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Reading and writing skills are very closely connected.  From hearing the smallest unit of sounds, phonemic awareness, to connecting those sounds to print, phonological awareness, children should be given opportunities to build their reading and writing skills in unison.  Spelling words when writing is an example of where children have to use their abilities in the above mentioned two pillars of reading instruction.  The National Reading Panel says that “a child will use his writing as a place to try out styles, language, new words and even spellings he has come across in reading,” (The National Reading Panel, n.d.).  Writing about a text requires the reader to have a good understanding of what they have read.  The suggested strategies I shared like semantic mapping and “ask the experts” have a written component.  Writing tasks can also be extensions of reading.  For example students can create a new ending to a story or create their own picture caption to a photograph in an informational text.  The goal of reading and writing about reading is to have students interact with text.

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Blau, L. (2001). 5 surefire strategies for developing reading fluency. Instructor, 110(8), 28–30.

Foil, C. R., & Alber, S. R. (2002). Fun and Effective Ways To Build Your Students’ Vocabulary. Intervention in School and Clinic, 37(3), 131–139.

Johnson, Andy. (2017, October 17). The National Reading Panel and the 5 Pillars of Reading Instruction [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/czLo0fD7k7Q

Maryann Manning & Tsuguhiko Kato (2006) Teaching Strategies: Phonemic Awareness: A Natural Step toward Reading and Writing, Childhood Education, 82:4, 241-243, https://doi.org/10.1080/00094056.2006.10522832

Semingson, Peggy. (2014, May 9). Overview of the "Big Five" of Reading: Phonemic Awareness and More [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/wCGXhIjvE1Y

The National Reading Panel: Five Components of Reading Instruction Frequently Asked Questions (n.d.). Learns, 1-5. http://www.learninglandscape.com/National_Reading_Panel_Reading_Instruction_FAQ.pdf

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Johnson stresses the importance of cognitive processes, where students are given the opportunity to think deeply about a text, to build their understanding of what they have read (Johnson, 2017, 11:45). This includes pre-reading, during reading and post reading activities. The National Reading Panel explains that having students make predictions and utilize questioning techniques gives them an opportunity to interact with the text and therefore requires them to use cognitive processes (“The National Reading Panel, n.d.).  One activity I like to do with my class is “ask the experts.”  Here a group of students are given questions about a specific topic or portion of a text to answer within their group. They search through the text for the answers to their questions citing specific text evidence.  Finally, they present their findings as experts of their section to the rest of the class.  This requires them to purposefully interact with the text, thus building their comprehension in a focused manner.

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Semantic mapping, using a visual concept map or web to show how a word is related to other words or ideas, is an effective way to build a student’s vocabulary word bank.  It allows them to connect new terms to pre-established knowledge.  Foil and Alber state, “the use of semantic mapping has been empirically demonstrated to facilitate student success in vocabulary development (Foil and Alber, 2002).  Foil and Alber give many excellent examples of various ways to develop concept maps, such as those that break a term into different categories, and then into smaller, more specific examples for each category.

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Blau suggests reader’s theater as a fun and engaging activity for students to build their reading fluency.  She recommends, “After your read-aloud, do an echo read and a choral read of the script to involve the entire class” (Blau, 2001).  Students can read different parts, adding their own flare and inflections while presenting.  Prompts and inviting other classes or parents can add an exciting element to reader’s theater performances.

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Suggested by Semingson, word sorts can be used to build a student’s phonics skills (Semingson, 2014).  Teachers provide the words for the sort, and can either give the categories for the sort such as long vs. short vowel sounds, various digraphs, etc…, or leave it more open ended for students to determine the categories.  This is a wonderful activity that can be differentiated based on the needs of an individual student or group of students.

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Phonemic Awareness Skill Building Strategy

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Phonemic Awareness Skill Building Strategy

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One strategy shared by Manning and Kato is Turtle Talk.  Suggested by Dick Allington, president of the International Reading Association, Turtle Talk is where the teacher instructs students to pretend they are turtles and say a given word very slowly similar to how a turtle would move, so every sound can be heard (Manning and Kato 2006).  This allows them to practice expanding sounds in words into their smallest part.

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Comprehension is the capacity to understand what is read. It includes literal and inferential understanding.  The goal of any reading instruction is to have students apply their understanding of what they have read.

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Vocabulary includes a child’s knowledge and understanding of previously heard words as well as the ability to determine the meaning of new words they see and hear using learned techniques. According to Semingson (Semingson, 2014), not all words can be directly taught, but need to be learned through multiple exposures.

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Fluency is the rate at which a student reads, usually calculated by the number of words read correctly per minute.  While accuracy is important when looking at a child’s fluency, noting their ability to read with expression is also significant.

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Phonics involves the understanding that each letter in the alphabet represents a sound, or sounds in the case of vowels. Students with strong phonics skills can match the sounds they hear to written print.  This includes knowledge of high frequency words.

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the smallest unit of sound.  Children with phonemic awareness are able to isolate sounds they hear in a word, as well as stretch out and blend sounds.  These are very important skills and according to Semingson (Semingson, 2014), the prerequisite to reading.