words themselves, but the linkages in meaning between them (Wright & Neuman, 2014)

Additionally, the Texas Center for Learning Disabilities recommends targeting words that are

essential to understanding the main idea of the text or unit,

used repeatedly or frequently encountered across domains, and

not part of students' prior knowledge.

Resources to Support Selection of Vocabulary for Instruction

Examples of Evidence-Based Vocabulary Strategies

Selecting and Using Academic Vocabulary in Instruction , from Achieve the Core (Resource)

Six-step process for teaching vocabulary (Marzano & Simms, 2013)

Morphological Awareness, from University of Michigan (Resource)

Morphology, from Institute of Education Sciences (Video)

Base Word, Prefix, Suffix, from the Institute for Education Sciences (Video)

Word Analysis Strategy, from the Institute for Education Sciences (Video)

Recommendation 2 from the IES Practice Guide "Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade": Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words , (Resource) (see section 3, pp. 26-27)

Language and Vocabulary, from Florida Center for Reading Research (Activities for PreK)

Word Knowledge, Morphemic Elements, Word Meaning, and Word Analysis, from Florida Center for Reading Research (Activities for Grades K-1)

Word Knowledge, Morphemic Elements, Word Meaning, and Word Analysis, from Florida Center for Reading Research (Activities for Grades 2-3)

A Teaching Routine for Academic Vocabulary in Grades PreK-1, from Institute for Education Sciences (Video)

Learn More about Vocabulary and Morphology

Considerations for Students Learning English

English learners should have equal opportunity to meaningfully participate in all literacy instruction. The WIDA Can Do Descriptors highlight what language learners can do at various stages of language development.
Taking Bilingualism into Account
While vocabulary instruction is important to all learners, explicit vocabulary instruction with second language learners has bigger impacts on learning than usually reported for first language students (August et al., 2008).
Supports for English Learners

Choose a brief, engaging piece of informational text that includes academic vocabulary as a platform for intensive academic vocabulary instruction (Baker et al., 2014 ).

Choose a small set of academic vocabulary for in-depth instruction (Baker et al., 2014 ).

Teach academic vocabulary in depth using multiple modalities (writing, speaking, listening) (Baker et al., 2014 ).

Emphasize the acquisition of meanings of everyday words that native speakers know and that are not necessarily part of the academic curriculum (Baker et al., 2014).

Teach word-learning strategies to help students independently figure out the meaning of words: Word Parts and Cognates, from Institute of Education Sciences (Video EL support example Grades 2 & 3); Activities to Promote Word Learning Grades 2 and 3, from Institute of Education Sciences, (Video).

The Go To Strategies , from Project EXCELL

Language Development for Preschool ELLs **, from Colorin Colorado (Strategies for ELs)

Recommendation 3, Provide extensive and varied vocabulary instruction , from Institute of Education Sciences (Resource)

The WIDA Instructional Supports provide a reference list of appropriate graphic, sensory, and interactive supports to use with the WIDA Can Do Descriptors when instructing language learners.

August, D., Beck, I. L., Calderón, M., Francis, D. J., Lesaux, N. K., Shanahan, T., Erickson, F., & Siegel, L. S. (2008). Instruction and professional development. In D. August, & T. Shanahan (Eds.), Developing reading and writing in second-language learners: Lessons from the report of the national literacy panel on language-minority children and youth (pp. 131-250). New York: Routledge.

Baker, S., Lesaux, N., Jayanthi, M., Dimino, J., Proctor, C. P., Morris, J., Gersten, R., Haymond, K., Kieffer, M. J., Linan-Thompson, S., & Newman-Gonchar, R. (2014). Teaching academic content and literacy to English learners in elementary and middle school (NCEE 2014-4012). 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: Product Search.

Beimiller, A. (2015). Which words are worth teaching? Perspectives on Language and Literacy. Summer 2015. The International Dyslexia Association.

Ehri, L.C., & Rosenthal, J. (2007). Spellings of words: A neglected facilitator of vocabulary learning. In Dorit Aram & Ofra Korat (Eds.) Literacy development and enhancement across orthographies and cultures, pp.137-152.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. (2000). Report of the national reading panel: Teaching children to read: reports of the subgroups (00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.

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.

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

Hogan, T. P., Adolf, S. M., & Alonzo, C. N. (2014). On the importance of listening comprehension. International journal of speech-language pathology, 16(3), 199-207.

Pearson, P. D. & Gallagher, M.C. (1983). The instruction of reading comprehension. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 8, 1983, pp. 317-344.

Pierce, M.E., Wechsler-Zimring, A., Noam, G., Wolf, M., & Tami Katzir, T. (2013). Behavioral problems and reading difficulties among language minority and monolingual urban elementary school students. Reading Psychology, 34(2), 182-205.

Prince, R.E.C. (2010). Making the words add up: How morphology - viewing words as a combination of parts - can become an instructional tool for building reading skills. Usable Knowledge.

Rosenthal, J., & Ehri, L.C. (2008). The mnemonic value of orthography for vocabulary learning. Journal of Educational Psychology, 100(1), 175-191.

Wolter, Julie A.; Green, Laura. Morphological awareness intervention in school-age children with language and literacy Deficits: A case study. Topics in Language Disorders: January/March 2013, (33)1, 27-41.

Wolter, J. A., Wood, A., & D'zatko, K. W. (2009). The influence of morphological awareness on the literacy development of first-grade children. Language, speech, and hearing services in schools, 40(3), 286-298.

Wright, T. & Neuman, S. (2014). The magic of words: teaching vocabulary in the early childhood classroom . American Educator.
**Disclosure Statement: Reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Our office is not responsible for and does not in any way guarantee the accuracy of information in other sites accessible through links herein. DESE may supplement this list with other services and products that meet the specified criteria. For more information contact: RMB252@mass.gov.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The goal of the Massachusetts public K-12 education system is to prepare all students for success after high school. Massachusetts public school students are leading the nation in reading and math and are at the top internationally in reading, science, and math according to the national NAEP and international PISA assessments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What is it?

Vocabulary refers to the body of words and their meanings that students must understand to comprehend text. Vocabulary knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension.

What is it?

Vocabulary refers to the body of words and their meanings that students must understand to comprehend text. Vocabulary knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why is explicit instruction in vocabulary so important?

Students need to practice saying new words and using them in context to make them part of their lexicon (mental dictionary). Research shows that discussing unfamiliar words incidentally, a traditional approach to teaching vocabulary, doesn't work.

Do students learn the meanings of words from context?

Not always.Context clues can be misdirective or non-directive. In order to learn and maintain new vocabulary, many words must be taught explicitly in various contexts. This will help students develop a depth and breadth of word knowledge.

What are some research-based activities to further develop vocabulary?

Select and teach words that can be used in multiple contexts. Build word networks by connecting the new word to other words that the students have previously learned. Teach words that have multiple meanings, including words that are part of figures of speech and figurative language. Give students examples and non-examples of words.

Create an atmosphere of rich and varied language experiences that exposes students to words and phrases across all the domains of literacy- i.e., reading, listening, speaking and writing. Delve into different genres, such as prose and poetry, narrative and informational texts.

Our Word Selection Grid summarizes various evidence-based approaches to teaching vocabulary. Use it to help identify which words to teach and for what purpose-e.g., a specific activity or student need (English Language Learner).

Teach vocabulary explicitly using one or more of the basic evidence-based approaches to vocabulary instruction, which work in concert:

Additive: Teach individual words explicitly. Present student-friendly definitions (Collins Cobuild Student Dictionary), explore varied contexts, create student-generated definitions, facilitate instructional conversations with peers, and provide interactive and responsive engagement.

Generative: Teach word-learning strategies such as morphology, using context clues, how to use a dictionary and a thesaurus.

Multiple-meaning Words: Teach words that can be used as nouns or verbs and parts of idioms so students know how to use polysemous words in different contexts.

Academic language: Teach (a) academic vocabulary that students are likely to find in textbooks and on tests, but not hear in spoken language. These include "brick" words that are content-specific and tend to be found in bold-face print in text books and in glossaries (treaty); and the "mortar," that is, terms and phrases that are common across subjects and connect language to aid in comprehension (analyze, compare). These also include connecting words, prepositions and prepositional phrases. (b) Academic discourse provides additional mortar to hold together a strong vocabulary foundation. Click here for a sample academic word list.

Vocabulary instruction should occur throughout the day and in all content areas-language arts, math, science, social studies, etc.

Lead the creation of a culture of word learning in your school, such as word of the day or week, school announcements, word posters and family involvement.

Read More to Learn More

Adams, M. (Winter 2010-11). Advancing our students' literacy and language. The challenge of complex texts. American Educator, 3-11, 53.

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G. & Kucan, L. (Spring 2003). Taking delight in words: Using oral language to build young children's vocabularies. American Educator 27, 36-39, 41, 45-46.

Dutro, S. & Moran, C. (2003). Rethinking English language instruction: An architectural approach. In G.G. Garcia (Ed.) English learners: Reaching the highest level of English literacy, pp. 227-258. Newark, DE: International Reading Association.

Gillis, M., and Eberhardt. N.C. (2015). A Word Selection Grid: Choosing Vocabulary to Teach. Perspectives on Language and Literacy 41 (3): 49.

Hart, B. & Risley, T. (Spring 2003). The early catastrophe. The 30 million word gap. American Educator 27, 1-9.

Feldman, K. & Kinsella, K. (2005). Narrowing the achievement gap: The case for explicit vocabulary instruction. Read About: Scholastic professional paper.

Neuman, S. & Wright, T. (Spring 2014). The magic of words. Teaching vocabulary in the early childhood classroom. American Educator, 5-13.

Literacy How Professional Learning Series

The Literacy How Professional Learning Series translates the latest reading research into how-to instruction. The Knowledge to Practice book Series-Phonemic Awareness and Phonics, Syntax, Vocabulary, and Comprehension-is based on the current and comprehensive Literacy How reading model. It draws upon the authors' decades of expertise and experience working with thousands of general and special education teachers. The Series emphasizes Pre-K-3rd grade conceptual and skill development. Teachers of older emerging or struggling readers will also find these tools useful.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Vocabulary refers to the body of words and their meanings that students must understand to comprehend text. Vocabulary knowledge is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension. Vocabulary refers to the body of words and their meanings that students must understand to comprehend text.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
It's hard for students to read and understand a text if they don't know what the words mean. A solid vocabulary boosts reading comprehension for students of all ages. The more words students know, the better they understand the text. That's why effective vocabulary teaching is so important, especially for students who learn and think differently.

In this article, you'll learn how to explicitly teach vocabulary using easy-to-understand definitions, engaging activities, and repeated exposure. This strategy includes playing vocabulary games, incorporating visual supports like graphic organizers, and giving students the chance to see and use new words in real-world contexts.

The goal of this teaching strategy isn't just to increase your students' vocabulary. It's to make sure the words are meaningful and relevant to their lives.

Watch: See teaching vocabulary words in action

Watch this video of a kindergarten teacher teaching the word startled to her students:

Read: How to use this vocabulary words strategy

K-5 (CCSS ELA Literacy Anchor Standard L.4: Determine or clarify the meaning of unknown and multiple-meaning words and phrases)

K-5 (CCSS ELA Literacy Anchor Standard R.4: Interpret words and phrases as they are used in a text)

Before you dive in, it's helpful to know that vocabulary words can be grouped into three tiers:

Tier 1 words: These are the most frequently used words that appear in everyday speech. Students typically learn these words through oral language. Examples include dog, cat, happy, see, run, and go.

Tier 2 words: These words are used in many different contexts and subjects. Examples include interpret, assume, necessary, and analyze. The Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium has a partial list of Tier 2 words, broken down by grade levels.

Tier 3 words: These are subject-specific words that are used in particular subject areas, such as peninsula in social studies and integer in math.

When choosing which vocabulary words to teach, you may want to pick words from Tier 2 because they're the most useful across all subject areas.

Come up with student-friendly definitions. Find resources you and your students can consult to come up with a definition for each word. The definition should be easy to understand, be written in everyday language, and capture the word's common use. Your definitions can include pictures, videos, or other multimedia options. Cambridge Learner's Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Learner's Dictionary, and Wordsmyth Children's Dictionary are all good resources to help create student-friendly definitions.

For English language learners (ELLs): Try to use cognates (words from different languages that have a similar meaning, spelling, and pronunciation) when you introduce new words. For more information about using cognates when teaching vocabulary to ELLs, use these resources from Colorín Colorado. You can also ask students to say or draw their own definition of the words - in English or their home language - to help them understand each word and its meaning.

2. Reflect. Allow time for students to reflect on what they know or don't know about the words. Remember that your class will come to the lesson with varying levels of vocabulary knowledge. Some students may be familiar with some of the words. Other students may not know any of them. If time permits, this could be a good opportunity to use flexible grouping so students can work on different words.

3. Read the text you've chosen. You can read it to your students or have students read on their own (either a printed version or by listening to an audio version). As you read, pause to point to the vocabulary words in context. Use explicit instruction to teach the word parts, such as prefixes and suffixes, to help define the word. If students are reading on their own or with a partner, encourage them to "hunt" for the words before reading. Hunting for these words first can reduce distractions later when the focus is on reading the text.

Word associations: Ask students, "What does the word delicate make you think of? What other words go with delicate?" Students can turn and talk with a partner to come up with a response. Then invite pairs to share their responses with the rest of the class.

Use your senses: Ask your students to use their senses to describe when they saw, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled something that was delicate. Allow students time to think. Then ask them to give a thumbs up if they've ever seen something delicate. Call on students to share their responses. Do the same with each of the senses.

A round of applause: If the word is an adjective, invite students to clap based on how much they would like a delicate toy, for example. Or students can "vote with their feet" by moving to one corner of the room if they want a delicate toy or another corner if they don't. This activity works especially well if you pair the new adjective with a familiar noun.

Picture perfect: Invite students to draw a picture that represents the word's meaning.

Examples and non-examples: Give one example and one non-example of how the word is and isn't used. For instance, you could tell students that one thing that is delicate is a teacup. One thing that isn't delicate is the cement stairs into the school. Then invite students to share their own examples of things that are and aren't delicate.

After students do one or more of the activities above, have them say or draw the word again.

Understand: Why this strategy works

Rote memorization ("skill and drill") isn't very helpful when it comes to learning new vocabulary. Students learn best from explicit instruction that uses easy-to-understand definitions, engaging activities, and repeated exposure. Teaching this way will help students understand how words are used in real-life contexts and that words can have different meanings depending on how they're used.

This explicit approach helps all students and is especially helpful for students who learn and think differently. This includes students who have a hard time figuring out the meaning of new words when they're reading. It can be difficult for them to make an inference or use context clues to figure out what a word means.

Explicit vocabulary instruction with student-friendly definitions means there's no guesswork involved. Repeated exposure and practice help to reinforce the words in students' memories.

Share with families this resource they can use at home to help students grow their vocabulary. You can model some of these strategies for families at back-to-school night or another family event.

Research behind this strategy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Vocabulary words: An evidence-based literacy strategy

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Use these vocabulary strategies and vocabulary activities to teach your students new words.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

[contextly_auto_sidebar]

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

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
25 Fantastic Reading Fluency Activities To Build Literacy in Young Readers

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Help kids improve their reading fluency with these fun activities and center ideas that cover a wide range of proven strategies.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
national assessment of educational progress fluency scale

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
dynamic indicators of basic early literacy skills

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
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.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Young readers learn how to self-direct when they read in pairs, read the same text repeatedly, and use fluency trackers.

Fluency is often discussed by elementary teachers simply as the rate of words read aloud per minute, although the full definition includes reading accuracy plus voice tone and inflection. It's an important measure of student reading success, and as students move through grades, poor fluency becomes increasingly serious. To raise fluency levels, students need to practice reading in short bursts of effort, and they need to practice word attack skills that are used for frustration-level text, in which more than one out of 20 words are difficult to decode.

Independent reading is one way to help students build fluency, but we all know that they're not necessarily going to focus if you simply hand them a book and tell them to read it. I've found that if I combine repeat reading, paired reading, and fluency trackers, students are more motivated to do that crucial work that builds fluency.

Building Fluency in the Classroom

In my teaching practice, I've long relied on two strategies to support my students' literacy growth: repeated reading and fluency trackers (grids on which students record their fluency scores over time). Reading a passage multiple times (repeated reading) scaffolds the student's ability both to decode and to remember familiar words and syllable patterns, building their fluency and comprehension; and fluency trackers give students agency and motivate them while giving me a quick read on their progress. When integrating repeated reading with fluency trackers, I often use a one-page passage: Students read the passage three times, graphing each attempt (first, second, and third) with a different-colored crayon.

That combination has always served me well, but once I added in a third component-paired reading-I noticed that not only did the atmosphere in the classroom get a boost, but engagement improved and students got their work done more readily. Repeated reading gives them the practice and reinforcement they need to build their literacy skills, the pairing creates a positive social element, and the fluency trackers simultaneously help them to self-direct, see their progress, and stay on track while working in pairs, when socializing is tempting.

Steps to Fluency Tracker Practice

Create a tracker folder for each student: Use a letter-size manila folder, and staple in a data tracker for fluency scores. (You can find fluency trackers in a number of places, such as these free ones, or you can create your own using graph paper.)

Locate and print out reading passages: Find passages that are somewhere between the student's instructional and frustrational reading level. Often, reading passages of this type are available in the support materials to the grade-level reading program at your school. You'll need two copies of each passage for each pair: one for the student reading and one for the listener/scorer.

Pair the students: Match students who read at about the same level. Consider sociability and distractibility as well. If one student is volatile or touchy, put them with a classmate who has a calm, steady personality.

Model paired reading and fluency tracker record keeping: To model fluency tracking, gather the class in a circle so they can watch you and a student as the two of you go through the process of doing a timed fluency reading. Set a timer and have the model student begin reading. After a minute, stop the timer, count the words, report the score to the student, and have the student record the result on the fluency tracker.

Send the students out to practice: After giving the students the names of their partners, review the behavior norms (voice level, where they are to sit, how to get help) and direct them to try using their fluency trackers themselves.

Debrief and continue to practice: Once your students have tried paired reading and fluency tracking, bring them together to answer questions and work out the kinks-for example, "Did anyone have trouble using the timers?" While they are working, walk around the class to see how the students are reading and to make sure they stay on task. Eventually, they will require minimal supervision.

Give students the opportunity to set their own goals: Make the goals specific; allow them to be personal, not public; and include a time for reaching the goal. Appropriate goals might be reaching a certain level of fluency ("I'll be able to read 60 words a minute by the first of the next month") or accuracy ("I'll read for one minute with two errors or less by winter break").

Once you've landed on a routine for fluency trackers, schedule them regularly for 10 to 15 minutes at a time.

I used this strategy with a small group of second graders this spring, and three out of four students made significant gains in speed over four months with daily practice, while half of them doubled their reading speed. A colleague used fluency trackers with fourth graders who were reading significantly below grade level; in a group with a dozen or so students, all made significant fluency gains-and they enjoyed the activity. "They love it!" she told me. "When it's time for fluency, they jump up to get their folders and get to work. It's wonderful."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A 3-Step Strategy to Build Students' Reading Fluency

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Young readers learn how to self-direct when they read in pairs, read the same text repeatedly, and use fluency trackers.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Reading is the act of processing text in order to derive meaning. To learn to read, children must develop both fluent word reading and language comprehension (Gough & Tunmer,1986). Fluent word reading stems from underlying skills: phonological awareness, phonics and decoding, and automatic word recognition.

What Is Automatic Word Recognition?

Word recognition is automatic when the process takes very few of the attention resources available to the brain at any one time ( Wolf, 2018). When word recognition is automatic, reading can be fluent, accurate, and expressive.

How Automatic Word Recognition Contributes to Reading Development

All fluent readers can instantly and automatically recognize a large number of words, which researchers call the "sight vocabulary." "[W]hen a reader has learned a 'sight word,' she can retrieve the spelling, pronunciation, and meaning of that word as soon as her eyes alight upon it" (Pace Miles & Ehri, 2019). For proficient readers, practically all words are read from memory by sight (Apel, 2011; Ehri, 1997, 2014). These readers are proficient because pronunciations and meanings come to mind automatically and instantly when written words are seen (Henbest & Apel, 2018; McCardle, Scarborough, & Catts, 2001). With limited sight vocabulary, reading is slow, laborious, and dysfluent. Readers who have to decode numerous individual words while reading are not able to read texts fluently and with expression.

How Automatic Word Recognition Develops

The mental process that we use to store words so they can be automatically recognized is called orthographic mapping. Orthographic mapping is what allows a proficient reader to instantly read any familiar word (instead of having to decode it). By promoting long-term memory of words, teachers can help students rapidly improve their fluency in increasingly complex texts. Orthographic mapping happens when a reader connects the sounds in a word to its spelling and its meaning. When a reader encounters a new word, decodes it by associating its spelling with its sounds, and thinks of its meaning, this promotes orthographic mapping of the word. After several exposures to reading the word this way, the word will be stored in long-term memory for immediate, effortless retrieval.

Promoting Automatic Word Recognition in the Classroom

Reading practice is a key ingredient to develop fluent word recognition because orthographic mapping happens through reading practice. When a reader repeatedly encounters, decodes, reads, and understands a word, it is added to the reader's sight vocabulary (Henbest & Apel, 2018). A word of caution: this process only initiates once children become somewhat skilled at decoding and are able to connect a word's spelling to its sounds and its meaning. Linnea Ehri has developed a well-known theory of the developmental phases of word reading .

A reader must be able to decode a word and connect the spelling to its sound and its meaning, to add it to long-term sight memory. Thus, orthographic mapping is not possible without some phonics and decoding skills. Decoding ability, in turn, is built upon phonemic awareness. This is why children need some phonemic awareness and phonics and decoding skills before they start to automatically recognize many words (Kilpatrick, 2016).

Learn More About Automatic Word Recognition

Considerations for Students Learning English

English learners should have equal opportunity to meaningfully participate in all foundational skills instruction. These recommendations and resources will further support English learners to develop automatic word recognition. Also, please refer to WIDA Can Dos and WIDA Instructional Supports.
Taking Bilingualism into Account

Fluency is not just speed but also expression. Reading that is rapid but lacks expression and comprehension is not fluent. "Even though fluency instruction is important, teachers must remember that many ELLs can be deceptively fast and accurate while reading in English without fully comprehending the meaning of the text they are reading. That is because reading comprehension depends upon a variety of complex skills that are not as important to word reading. These include deep vocabulary knowledge, syntactical knowledge, and background knowledge of the subject discussed in the text" (Colorín Colorado **).

Supports for English Learners

Repeated oral reading activities with feedback and guidance provide English learners with practice to develop word recognition and confidence (Linan-Thompson & Vaughn, 2007).

Allow students to practice reading along with a recorded text; build background knowledge to support comprehension and vocabulary; use questions after reading to process information (Colorín Colorado **).

References

Apel, K. (2011). What is orthographic knowledge? Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools.

Ehri, L. C. (1997). Learning to read and learning to spell are one and the same, almost. In Perfetti, C. A., Rieben, L., & Fayol, M. (eds.), Learning to spell: Research, theory, and practice across languages (p. 237-269). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers.

Ehri, L. C. (2014). Orthographic mapping in the acquisition of sight word reading, spelling memory, and vocabulary learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5-21.

Ehri, L. C., & Snowling, M. J. (2004). Developmental Variation in Word Recognition. U: Stone, CA; Silliman, ER; Ehren, BJ; Apel, K.(eds.) Handbook of Language and Literacy.

Gaskins, I. W., Ehri, L. C., Cress, C., O'Hara, C., & Donnelly, K. (1996). Procedures for word learning: Making discoveries about words. The Reading Teacher, 50(4), 312-327.

Gough, P. B., & Tunmer, W. E. (1986). Decoding, Reading, and Reading Disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.

Henbest, V. S., & Apel, K. (2018). Orthographic fast-mapping across time in 5-and 6-year-old children. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 61(8), 2015-2027.

Kilpatrick, D. (2016). Equipped for reading success: A comprehensive, step by step program for developing phonemic awareness and fluent word recognition. Casey & Kirsch Publishers.

Linan-Thompson, S. and Vaughn. S. (2007). Research-based Methods of Reading Instruction for English Learners, Grades K-4. Alexandria, VA: ASCD.

McCardle, P., Scarborough, H. S., & Catts, H. W. (2001). Predicting, explaining, and preventing children's reading difficulties. Learning Disabilities Research & Practice, 16(4), 230-239.

Miles, K.P., & Ehri, L.C. (2019). Orthographic Mapping Facilitates Sight Word Memory and Vocabulary Learning. In Kilpatrick, D., Joshi, R., & Wagner, R. (eds). Reading Development and Difficulties. Springer, Cham.
Disclosure Statement: Reference in this website to any specific commercial products, processes, or services, or the use of any trade, firm, or corporation name is for the information and convenience of the public, and does not constitute endorsement or recommendation by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). Our office is not responsible for and does not in any way guarantee the accuracy of information in other sites accessible through links herein. DESE may supplement this list with other services and products that meet the specified criteria. For more information contact: RMB252@mass.gov.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.keywords[]
massachusetts department of elementary and secondary education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.authors[].name
Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The goal of the Massachusetts public K-12 education system is to prepare all students for success after high school. Massachusetts public school students are leading the nation in reading and math and are at the top internationally in reading, science, and math according to the national NAEP and international PISA assessments.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Here's the good news: Most educators have gotten the message that K-5 students need to learn the foundational reading skills outlined in the common core and other college and career-ready standards: print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and fluency. The bad news? The foundational skills instruction that students receive is too often incomplete and ineffective. Districts are "checking" the foundational skills box but are using practices of questionable quality and not addressing all of the foundational skills. It's not enough to just do foundational skills. They must be taught completely-yet efficiently-with quality materials to build capacity for comprehending lengthy, advanced literary, and informational texts.

Literacy is livelihood. If you can't read words, many aspects of your life will be impacted. Take this question on a cosmetology licensing exam: "Which of the following refers to the deepest layer of epidermis-stratum spinosum, stratum granulosum, stratum germinativum, stratum lucidum?" It requires understanding complex Latin vocabulary as well as decoding multisyllabic words.

That's why foundational reading skills must work together -it is the integration of the skills that provide an entry point to complex literacy. As students increase in their abilities to automatically recognize words, they also increase in the amounts of mental energy they can devote to understanding complex ideas and vocabulary. No one can concentrate on Newton's laws, plot development, or electrical circuits if they are struggling to decode every fifth word.

A common misconception is that "foundational skills" only means "phonics." The truth is that the four areas are an integrated gestalt, greater than the sum of their parts. Often emphasized in K-2, phonics is teaching students the correspondence between visual symbols (graphemes made of letters) and speech sounds (phonemes). But to access phonics, children must have certain insights, or the system will make no sense.

Students often learn letters but don't know, for example, that print runs left-to-right or that words are groups of letters separated by space-insights called print concepts. Similarly, students learn letter names but do not understand the alphabetic principle-that symbols represent speech sounds ("cat" equals 3 symbols, 3 sounds). Kindergarteners learn the alphabetic principle and print concepts when their teachers model reading and writing. We are putting the cart before the horse if we drill letter/sounds without also teaching print concepts and the alphabetic principle.

Some educators think phonological awareness is synonymous with phonics, but this is another misconception. In fact, when I recently observed foundational skills lessons in more than 10 K-2 classrooms, I only saw one phonological awareness lesson. Phonological awareness is the ability to orally identify and manipulate the sound units of language such as words, syllables, and speech. Research tells us that if students do not consciously attend to and distinguish these units, they are unlikely to benefit from phonics. Similarly, instruction in print concepts primes students to learn phonics. Can you imagine going to a job where you learn all about the different types of buttons, threads, fabrics, and zippers but no one tells you that you are manufacturing jeans? Yet that's often how reading instruction can feel for children.

Phonics and word recognition skills include analyzing multisyllabic words into morphemes, the smallest meaning units (e.g., pre-treat-ing). Many schools stop instruction after students can decode single syllable words, but multisyllabic words outnumber single syllable words 4-to-1 in advanced texts. To complete foundational skills instruction, we need systematic instruction in morphology through the 5th grade and beyond.

The last foundational skill, fluency, closes the deal. It is the ability to read connected text automatically (with little conscious effort), accurately, and with proper expression using volume, phrasing, smoothness, and pace to convey the meaning. Addressed in 1st through 5th grade, fluency enhances-and is affected by-meaning making. Without requisite fluency, students will have little cognitive energy to devote to complex ideas.

It can be exhausting to hear about research-based this and research-based that-but there are well-established findings regarding foundational skills instruction. Simply put: Foundational skills cannot be separated. Print concepts and phonological awareness support phonics instruction, morphological instruction extends students' word recognition, and fluency automatizes word reading. Here are truths educators should focus on:

1. Systematic instruction is effective. It is driven by a scope and sequence, a guide specifying the content to be taught and its order. Let one scope and sequence drive instruction. I often see districts using two to three foundational skills plans, an overkill approach that is bound to confuse students.

2. Students need to learn all the foundational skills. I see approaches that heavily emphasize just one or two skills, such as phonics, but completely miss others. These skills are complementary and need to be consistently taught, in response to development, through grade 5.

3. Instructional language should be explicit. Teachers should clearly and directly tell students the grapheme/phoneme relationships, word roots, or syllable patterns being taught. I recently tested more than 150 kindergarteners who knew about 90 percent of their letter/sounds but could not decode simple words. Most young children must be taught explicitly how to decode words.

4. Solid foundational skills instruction is assessment-guided and responsive. All students do not need the same thing. In a 2014 study, one researcher found that entering kindergarteners ranged from knowing zero letter names to knowing all of them. Teachers must use simple diagnostic assessments that inform cumulative review and instruction and often must use small group instruction.

5. Instructional materials must be aligned to the standards. A recent analysis from the RAND Corporation found that only 7 percent of elementary school teachers used at least one high-quality English/language arts material. Thoroughly vet materials to ensure full coverage of all foundational skills. EdReports.org provides a rigorously developed tool that give leaders a road map. (I recently sat on an advisory panel for the organization's inaugural review of Foundational Skills curriculum.) With focused planning even small or underresourced districts can find research-based, standards-aligned materials.

Moreover, all four foundational skills deserve our full attention as they provide an entry point to complex literacy. Decisionmakers must fully understand what the foundational skills are and apply the robust research that informs best practices. These foundational reading skills are truly foundational-an essential ingredient but not the full recipe. Comprehension and writing instruction, which requires a wide range of instructional targets such as vocabulary and world knowledge, the focus of the other standards, round out the complete recipe. Millions of students are looking to their schools to provide them with the essential knowledge they need to succeed in college and career-it is imperative that we get these skills right.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
There Are Four Foundational Reading Skills. Why Do We Only Talk About Phonics? (Opinion)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Here's the good news: Most educators have gotten the message that K-5 students need to learn the foundational reading skills outlined in the common core and other college and career-ready standards: print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and fluency. The bad news?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
What Are Other Foundational Literacy Skills?

In addition to the four key foundational reading skills listed above, students need numerous other foundational literacy skills to become proficient. For example, a strong ELA program will include instruction that supports language comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, and speaking.

The sophistication of these skills will evolve as the students progress through school. For example, before students can effectively write a response to reading prompts, they need to have experience with print concepts, like letter recognition, handwriting, such as letter formation, and encoding (spelling). Students will also need to practice many other skills, such as listening to stories read aloud and telling stories.

Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding

Teachers and families can support students as they travel through the many stages of literacy development. After an extensive review of rigorous research, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) produced the IES Practice Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade. While the skills are similar to the key foundational reading skills above, there is some variation in their focus. Given the strong research base of this IES Practice Guide, we would be remiss not to highlight their instructional recommendations:

Recommendation 1: Teach students academic language skills, including the use of inferential and narrative language and vocabulary knowledge.

Recommendation 2: Develop awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters.

Recommendation 3: Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words.

Recommendation 4: Ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.

Families are essential to supporting students' knowledge acquisition, including ELA skills. Drawing upon the four recommendations of the IES Practice Guide, WWC created a companion document, " Tips for Supporting Reading at Home," which offers guidance to families (and applies to classrooms as well), including:

Have conversations before, during, and after reading together.

Help children learn how to break sentences into words and words into syllables.

Help children sound out words smoothly.

Model reading fluently by practicing reading aloud with your child.

Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills

Teaching foundational literacy skills requires systematic, explicit, and diagnostic instruction. Concepts need to be taught with an evidence-based scope and sequence covering topics from the most basic to more complex, which are introduced through teacher modeling, adequate practice, and personalized feedback. Students' understanding and skills are assessed continuously so that whole-group classwork can focus on curricular elements benefiting all students. Small-group work can provide targeted, differentiated reading instruction that accommodates the needs of students reading at various levels.

Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills with Digital Tools

The use of digital tools to support early literacy instruction has skyrocketed over the past couple of decades, particularly with the pandemic accelerating the usage of technology for all students. During whole-group instruction, many teachers can display literacy lessons on digital Smart Boards or access relevant multimedia that develop students' vocabulary and content knowledge on a given text. Students can be broken up into literacy centers or small groups, where some students practice a given phonics or comprehension skill with personalized instruction at computer stations while others may be reading independently using audiobooks or eBooks at their reading level.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In addition to the four key foundational reading skills listed above, students need numerous other foundational literacy skills to become proficient. For example, a strong ELA program will include instruction that supports language comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary, reading comprehension, writing, and speaking. The sophistication of these skills will evolve as the students progress through school.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Phonics and Word Recognition Instruction in Early Reading Programs: Guidelines for Children with Reading Disabilities

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Many teachers will be using supplemental phonics and word-recognition materials to enhance reading instruction for their students. In this article, the authors provide guidelines for determining the accessibility of these phonics and word recognition programs.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In agreement with the Science of Reading (SoR) research, there are five main components understood as fundamental to reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. In this blog, we break down each component with definitions, its impact on students, and a helpful episode from Science of Reading: The Podcast to guide you as you implement effective research-based practices into your instruction.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemes are the smallest units making up spoken language, combined to form syllables and words.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate these individual units of sound. It is one of the most fundamental skills children need to acquire in order to learn how to read. By playing word games, engaging in language play, rhyming, and simply listening to a parent or teacher read to them, your child can develop phonemic awareness from an early age.

Phonics

Phonics is the relationship between the letters (or letter combinations) in written language and the individual sounds in spoken language. Effective phonics instruction enables children to use these relationships to read and spell words accurately and rapidly.

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read as well as we speak and to make sense of the text without having to stop and decode each word. Fluent readers are able to read orally with appropriate speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Guided oral reading and repeated oral reading have a significant and positive impact on word recognition, reading fluency, and comprehension in students of all ages. Fluency is something that comes as a child develops their phonemic awareness, phonics skills, and vocabulary.

Vocabulary

Vocabulary development is closely connected to comprehension and refers to words we need to know to communicate with others. There are 4 types of vocabulary:

Listening: words we understand when others talk to us

Speaking: words we use when we talk to others

Reading: words we know when we see them in print (sight words and words we can decode)

Writing: words we use when we write

The larger the reader's vocabulary (either oral or print), the easier it is to make sense of the text. Students should be actively engaged in instruction that includes learning words before reading, repetition and multiple exposures, learning in rich contexts, incidental learning, and use of computer technology.

Comprehension

Comprehension involves constructing meaning that is reasonable and accurate by connecting what has been read to what the reader already knows and thinking about all of this information until it is understood. Comprehension is the final goal of reading instruction. Strong comprehenders can generate their own questions and use their background knowledge to identify or make connections among ideas in what they are reading.
Sources:

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In agreement with the Science of Reading (SoR) research, there are five main components understood as fundamental to reading: phonics, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. In this blog, we break down each component with definitions, its impact on students, and a helpful episode from Science of Reading: The Podcast to guide you as you implement effective research-based practices into your instruction.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
This page discusses teaching strategies to improve reading accuracy for students of all ages.

Issues with word-level reading occur when students have consistent difficulty decoding written words in an automatic, accurate and efficient way.

Indications of a word reading difficulty include:

reading slowly and with difficulty

inaccuracies in word reading

poor reading fluency when reading out loud

guessing at words and, therefore, making numerous errors

finding reading tiring and unenjoyable

difficulty comprehending what they read because:

word reading errors interfere with meaning

reading is so slow that it is difficult to retain information in working memory while attempting to read a sentence.

Students with word reading difficulties may also find it difficult to identify and segment word parts (phonemic awareness) as well as understanding the relationship between graphemes and phonemes (phonics). While reading out loud, students with word reading difficulties are likely to read in a monotone voice, fail to notice punctuation markers and read with little evidence of understanding the text.

Along with poor reading comprehension, other secondary consequences of poor word reading include poor spelling accuracy and difficulty with extended writing. Many students become acutely aware of their deficits, especially when they see peers progressing. Self-esteem may be fragile for many poor readers along with various internalising or externalising behaviours and even school refusal.

Reading demands across school years

Reading instruction should align with the increasing reading demands that students face as they progress through school, with a focus on reading accuracy and reading comprehension.

Foundation and Year 1

Students learn to decode and read words of moderate complexity. This could include words with digraphs (for example, ship, ea ch) consonant blends (for example, clip, ea st) and some bi- and tri-syllabic words that are easily decodable (for example, butterfly, rabbit).

Many high frequency words are easily decodable (for example, and, on, I, right) with systematic phonics instruction although some high frequency words will need to be taught (for example, the, so, to). Reading comprehension is developing and follows the students' ability to decode.

Year 2 toward upper primary

Students build reading rate, accuracy and automaticity. Words with greater complexity are now decodable (for example, saucepan, caravan). Reading comprehension becomes an increasingly vital instructional focus as students move from learning to read to reading to learn.

Upper primary years and beyond

Students are required to read as a means of learning, researching topics and broadening their knowledge base. Reading comprehension skills are crucial to academic success.

High Impact Teaching Strategies to teach reading accuracy

The High Impact Teaching Strategies (HITS) are 10 instructional practices that reliably increase student learning and can be used as a framework for planning how to teach reading accuracy.

Adjust the use of each strategy for students with learning difficulties by considering their needs and how they learn best.

Strategy 2: Structuring lessons

Lessons may need to include activities that scaffold foundational knowledge for students and help them to recall what they already know, for example, about letter-sound clusters and patterns. Use your assessment data to help you predict which words students may struggle with. This will help you provide differentiated support as needed.

For some students, you may choose to pre-load them with the words that will be important for upcoming lessons but that you predict will be challenging. This can be done by:

teaching the words to students in a bespoke session prior to class

providing the student with the words and scaffolds such as an image of the word or a syllabified version of the word.

This will assist students to retain this knowledge and apply it other words to read or spell.

Strategy 3: Explicit teaching

Your lessons may need to model skills or concepts using more micro-steps for students with learning difficulties. When teaching phonemic skills, for example, you may need to teach and model the number of sounds in each word and gradually support the student to be able to identify and segment the individual sounds. Avoid asking the student to do tasks if you have not taught, modelled and practised the task with the student.

Building in procedures such as regular checks for understanding will also help create opportunities for explicit teaching and reinforcing key knowledge and skills. Regular checks for understanding is good practice for all students.

Strategy 7: Questioning

There are several ways that questioning can be used in teaching: to improve recall, to enhance a student's knowledge of a topic, to provoke higher levels of reasoning. For students with learning difficulties, however, using questioning to learn can be challenging. These students will benefit from clear scaffolding, being shown explicitly how to ask questions and to link questions with the texts they read.

You may like to have short periods in your lessons where you call on non-volunteers to answer questions. If you do this, it is important to teach the students how this works and indicate when it starts and ends. Using this method, all students can contribute to question-answer sessions (and discussions) and you are able to scaffold and differentiate the questions for individual students.

Some students may have verbal retrieval difficulties and will benefit from being asked recognition questions prior to recall questions.

For example, instead of asking students, 'When do we use a capital letter?', you could first provide an example and ask them, 'Where are the capital letters in this sentence?'. Answering this recognition question first will assist them in answering the subsequent recall question. For students who struggle with this, step backwards and provide models and worked examples to foster greater learning.

Strategy 9: Metacognitive strategies

The teaching of metacognitive strategies is recommended for every aspect of literacy learning. This will foster greater student self-regulation. Students with learning difficulties commonly have challenges with using metacognitive strategies and will need additional scaffolding. This is often because completing the task is more cognitively demanding for them and they don't have the energy to put into metacognitive strategies in the same timeframe as most students. Increasing practise opportunities with scaffolds is a good strategy.

For example, teaching students sentence stems they can use will assist them when it comes time to reflect on what they have learned (for example, 'I am learning about ...' 'I didn't know ...' 'I now know ...' 'I will remember when writing/reading/spelling to ...').

Grouping students

Students with learning difficulties will benefit from individual or small group instruction. This is because the speed of processing among these students often differs from their peers. This also ensures that students with word reading difficulties can be taught using strategies that target the nature of their learning difficulty.

The Response to Intervention (RTI) framework can be helpful for thinking about how to embed academic support for students with learning difficulties within a school-wide approach to teaching and learning.

RTI is a framework of academic support that is often embedded within a Multi-tiered System of Support, alongside School-wide Positive Behaviour Support. It divides support into three tiers of increasing intensity, organised according to need.

Tier 1: whole school

Teachers have opportunities to design whole-class instruction that meets the needs of as many students as possible. All students receive high-quality, differentiated instruction. Classroom teachers gather evidence about which students are responding to Tier 1 instruction and which students require additional support.

Tier 2: targeted

Targeted intervention for select identified students is delivered at a classroom level or in small groups. This will comprise approximately five to 15 per cent of students. Students are provided with additional support to help them succeed in a general education classroom.

Tier 3: individualised

Intensive, individualised instruction for students needing additional and more intensive support to access and engage with the curriculum. This will comprise approximately one to five per cent of students. Student support services may be included in the collaborative learning team supporting the student.

For example, a student whose literacy knowledge and skills fall at or around the sixteenth percentile will likely benefit from the greater differentiation and small group teaching offered as part of Tier 2 intervention, in addition to the evidenced-based delivery of curriculum as part of Tier 1.

This more substantive differentiation may involve helping students develop organisational and planning skills, breaking down a problem or activity into smaller steps and providing additional opportunities to practise key or specific skills.

Students who do not benefit substantially from Tier 2 intervention will need to receive Tier 3 support. It is likely that these students qualify as having a learning disability. The support in Tier 3 is more intensive and targeted than Tier 2 and is typically delivered by a teacher with highly developed literacy capability in identifying and supporting students with learning difficulties.

Students requiring Tier 3 support for word-level reading problems are likely to need to go back to the basics of phonemic awareness and phonics instruction.

Students may also require explicit instruction in spelling and writing. Aim to personalise instruction based on each student's literacy profile and rigorous assessment data.

Structuring lessons

Teaching new knowledge and skills

Students with word reading difficulties will benefit from systematically learning about how the English writing system works. Whether you use a commercial program or your own system, it is important that your instruction is clearly sequenced, cumulative and well structured. This is helpful to all students but particularly those with word-level reading difficulties.

Students are not expected to read or spell words they have not yet been taught about. For example, if students are working at decoding consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant, and consonant-vowel-consonant- consonant words containing the sounds 's - a - t - p - i -n', , they should be segmenting, blending and reading words such as 'sat', 'spat' and 'nips' but not expected to read the words 'sitting', 'skin' or 'pane' as these grapheme-phoneme combinations have not yet been taught.

When introducing new content to students with learning difficulties, instruction may need to be adjusted in the following ways:

Break learning down into smaller steps

Avoid making big conceptual leaps or moving through new content too quickly. Break them down into smaller steps than for most of your students. Focus on teaching and then embedding the key knowledge and skills that students need to know before moving onto the next step. Ensure that your instruction is sequenced clearly, is cumulative and well structured.

Make clear links between new ideas

Explain things clearly and in a way that makes the connections between existing knowledge and new knowledge explicit.

Help students focus their attention

Check-in regularly with students that have trouble focussing their attention and ignoring distractions, so that they are accountable for their progress on a task. Try asking things like 'can you tell me which sounds we are working on today' or 'Tell your partner when you have to use 's' at the end of words'.

Ask recognition questions

Students with learning difficulties may have trouble rapidly retrieving information so that answering questions can be difficult and may even create a sense of fear for some. It is important that all students feel able to contribute to class discussions, so scaffold your questions carefully for struggling students and provide as much support as needed to facilitate a correct response.

Ask a recognition question first. For example, 'Would you call this ... or ...?' and then follow up with recall questions once the student's knowledge has been stimulated.

Use actions

One way to help students with learning difficulties to understand phonemic skills is through actions. For example, you can explain segmenting spoken words into sounds by 'slicing up' the spoken word using a slicing action with your hand. You could also do this with rows of counters, pushing counters forward as you say each sound.

You can use similar gestures to show students how to blend sounds. Start by having students blend two sounds together first, then three sounds and so on.

Help students to recognise what they have learned

The purpose of doing a task is to change what students know or can do. It is important that students understand this. After they have finished a task, teach students to ask, 'What did I learn? What do I know now that I didn't know before?'.

For example, after reading and spelling the four words 'sat', 'sit', 'pat' and 'pit', ask students to tell you what they now know.

Make sure the student can explain or show you what they know once they have finished the task, to ensure they fully understand. In this case, you could ask them to spell the words 'astound' or 'around'. This type of teacher-student dialogue will help students with learning difficulties to transfer this knowledge from their working memory to their long-term memory.

Helping students to recognise what they have learned helps to build their confidence and self-efficacy as readers. It also shows students that they can be successful and motivates them to persevere with other activities in future.

Create a safe space in the classroom

Many students with learning difficulties will be anxious about responding to questions and initiating tasks in their learning. This can prevent them from fully benefitting from activities and tasks designed to extend them. Calling on non-volunteers is one helpful strategy to facilitate this environment.

Give students time to think

Providing students with enough time to process information and respond is important, particularly for students with learning difficulties. Avoid rushing students by allowing a little extra time but balance this with not letting struggling students stay for 'too long' when responding. This is a fine balance.

It may also be helpful to follow up with any students with learning difficulties after providing an explanation at a classroom level to ensure that they have understood. Ask a clarifying question or have the student repeat the explanation back in their own words to test this.

Give regular feedback

Provide regular, immediate and corrective feedback. Acknowledge what the student already knows or has done, discuss this in positive terms and then point them in the direction of what they need to know or think about next.

Teach language skills

Students with learning difficulties often have trouble thinking about texts and their meanings in different ways. This is because much of their cognitive energy is taken up with simply recognising and reading the text. This means that, compared to their peers, struggling readers may be missing out on opportunities to build their vocabulary, general knowledge and sophisticated use of language.

For example, you could say, 'You just read the word "tragic". Well done! Tragic means to be in extreme distress or sadness. In the sentence, the word "tragic" was used to describe the event. Can you tell me another time that might be "tragic''?' This type of technique is designed to continuously scaffold and build oral language skills.

Reviewing and reinforcing what has been learned

Students with learning difficulties may have trouble transferring what they have learned to long-term memory. This will be apparent when students are unable to recall knowledge or a skill they have learned before, even when they appeared to have understood it clearly at the time.

Teaching may need to be more intensively delivered (more opportunities to practise and additional scaffolding), differentiated or include scaffolding to assist students to embed learning. Adjustments include:

helping students to identify what new knowledge or skills they have learned. Encourage students to ask themselves, 'What did I just learn?' or 'What do I know now that I didn't know before?'

helping students to summarise this new knowledge or outline skills in simple language will help them more easily recall this information later.

providing scaffolding for students to be able to make connections between what they have learned and what they already know. For example, exploring how it is different from their existing knowledge or how it adds to, extends or changes this.

creating opportunities for students to practise the act of recalling what they have learned. For example, 'Can you tell me what we learned about yesterday during reading?', 'What have we been learning about this week?'

You can use these adjustments to help plan reading comprehension activities and lessons.

Teaching and learning activities for reading accuracy

The Literacy Teaching Toolkit describes various approaches you can use to teach word reading, spelling and reading comprehension. Each activity can be adjusted for students with learning difficulties.

The approaches include:

modelled reading

shared reading

guided reading

independent reading

reciprocal teaching

language-experience approach

literature circles

close reading

teaching-learning cycle: reading and writing connections

reading conferences.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Teaching students with word reading difficulties

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
This page discusses teaching strategies to improve reading accuracy for students of all ages. Issues with word-level reading occur when students have consistent difficulty decoding written words in an automatic, accurate and efficient way.