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Students break down words into individual sounds using manipulatives like counters or blocks. For example, the word 'cat' would be segmented into 'c-a-t.' This helps them understand the basic building blocks of words.

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Students participate in rhyming games where they match words that rhyme or come up with their own rhyming words. This activity strengthens their ability to hear and identify similar sounds.

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Teacher says individual phonemes slowly, and students blend them to form a word. For instance, the teacher says 'b-a-t,' and students respond with 'bat.' This activity helps with sound blending skills.

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Students learn to match letters with their corresponding sounds using flashcards or interactive digital games. This reinforces their understanding of the alphabetic principle.

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Using magnetic letters or cut-out letters, students form words by combining different consonants and vowels. This hands-on activity reinforces phonics rules and patterns.

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Students play bingo using cards that have words or pictures. The teacher calls out the letter sounds or word, and students cover the matching pictures or words on their bingo card.

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Students practice and perform script readings in a dramatic fashion. This activity helps students improve their reading fluency and expressiveness.

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Students read a passage repeatedly within a set time. This helps them increase their reading speed and accuracy. Track their progress over time to show improvement.

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Pairs of students take turns reading aloud to each other. This provides immediate feedback and support, and helps improve fluency through practice and listening.

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Students create word maps for new vocabulary words. They include the word, its definition, a sentence using the word, and a picture illustrating the word. This helps with vocabulary retention.

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Each student keeps a journal where they write down new vocabulary words, their meanings, and use them in sentences. Reviewing these journals regularly helps with vocabulary building.

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Students learn to infer the meaning of new vocabulary words using context clues within sentences or passages. They highlight or underline the clues that helped them determine the meaning.

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Students create story maps that outline the main elements of a story, such as the characters, setting, problem, and solution. This enhances their understanding of story structure and improves comprehension.

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Students practice different types of questions (Right There, Think and Search, Author and You, On Your Own) to improve their comprehension skills. This guides them on where to find answers in the text.

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Students practice summarizing paragraphs or chapters in their own words. This encourages them to identify the main ideas and key details, aiding in their understanding and retention of the material.

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What is Phonemic Awareness?

Beginning the learning process of reading can be quite a difficult undertaking. When we think of new readers and how they learn, we usually picture children's stories and the alphabet, but whether the beginner is a child or an adult that never acquired the necessary skills, the first step towards success is phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds (Yopp, 1992).

Phonemic versus Phonological Awareness

Many people have the incorrect understanding that phonemic awareness and phonological awareness are the same thing, or synonyms of one another. It is important to be clear that although they are similar, they are indeed unique, and this differentiation is key to understanding the development process.

Phonemic awareness is a subsect of phonological awareness. Phonemic awareness is more specific and deals with the ability to identify individual sounds within words, called phonemes ("cat.../c/ /a/ /t/"), as well as manipulate them within a given word ("Change the /c/ to a /b/... now the word is bat"). Phonetic awareness is a broader term referring to the more developed ability of being able to hear, identify, and manipulate larger units of sounds such as onsets and syllables and recognition of rhyming words.

For beginning learners, and for the purpose of this blog, we will be focusing on phonemic awareness (the more specific term), as it will be the first skill that needs to be developed.

Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?

Phonemic awareness is critical for identifying reading development in new learners, and it is the most important pre-reading skill that can be developed being central to the role in learning to read and to spell. According to the National Reading Panel, "Teaching phonemic awareness to children significantly improves their reading more than instruction that lacks any attention to phonemic awareness."

It is well accepted that phonemic awareness is the best predictor of reading and writing success in young children. It helps learners to master sound-spelling relationships, thus improving this skill through structured education is critical for a higher chance of being able to read and write when literacy instruction begins.

Without phonemic awareness, learners will be unable to group words with similar and dissimilar sounds, blend and split syllables, blend sounds into words, break a word down into its sequence of sounds, nor detect and manipulate sounds within words. It is the foundation, so to speak, of a future reader and writer and without it fluency can never be achieved.

How Learners Develop Phonemic Awareness

The development of phonemic awareness is unique for every learner. Some are able to begin growing phonemic awareness naturally through rhyming stories (like Dr. Seuss), through singing and learning nursery rhymes, or even by listening and reading along with a parent or teacher. This can be a very fortunate start to the learning process for some students, but others may need systematic and specific phonemic awareness teaching to grow in their abilities in preparation for writing and reading. There are many online resources as well as professional institutions available for this type of instruction.

Levels of Phonemic Awareness

Marilyn Jager Adams, a specialist in cognition and education at Brown University, created a widely used definition of phonemic awareness in 1990, and developed a basic understanding of the skills leading to phonemic awareness in five distinct levels.

1) Ability to hear rhymes ("dog, fog") and alliteration (repeated initial sounds in words, i.e "purple poster").

2) Ability to identify similarities and differences in rhyme and alliteration across and between words.

3) Ability to blend and segment syllables ("rain-bow...rainbow").

4) Ability to split a spoken word into phonemes ("bag...b-a-g").

5) Ability to identify and manipulate the sounds in words ("Say 'dog'. Now change the last sound to a /t/. What word do you have now?")

Help Developing Phonemic Awareness

Developing the skill of phonemic awareness is incredibly important for the successful progress in reading and writing for all new learners. If you feel that a loved one or family friend could use a guide to become more proficient in phonemic awareness, send them over to the professionals at the Colorado Reading Center. Our clinicians help students of any age and welcome all inquiries - take a look at our website or give us a call for more information!

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What is Phonemic Awareness? - Colorado Reading Center

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What is Phonemic Awareness? Beginning the learning process of reading can be quite a difficult undertaking. When we think of new readers and how they learn, we usually picture children's stories and the alphabet, but whether the beginner is a child or an adult that never acquired the necessary skills, the first step towards success [...]

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The best approach to beginning reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonological awareness, systematic phonics instruction, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading. While the research is clear on what to teach, figuring out how to teach these pieces can be challenging. This Educator's Toolkit provides practical ways to incorporate instruction in one of the 5 Big Ideas, systematic phonics instruction, within your classroom. Phonics instruction teaches the idea that letters, and groups of letters, match individual sounds in printed words. The ability to apply these predictable relationships to familiar and unfamiliar words is crucial to reading success. Systematic phonics instruction begins with teaching letter-sound correspondence and progresses to regular and irregular word reading.

Tips for Teaching Letter-Sound Correspondence

Letter-sound correspondence, or the relationship of the letters in the alphabet to the sounds they represent, is a key component of learning to read. To teach letter sound correspondence:

Work with a few sounds at a time by teaching each letter of the alphabet and its most common corresponding sound.

For each letter-sound relationship, instruction should include naming the letter or letters that represent the sound.

When introducing each letter-sound relationship in isolation (versus when reading connected text), associate a picture of an object with the target sound. Using picture cues helps students remember the relationship between the letter and the sound (for example, an image of a pig, the printed letter "p," and the teacher orally stating the sound for /p/).

Incorporating a short story that features the sound and has a picture of an object with the target sound and letter helps students remember the picture and the sound when they encounter the letter in print. For example, if students are learning the letter and sound for "p" with an image of a pig as the picture cue, the accompanying story may be "Polly Pig likes to eat pizza and play with her pals."

When teaching the relationship between each letter and its corresponding sound, introduce the letter in uppercase and lowercase.

Multiple practice opportunities with letter-sound relationships should be provided daily to teach new letter-sound relationships and to review letters and sounds previously taught.

Teachers often ask about the best order for teaching letter-sound correspondence. There is no specific agreed upon instructional sequence for introducing letter-sound relationships; however, relationships that enable students to begin reading words as quickly as possible should be introduced earliest in instruction. When teaching new letter-sound relationships:

Begin with letter-sound relationships of high utility (such as m, a, and s) so students can begin working with words as soon as possible.

Separate and stagger letter-sound relationships that are auditorily confusing (such as "b" and "v") or visually similar (such as "b" and "d") to promote mastery of one before introducing the confusing counterpart to students.

After students master sounds spelled with one letter, more complex letter-sound relationships such as "sh" for /sh/, "a_e" for /a/, and "igh" for /i/ can be introduced.

Regular Word Reading

Once students have learned a few letter-sound relationships, they can begin to read regular words containing the letters and sounds they have learned. Initially, students learn to decode words that follow phonetic rules and can be sounded out (e.g., cat, box, bet). Strategies for blending or reading words from left to right by linking each letter or group of letters to their sounds, can be taught to help students decode regular words. One such strategy is encouraging students to read words without stopping between sounds. Teachers can prompt students to "keep their motor running" (keep their voices on) as they say the sounds in a word to read it. After students have blended the sounds together to read the word, they should then read it the "fast way," or in a fluent voice without holding each sound. As students become more fluent, they should do the blending work in their heads without saying sounds aloud, and only read the word aloud in a quick, fluent voice.

Continuous and stop sounds contribute to the complexity of the blending task. Continuous sounds are sounds that can be held without being distorted (e.g., /n/, /s/ and /f/). Continuous sounds are easier to hold and blend together when students are first learning to blend sounds and read words. Stop sounds are made with quick puffs of air and cannot be held without becoming distorted (e.g., /b/, /p/, and /k/). Most students are successful with blending words containing both continuous and stop sounds, but some students may struggle with this.

To support the students who struggle, the following sequence explains the progression of blending from easiest (1) to most difficult (4):

Words that follow the consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) pattern and contain all continuous sounds (e.g., man, run, rim, win);

Words that follow the CVC pattern with a stop sound at the end of the word (e.g., sap, mat, fit, lot);

Words that follow the CVC pattern with a stop sound at the beginning of the word (e.g., top, pan, big, ten);

Words that follow the consonant-consonant-vowel-consonant (CCVC) pattern with a blend at the beginning that includes a stop sound (e.g.; step, skit, spot, spun).

Using only words in one level and checking for student mastery before moving to the next level in the sequence will provide scaffolding for students who need additional support with blending sounds to read words.

Table 1: Sequence of Word Types for Blending

Words that Follow the CVC Spelling Pattern

Words that Follow the CCVC Spelling Pattern

All Continuous Sounds

Stop Sound at the End

Stop Sound at the Beginning

Beginning Blend Includes a Stop Sound

e. The lists above do not include all words for each level in the blending sequence, rather they are examples of some words for each level of the blending sequence. There are additional words that fit the spelling patterns and sound placements in the chart above that can be used in blending instruction. Words selected for blending instruction should be contingent upon the spelling pattern of the word (CVC/CCVC), type of sounds (stop and/or continuous) the word includes placement of those sounds within the word, letters-sound relationships students have learned, and the students' current level of knowledge within the blending sequence.

After students have mastered blending words that follow CVC and CCVC spelling patterns, words with more advanced spelling patterns, such as vowel-consonant-silent e (e.g., "a_e," "o_e") and vowel sounds spelled with more than one letter (e.g., "ai," "igh"), can be introduced. As more complex spelling patterns and words are learned, teach students to recognize the vowel pattern and corresponding sound in the word to assist with decoding the word.

Word-Building Activities

To build awareness of how letters and their sounds are connected to spelling and pronunciation, word-building activities such as word ladders (Figure 1.1) and sound boxes (Figure 1.2) should be integrated into literacy instruction. Begin with words that contain simple patterns such as VC (e.g., am) and CVC spelling patterns. After students master simple spelling patterns, gradually incorporate more advanced words as students learn more advanced spelling patterns (e.g., vowel- consonant-silent e, vowel patterns spelled with more than one letter).

When students receive systematic phonics instruction and can apply what they know about letter- sound correspondence to translate printed letters and letter combinations into the sounds they represent, they are able to accurately read a vast number of words, including words they have never encountered in text.

Figure 1.1

The instructor reads the words to the right of the ladder, starting at the bottom and working up to the top of the ladder. Students can complete this activity by using letter tiles or by writing the appropriate letters in the blanks.

Figure 1.2

Sound boxes can be used when students are learning words with two or three sounds using a set of boxes that matches the number of sounds in the word. If students do not yet know letter-sound relationships, disks can be used for this activity (see example a). Once students know letter-sound relationships, they can use letter tiles for this activity (see example b).

Tell students a word. Then have students repeat the word slowly as they pull a disk or letter tile into each box while saying the sounds in the word. After students have placed the disks or letter tiles in the boxes, have students slide their finger across the arrow under the set of boxes to read the word as a whole unit.

Suggested Citation

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2023). The Educator's science of reading toolbox: How to use systematic phonics instruction in your classroom. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from http://improvingliteracy.org.

References

National Reading Panel. (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. Washington, D.C.: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Abstract

This Educator's Toolbox, developed in Partnership with The Reading League Journal, provides practical ways to incorporate instruction in systematic phonics instruction within your classroom.

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The Educator's Science of Reading Toolbox: How to Use Systematic Phonics Instruction in Your Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The best approach to beginning reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonological awareness, systematic phonics instruction, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading. While the research is clear on what to teach, figuring out how to teach these pieces can be challenging.

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The best approach to beginning reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading. While the research is clear on what to teach, how you teach these pieces can be challenging. This Educator's Toolbox provides practical ways to incorporate fluency instruction within your classroom.

What is Fluency?

Fluency has been defined as "reasonably accurate reading, at an appropriate rate, with suitable expression, that leads to accurate and deep comprehension and motivation to read" (Hasbrouck & Glaser, 2012, p. 13). To be fluent readers, students must master word recognition skills to the point of becoming so automatic-or fluid-that decoding no longer requires cognitive effort or conscious attention.

Fluency in oral reading includes:

accuracy, which is reading with few errors

rate, which is the pace at which a student reads

expression, which is reading aloud with proper intonation and phrasing

To be considered a fluent reader, all three of these components must be in place. Simply being an accurate reader is not enough. It is important to remember that fluency is not an end in itself, but rather a critical gateway to comprehension. Fluent reading frees cognitive resources to process meaning, and in turn, helps with text comprehension.

Things to Consider when a Reader is Not Fluent

When there is a fluency issue, the first thing to investigate is if the student is not reading connected text fluently because they cannot decode words fluently (accurately and automatically). If they are not able to decode words accurately and automatically, they will never be able to read connected text fluently. To determine if a student is reading fluently, start by assessing how many words the student can read correctly per minute. If the student's words correct per minute score is below the benchmark for their grade level, use diagnostic assessments to identify the factors that are contributing to the difficulty with fluency. Letter-sound knowledge and phoneme awareness should be assessed to determine if the student is able to identify and manipulate the sounds in words and state letter-sound correspondences accurately and with fluency. Phonics knowledge should also be assessed to determine if the student is able to read individual words accurately and with fluency. If these assessments show that students are not fluent with letter-sound correspondences, phoneme awareness, or phonics, then laborious and inaccurate word reading is impacting their fluency with reading connected text. Systematic phonics instruction, targeting the student's weakest skills, should be provided. If diagnostic assessments show that the student is fluent with foundational reading skills, then fluency practice and instruction should be provided (see the Fluency Flowchart for more information on providing effective fluency building instruction).

Fluency research says that successful readers:

rely primarily on the letters in the word, rather than context or pictures, to identify familiar and unfamiliar words

process every letter

use letter-sound correspondences to identify words

have a reliable strategy for decoding words

read words a sufficient number of times for them to become automatic

Four Steps to Building Fluency with Text

Fluency develops through plentiful opportunities for practice in which the task can be performed with a high rate of success. Repeated readings, goal setting, corrective feedback, and graphing performance are four strategies that teachers can also use to build students' fluency with text:

1.Repeated Readings

Read the same passage several times.

Aim to reduce the time and number of errors with each attempt.

Use this strategy with students individually, with a peer, or in small groups.

2.Goal Setting

Identify the number of correct words to read per minute.

Set a goal to read farther in the passage or make fewer errors.

Define weekly learning targets to monitor progress over time.

Identify an end-of-year grade level target for the number of words read per minute.

3.Corrective Feedback

Give immediate feedback if a student makes an error.

Have the student sound out and repeat the word.

Have the student go back and re-read the sentence.

4.Graphing Performance

Let students see their progress by having them graph their performance.

Have students compare their first read-through to the next read-through.

Have students track their targets and progress over time.

Sample Fluency Routine

This is an example of an instructional routine (University of Oregon, 2013) for practicing fluency with decodable text. In this sample, bold text provides teachers with the specific language of the instructional routine, including how to introduce the task ("You will whisper read to yourself..."), model for the students ("My turn..."), distribute practice to students ("Your turn..."), and conduct checks for understanding. The lesson also provides specific information to the teacher about how to correct errors.

Decodable Text Fluency Practice

Materials Needed: Copy of decodable text listed for each student

Instructor says:

"You will whisper read to yourself the story that we just read. Your job is to read without making any errors. I will listen to some students read while everyone continues whisper reading until I say stop. I'll show you what it looks and sounds like to whisper read. My Turn."

Model what whisper reading to yourself looks and sounds like.

" Your Turn."

Hand out decodable texts and have students whisper read and then provide some additional fluency practice.

Practice for students only:

Students will individually whisper read the text again two to three times.

Listen to individual students read and check for accuracy and fluency. If an individual student makes an error, use the correcting student errors procedure below.

Additional Fluency Practice

At least two more times, use one of the following options to have students reread the story.

Individual Reading: Provide more time for students to whisper read while the teacher monitors and checks accuracy and fluency of individuals.

Partner Reading: Students read with a partner while the teacher monitors and checks accuracy and fluency of individuals.

Correcting Student Errors

1. My turn. This word is [word].

2. Your turn. Word? Student repeats the word.

3. Start at the beginning of the sentence and read this sentence without making any errors.

Adapted From Enhanced Core Reading Instruction © 2013 by The Center on Teaching and Learning

Summary

Fluency with connected text is a critical piece of beginning reading instruction. Fluency develops through plentiful opportunities for practice in which the task can be performed with a high rate of success, including repeated readings with immediate corrective feedback, goal setting and graphing performance. If a student is not reading fluently, it is important to first assess possible underlying issues that may be impacting the student's ability to fluently read connected text. Fluency instruction alone will not be effective without also addressing any underlying issues, including a lack of fluency with foundational reading skills.

Infographic

Click to Enlarge

Suggested Citation

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2023). The Educator's science of reading toolbox: How to build fluency with text in your classroom. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from http://improvingliteracy.org.

References

Harn, B., & Chard, D. (2008). Teaching tutorial 6: Repeated readings to promote fluency. Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD).

Hasbrouck, J. (1998). Reading fluency: Principles for instruction and progress monitoring. Professional development guide. Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts.

Hasbrouck, J., & Glaser, D.R. (2012). Reading fluency: Understanding and teaching this complex skill. Gibson Hasbrouck & Associates.

Kuhn, M.R. & Stahl, S.A. (2000). CIERA Report #2-008. Fluency: A review of developmental and remedial practices. US Department of Education.

National Reading Panel. (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: Reports of the subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

University of Oregon. (2013). Enhanced core reading instruction. Center on Teaching and Learning. University of Oregon, Center on Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Big Ideas in Beginning Reading. Retrieved April 15, 2020, from http://reading.uoregon.edu/.

Abstract

This Educator's Toolbox, developed in Partnership with The Reading League Journal, provides practical ways to incorporate fluency instruction within your classroom.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Educator's Science of Reading Toolbox: How to Build Fluency with Text in Your Classroom

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The best approach to beginning reading instruction is one that incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading. While the research is clear on what to teach, how you teach these pieces can be challenging.

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The best approach to beginning reading instruction for students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading. While the research is clear on what to teach, knowing how to teach these pieces can be challenging. To start, there is overwhelming evidence that in order to maximize struggling readers' meaningful access to the 5 Big Ideas in the reading curriculum, teachers must provide systematic and explicit instruction in each area (Gersten et al., 2009).

Instruction that is vague and ambiguous may prove to be confusing to struggling readers. Providing explicit instruction in each of the 5 Big Ideas ensures equitable access for the range of learners in our classrooms. Put another way, not providing struggling readers explicit instructional supports to access the curriculum is unjust and inequitable (Fien, Chard, & Baker, 2021). This Educator's Toolbox provides practical ways to incorporate explicit vocabulary instruction within your classroom to ensure your vocabulary lessons are accessible to all learners.

What Is Vocabulary and Why Is It Important?

Vocabulary refers to the words we must know in order to comprehend and communicate effectively. In general, vocabulary can be described as either oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize when listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print. The primary way that students develop a robust vocabulary is through wide and independent reading (Stanovich, 1986). However, we must also teach students vocabulary before they learn to read, and we must continue to explicitly teach vocabulary to students who struggle to learn to read in the early grades (Beck & McKeown, 2007).

Vocabulary plays an important part in learning to read. Instruction and intervention in language- based skills, including language, vocabulary, and listening comprehension, should start at the very beginning of preschool and continue throughout the early elementary grades. This instruction is often a part of oral language activities in the early grades because emerging readers have a much more difficult time reading words that are not already part of their oral vocabulary (Fien et al., 2011). Vocabulary is also important for reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

How Do Students Learn Vocabulary?

Vocabulary learning occurs in different ways (Diamond & Gutlohn, 2006). Children learn the meanings of most words incidentally, through everyday experiences with oral and written language. This indirect learning occurs in three ways: by engaging in conversations with other people-especially adults, by listening to others read to them, and by reading extensively on their own.

Although a great deal of vocabulary is learned indirectly, some vocabulary is also learned through direct, explicit instruction. Explicit vocabulary instruction helps students learn difficult words, such as words that represent complex concepts that are not part of the students' everyday experiences (Beck et al, 2002). Explicit vocabulary instruction relevant to a given text leads to better reading and listening comprehension (Fien et al., 2011; Marulis & Neuman, 2013). Students learn vocabulary directly when they are explicitly taught both individual words and word-learning strategies. A variety of direct and indirect methods of vocabulary instruction should occur in classrooms. This Educator's Toolbox focuses on one type of vocabulary instruction called specific word instruction.

Specific Word Instruction

Specific word instruction is the teaching of individual words. It can deepen knowledge of word meanings and help students understand what they are hearing or reading. It also can help them use words accurately in speaking and writing. Specific word instruction should occur before, during, and after reading. Before students read a text, it is helpful to teach them specific words they will encounter (Baker, Fien, & Baker, 2010). Teaching important vocabulary before reading can help students both learn new words and comprehend the text.

During reading, students should be provided with specific word instruction that allows them to actively engage with the words (Baker et al., 2013). The more students use new words in different contexts, the more likely they are to learn and retain the words (Santoro et al., 2016).

Infographic

This infographic illustrates how vocabulary can be introduced both before and during reading to help students identify real-life connections between a vocabulary word and how the word is used in a variety of semantic contexts, such as categories of words (e.g., do words, feel words).

Click to Enlarge

Steps of Specific Word Instruction

There are four steps to providing specific word instruction in the classroom.

Step 1: Select the Word

You won't be able to directly teach your students all of the words in a text that they might not already know. You should aim to thoroughly teach perhaps eight to ten new words per week, so you need to choose these carefully.

How should you choose vocabulary words to use for specific word instruction? If you are using a core program, you will first want to look at the vocabulary selections provided in the program and evaluate them for their utility and complexity. You will want to select the words that are Tier II words, or words that are likely to appear frequently in a wide variety of texts and in written and oral language (Beck & McKeown, 2004). Ask yourself these questions when choosing vocabulary words:

Is this word important for understanding a concept or the text?

Is this word useful for students to learn? Are students likely to see and use the word often across different contexts?

Is this word difficult for most of your students? Some types of words may be particularly difficult for students to learn, including words with multiple meanings and idiomatic expressions.

Flag the words from your core program's vocabulary list that you will use for specific word instruction. Next, look for additional words in the text you are using. Are there other words that are important, useful, or difficult? Flag any additional words that you will use for specific word instruction.

Step 2: Provide a Student-Friendly Definition

You will want to provide a student-friendly definition of each vocabulary word. For example, when explicitly teaching the meaning of the word gigantic, a student-friendly definition would be, "The word gigantic means very big."

Step 3: Illustrate the Word

It is important to illustrate the word with examples and non-examples to provide multiple contexts for the word. You can illustrate vocabulary words in different ways:

draw pictures

act out the word

write novel sentences using the word

share sentences from read-aloud texts containing the vocabulary word

share sentences from student texts containing the vocabulary word

Visual presentations of words are very powerful for students. For example, posting each vocabulary word in a classroom with a student-friendly definition and an anchor picture (a picture of the word that serves as a representation of that word) is an excellent way to help students reference previously learned words. Picture sorting can also be used to support vocabulary development (Diamond, L. & Gutlohn, 2006). For example, students can sort vocabulary picture cards to gain a sense of how words and concepts either relate or don't relate to one another.

Step 4: Check Student Understanding

Finally, check students' understanding of each vocabulary word taught. Ask the students questions that will prompt answers that demonstrate complete understanding of the use of the vocabulary word or its meaning. Ask students to generate examples or nonexamples to show that they understand the correct use of the vocabulary word. In addition, ask students to generate a sentence that includes the vocabulary word (Coyne et al., 2010).

Sample Vocabulary Routine

The following is an example of an instructional routine for specific word instruction (Center on Teaching and Learning, University of Oregon, 2013; Fien et al., 2015). In this sample, bold text provides teachers with the specific language of the instructional routine, including introducing the task ("You're going to learn the meaning of new vocabulary words..."), reading and defining the word for the students ("This word is..."), distributing practice to students ("What word?"), and conducting checks for understanding. The routine also provides specific information for the teacher about how to provide examples and correct student errors. As you gauge students' understanding, provide consistent and specific feedback to support their learning.

Vocabulary: Specific Word Routine

Materials: Vocabulary words with student-friendly definition to display for all students to see (e.g., written on cards, chart paper, sentence strips, displayed on white board and so forth).

Explain: You're going to learn the meaning of new vocabulary words, and you will practice using those words in sentences.

Practice for students only: Use the routine for each vocabulary word. *Have students sitting by their talk partners. Your turn.

*Routine for each vocabulary word

1. This word is [vocabulary word]. Introduce the new vocabulary word.

2. What word? Have the students repeat the vocabulary word.

3. Repeat steps 1 and 2 for difficult-to-pronounce words.

4. [Vocabulary word] means [student-friendly definition]. Tell students the student-friendly definition for the word. Have students repeat the student-friendly definition with you (as you point to the words).

5. What word? Have the student repeat the vocabulary word again.

6. Provide Examples of the vocabulary word that will help your students understand the word. Here are some options:

Pictures

Acting out the word

Novel sentences using the word

Sentences from read-aloud texts containing the vocabulary word

Sentences from student texts that contain the vocabulary word

7. Check for understanding by asking students questions where they will have to use the vocabulary word correctly in their answers. Choose one to two of these options for the vocabulary word. Provide a sentence frame for student responses. For example:

Ask the students questions that will prompt a complete understanding of the use of the vocabulary word or its meaning.

Ask students to generate examples or nonexamples to show that they understand the correct use of the vocabulary word.

8. Ask students to say a sentence that uses the vocabulary word. Use steps 1 through 7 for each vocabulary word.

Correcting Student Errors

My turn. [Vocabulary word] means [student-friendly definition].

Provide necessary scaffolds to guide the student to develop a sentence that is the correct use of the vocabulary word.

If the student is still struggling or nonresponsive, give them a sentence example and have them repeat it. Use a lot of positive reinforcement to encourage the student to take risks when trying to use vocabulary.

Make sure the student uses the sentence frame and answers in a complete sentence.

Adapted From Enhanced Core Reading Instruction © 2013 by The Center on Teaching and Learning

Summary

Vocabulary plays a critical piece in both learning to read and comprehending what we read. Readers must know what most of the words mean in a text before they can understand what they are reading. Vocabulary can be developed incidentally when students engage daily in oral language, listen to others read to them, and read extensively on their own. However, some vocabulary words need to be taught directly. Specific word instruction is one way to explicitly teach individual vocabulary words that are important, useful, and difficult for students to learn. It also provides equitable access to the reading curriculum for our most vulnerable children.

Suggested Citation

National Center on Improving Literacy. (2023). The Educator's science of reading toolbox: Explicit vocabulary instruction to build equitable access for all learners. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Office of Special Education Programs, National Center on Improving Literacy. Retrieved from http://improvingliteracy.org.

References

Baker, S. K., Fien, H., & Baker, D. L. (2010). Robust reading instruction in the early grades: Conceptual and practical issues in the integration and evaluation of tier 1 and tier 2 instructional supports. Focus on Exceptional Children, 42(9), 1-20.

Baker, S. K., Santoro, L. E., Chard, D. J., Fien, H., Park, Y., & Otterstedt, J. (2013). An evaluation of an explicit read aloud intervention taught in whole-classroom formats in first grade. Elementary School Journal, 113, 331-358. https://doi.org/10.1086/668503

Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2004). Elements of reading vocabulary. Steck-Vaughn.

Beck, I. L., & McKeown, M. G. (2007). Increasing young low-income children's oral vocabulary repertoires through rich and focused instruction. Elementary School Journal, 107, 251-271.

Beck, I. L., McKeown, M. G., & Kucan, L. (2002). Bringing words to life: Robust vocabulary instruction. Guilford.

Coyne, M. D., McCoach, D., Loftus, S., Zipoli, R., Ruby, M., Crevecoeur, Y., & Kapp, S. (2010). Direct and extended vocabulary instruction in kindergarten: Investigating transfer effects. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 3, 93-120.

Diamond, L. & Gutlohn, L. (2006). Vocabulary handbook. Consortium on Reading Excellence, Inc. (CORE).

Fien, H., Santoro, L., Baker, S. K., Park, Y., Chard, D. J., Williams, S., & Haria, P. (2011). Enhancing teacher read alouds with small-group vocabulary instruction for students with low vocabulary in first-grade classrooms. School Psychology Review, 40, 307-318.

Fien, H., Smith, J. L. M., Smolkowski, K., Baker, S. K., Nelson, N. J., & Chaparro, E. A. (2015). An examination of the efficacy of a multitiered intervention on early reading outcomes for first- grade students at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(6), 602-621. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022219414521664

Fien, H., Chard, D., & Baker, S. K. (2021). Can the evidence revolution and multi-tiered systems of support improve education equity and reading achievement? Reading Research Quarterly.

Gersten, R. M., Compton, D., Connor, C. M., Dimino, J., Santoro, L., Linan-Thompson, S., & Tilly, W. D. (2009). Assisting students struggling with reading: Response to intervention and multi-tier intervention for reading in the primary grades: A practice guide (NCE 2009- 4045). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences, National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance. Retrieved from http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/publications/practiceguides/

Marulis, L.M. & Neuman, S.B. (2013). How vocabulary interventions affect young children at risk: A meta-analytic review. Journal of Research on Educational Effectiveness, 6(3), 223- 262. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19345747.2012.755591

National Reading Panel. (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: Reports of the subgroups. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Santoro, L.E., Baker, S.K., Fien, H., Smith, J.M., & Chard, D.J. (2016). TEACHING Exceptional Children, 48(6), 282-292. https://doi.org/10.1177/0040059916650634

Stanovich, K. E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407. https://doi.org/10.1598/RRQ.21.4.1 University of Oregon. (2013). Enhanced core reading instruction. Center on Teaching and Learning.

Abstract

This Educator's Toolbox, developed in Partnership with The Reading League Journal, provides practical ways to incorporate explicit vocabulary instruction within your classroom to ensure your vocabulary lessons are accessible to all learners

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The Educator's Science of Reading Toolbox: Explicit Vocabulary Instruction to Build Equitable Access for All Learners

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The best approach to beginning reading instruction for students with or at risk for literacy-related disabilities incorporates explicit instruction in five areas: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (National Reading Panel, 2000). These are known as the "5 Big Ideas" in beginning reading.

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In many discussions on the science of reading, phonics is featured on the main stage. This is most likely because, unlike language comprehension, word recognition is a constrained skill-one with a limit-that can be mastered, typically within a few years of initial teaching. However, if we don't pay attention to the bigger beast of language comprehension from the earliest grades, students without this opportunity will fall further and further behind their peers. We need to rethink our approach to teaching reading comprehension.

We think about reading comprehension as the product of word recognition and language comprehension. Nationally, we've done a great job getting the word out on the importance of phonics. This is, arguably, the easiest part of the equation to get right. However, that's not all that needs to happen in the early years so students are successful readers later on.

Two pathways to teaching reading comprehension

We at NWEA recently spoke with Natalie Wexler, an education writer and author of The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-And How to Fix It. Natalie reminds us that "We really have to see literacy developing along two pathways that are going to be, to some extent, pretty separate in the early years."

These pathways are word recognition and language comprehension. While phonics has a mound of intervention research on how to effectively get students to reading fluency, cognitive science tells us that students need to acquire plenty of knowledge to be able to understand the texts they encounter, and that this must start early on. Otherwise, the opportunity gaps between kids with experiences to gain background knowledge and kids without will only grow wider.

Natalie highlights how students "are going to be acquiring those foundational skills [of phonics and decoding] through decodable readers and practicing fluency." But she adds, "That's not how they're going to be acquiring new knowledge and vocabulary of a new topic... That's really going to come through this other pathway, which is reading aloud text that's probably more complex than they can read themselves and engaging them in discussion of that content."

In the early years, these pathways to becoming a reader are largely separate. Younger students or older readers with decoding difficulties won't yet be able to read texts that are building their vocabulary and knowledge. They need to have these rich and complex texts read aloud to them. What does this mean for educators? Both paths need to be effectively taught for the best chance of literacy success in the upper elementary grades and later in life. One doesn't come before the other-decoding and comprehension both must be valued in the early grades-and both must have adequate instructional time devoted.

What is reading comprehension?

Natalie says, "we have to think of reading comprehension as a process." Sometimes you may hear teachers asking comprehension questions about a text to students. This is thinking of comprehension as a product, not a process. Assessing students' comprehension of a text by asking them questions is not the same as teaching students to comprehend.

Comprehension is a metacognitive skill, one that is developed through purposely choosing text sets to build knowledge and leveraging specific reading comprehension strategies to help students acquire this knowledge and apply these metacognitive skills on their own.

So how do we go about building knowledge?

Reading strategies should not be the focus of teaching reading comprehension. Instead, they should be used in service of teaching students new content. The most recent research suggests we use three strategies to help students learn the content of the texts they are reading. Specifically, when combined with instruction in vocabulary and background knowledge, these strategies are most helpful in building student knowledge and understanding. We can teach students to:

1. Identify the text structure

2. Using the text structure, identify the main idea

3. Summarize a text by expanding on the main idea

If students can summarize a text, they now have a situation model to work from. Think of it like helping them build a web of Velcro that all the details in the text can stick to. Teaching students to use these steps will help them build the metacognitive muscles they'll need to do this type of understanding on their own. By helping students arrive at a coherent understanding, teachers position readers to do the deep work of making inferences, generating questions, and making connections.

Imagine, for example, a class of first-grade students learning about animals and their habitats in science. They read an informational text about owls. Their teacher may then plan to use the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen to help students step into the role of the child protagonist who is going owling for the first time. Their teacher may refer to what the students learned about owls' eyesight and sleeping patterns from the informational text. With these goals in mind, the teacher may use various reading strategies and activities to help students understand what they are reading and gain knowledge about animals and their habitats.

Before reading, the teacher may activate students' background knowledge from the earlier lesson by asking questions like, "What are the 'special powers' we learned about owls yesterday?" and "What are owls' sleeping patterns like?" Activating these concepts will help students make connections during the narrative story. The teacher may also focus students on a problem-solution sentence stem or a narrative story map to help them better understand the plot. The work could be displayed on an anchor chart in a student-friendly format so the class can take notes together. This could transition to students taking brief notes on a graphic organizer or dry-erase board once they are more independent spellers, typically toward the middle of the year.

During reading, the teacher may ask connecting questions to help solidify knowledge, such as, "When did this happen?" and "Why do you think Pa chose to take them owling so late?" The teacher may also highlight the meaning of unfamiliar vocabulary that is related to understanding the content, such as "pine trees," "meadow," or "clearing." The teacher can list these words on index cards so students can refer to them and use them in their writing throughout the unit. As they encounter a plot element, they can record it together on their graphic organizer.

After reading, the class could talk about the plot structure and use the completed graphic organizer or sentence stems to summarize the story. The teacher could also have students add descriptive words about the owl's habitat to their science journal. This could be extended to a few sentences to explain why it was so difficult to find an owl. Students may also be guided to use a graphic organizer to compare their learning about the owl habitat to the habitat of a field mouse they explored while reading Frederick by Leo Lionni.

Notice that each of the strategies and activities-from recognizing a story's structure, to summarizing, to eliciting details and answering questions, to comparing and contrasting-are all in service of learning content related to the science unit on animals and their habitats. The focus of reading a new text is not on learning a certain strategy but using the strategies to learn the content.

Natalie notes, "There is evidence that teaching kids comprehension strategies, or at least certain kinds of comprehension strategies, does boost their comprehension. But we've been trying to do this in the abstract... What really will work better is teaching a topic and bringing in whatever strategy or skill is appropriate to help kids think deeply about that topic and understand that text for that topic."

Recommendations for teachers

When teaching reading comprehension, I encourage teachers to avoid choosing texts to focus on a particular comprehension skill or strategy. Choose texts instead based on the content focus. Here are some suggestions for how to align your instructional focus with best practices in reading science:

Plan to use texts that revolve around a specific science or social studies topic. These can be both narrative and informational texts, as in the narrative example I shared earlier. Using texts around a common topic enables students to build a rich and enduring web of knowledge.

Teach students to identify the text structure and generate a main idea statement. This enables students to understand and summarize what they are reading more easily. When students understand the main idea of a text, it empowers them to move into higher levels of understanding.

Explicitly teach and review new vocabulary that relates back to the science or social studies topic. Help students understand how these words relate to one another and the topic at hand. Research in cognitive science suggests using distributed practice enables students to learn more words and, therefore, understand more concepts.

Recommendations for school administrators

If you're a school administrator, here are some ways to support your teachers in this work of shifting from a strategy focus to a content focus when teaching reading comprehension:

Provide teachers with high-quality text sets for read-alouds related to your grade-level science and social studies standards. In second grade and up, also provide multiple copies of chapter books around these topics for students to discuss in small groups or as a whole-class book study.

Provide teachers high-quality professional learning and time to plan. Teachers need to be able to think deeply with one another about the vocabulary to highlight and strategies to use to help students acquire information and learn new concepts. Use practitioner articles to guide PLCs in integrating new practices into your existing curricula.

Create a culture of collaboration. Give time for art, music, PE, and other shared-subjects teachers to plan lessons around the topic of study. Students are more likely to learn deeply when they are building common knowledge across class periods.

Learn more

To hear more from Natalie on the importance effectively teaching reading comprehension, watch our interview with her.

For additional ideas and tips on literacy instruction from Teach. Learn. Grow. authors, browse our archive of ELA posts.

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The science of teaching reading comprehension - Teach. Learn. Grow.

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When teaching reading comprehension, educators must give kids opportunities to gain knowledge needed to understand texts they encounter.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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

Identify words that rhyme

Count the number of syllables in a name

Recognize alliteration (words with the same beginning sound)

Segment (break) a sentence into words

Identify the syllables in a word

The most sophisticated phonological awareness skill (and the last to develop) is called phonemic awareness - the ability to hear, recognize, and play with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. When playing with the sounds in word, children learn to:

Blend individual sounds to make a word

Stretch out a word into its individual sounds

Swap in a different sound to the beginning, middle, or end of a word to make a new word

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

Parents can make a big difference in helping their children become readers by practicing these pre-reading oral skills at home. Try some of the simple rhyming and word sound games described here.

Try these speech sound activities at home

Rhyme time

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

Road trip rhymes

While you're out driving in the car, spot something out the window and ask your child, "what rhymes with tree or car or shop?" Then switch roles and have your child spot something and ask you for a rhyme. This can turn into a game of nonsense rhymes ("What rhymes with tree stump?") but that's great for practicing sounds, too!

Word families

Word families are sets of words that rhyme. Start to build your family by giving your child the first word, for example, cat. Then ask your child to name all the "kids" in the cat family, such as: bat, fat, sat, rat, pat, mat, hat, flat. This will help your child hear patterns in words.

Silly tongue twisters

Sing songs and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

Tongue ticklers

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

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!

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

For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

Syllable shopping

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

"I spy" first sounds

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

Sound scavenger hunt

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

Which letter sounds do I teach first?

Reading expert Linda Farrell recommends that you begin with teaching the letter names, and then focus on the letter sounds that are closest to their letter names (such as /v/). And here's a great tip for teaching the trickier letter name-letter sound combinations - use arm motions. In this video, Linda demonstrates motions for /x/ and /y/. (From our video series Reading SOS: Expert Answers to Family Questions About Reading.)

Sound games

Practice blending sounds into words. Ask "Can you guess what this word is? m - o - p." Hold each sound longer than normal.

First sounds

When you're reading together with your child, pick a word from the book and say it with emphasis on the first sound. Pick another word and compare them. "Zzz-zookeeper and rrr-rhinoceros. Can you hear what sound zzz-zookeeper starts with? Is it the same as rrr-rhinoceros?

Jump, skip, hop!

Create simple picture cards that you draw or cut out of magazines. Have your child, identify what's in the picture, and then break that word into its individual sounds. For example dog is d-o-g, three sounds (phonemes). Three sounds? You and your child do three jumping jacks, skips, or hops (followed by a high-five). You can also do this game outdoors without the cards, just call out simple words for your child.

Snail talk

Tell your child you're going to communicate in "snail talk" and they need to figure out what you're saying. Take a simple word and stretch it out very slowly (e.g., /fffffllllaaaag/), then ask your child to tell you the word. Switch roles and have your child stretch out a word for you.

"I spy" blending

Here's an easy phoneme blending game you can play while talking a walk. For blending, you can say, "I see a sign that says s-t-o-p" Then your child has to blend the sounds to guess your word - stop. (Remember to say only the sounds in the word - not the letters.) Keep the words short, moving from two to three to four sounds depending on your child's skill level.

Sound counting

Using LEGO bricks, beads, or pennies, say a word and have your child show you how many sounds the word makes. For example, top = t-o-p = three sounds, so your child would place three objects in a row. Then have them tap each object as they say the sound. Remember, your child is just showing you the sounds they hear. So the word bike would be = b-i-k (silent e) = only three sounds.

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Phonological and Phonemic Awareness: Activities for Your Kindergartener

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Phonological and phonemic awareness are important pre-reading skills, related to the ability to hear, identify, and play with the sounds in spoken language - including rhymes, syllables, and the smallest units of sound (phonemes). Children with strong phonological awareness skills are ready to become readers.

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This strategy helps children develop their understanding of sounds in words. As the name suggests, they need to add a phoneme at the beginning of a sound in order to create a new word. For example, adding /s/ to at to make the new word sat.

Here's how you can introduce this strategy to your students:

1. Select a word family: Choose a word family, such as the -at family, which includes words like cat, hat, and mat.

2. Say the word family: Pronounce several words from the chosen word family and place an emphasis on the ending letter sounds, -at.

3. Introduce the new sound: Explain to the children that you will add a new sound at the beginning of the word tocreate a new word. For example, add the sound /s/ to -at to form the word sat.

4. Blend the sounds: Help the children blend the new sound /s/ with the rest of the word. When you say the new word sat, make sure to emphasise the added sound /s/. Have the children repeat the word, focusing on both the new sound and the original word family sound.

5. Practice with other word families: Repeat the process with different word families. Add a variety of sounds at the beginning to create new words. Encourage the children to listen carefully to the new sound and blend it with the existing word family sound to form the new word.

This type of activity will develop phonemic awareness strategies by helping children to recognise and manipulate the individual sounds within words. Adding phonemes is one of the easier phoneme manipulation skills

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Fun Phoneme Blending Activities - Build Phonemic Awareness - My Teaching Cupboard

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Engage kindergarten children and build strong phonemic awareness skills with these fun phoneme blending activities. Discover my tried and tested phoneme blending activities in this blog post and find out why learning to blend sounds is such an important phonemic awareness skill.

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Bear, D., Invernizzi, M., Templeton, S., & Johnston, F. (1996). Words their way: Word study for phonics, vocabulary, and spelling instruction. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Chard, D., & Dickson, S. (1999). Phonological Awareness: Instructional and Assessment Guidelines.

Ellis, E. (1997). How Now Brown Cow: Phoneme Awareness Activities.

Goswami, U., & Mead, F. (1992). Onset and rime awareness and analogies in reading. Reading Research Quarterly, 2, 153-162.

Wise, B. W., Olson, R. K., & Treiman, R. (1990). Subsyllabic units as aids in beginning readers word learning Onset-rime versus post-vowel segmentation. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 4, 1-19.

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The "onset" is the initial phonological unit of any word (e.g. /c/ in cat) and the term "rime" refers to the string of letters that follow, usually a vowel and final consonants (e.g. /a/ /t/ in cat). Not all words have onsets.

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Say It-Move It is an instructional routine that can be used at all levels of phonemic awareness development.  For beginners, have the student simply move a chip for each sound (as with Elkonin boxes).  For more advanced students, present challenges by having them manipulate sounds within a word (e.g., lip → lips → slip → slap → laps)

Scroll down to the bottom for instructions on how to use this strategy.

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This post is long overdue! Phonemic awareness is a huge part of my curriculum. I wanted to share with you some things I do with my students to strengthen their phonemic awareness.

My introduction to phonemic awareness:

When I was a new teacher, I used to tutor over the summer. I was tutoring a student who was going to be in first grade. She had finished kindergarten knowing all of her letters and sounds, but not yet blending words together. I sat down with her and after five minutes I started sweating!

I had my handy dandy magnetic letters ready to go. I put out three letters to make a CVC word. Here's what I got: "/k/ /aaaaa/ /t/.... tap!" Huh? Okay, let's try this again. I sounded it out with her. Still no cat. So I tried another and another. Then I tried just two sounds. She would give me words that were close and sometimes words that weren't even in the ballpark. I'm pretty sure I got turtle for rat.

What I didn't know then is that she was lacking phonemic awareness skills. She knew her letters and sounds, but could not blend the sounds together to read the words. The same was true for spelling. She couldn't break up a word into its individual sounds in order to spell the word. Phonemic awareness skills need to be developed before reading can take place.
A Personal Story: (You can skip this if you want to get to the goods)
You have all seen my son on this blog before. He often tries things out for me now. Last year, I was so excited to start teaching him to read. He mastered his letters and sounds super early so I thought reading would be easy for him. Nope. He so easily memorized letters when he was 2 and "sight words" when he was four. I didn't want to push him before he was ready, but he seemed ready because of these things.

So I jumped right into CVC words. He really couldn't do it. So I stopped and waited. He was young, so there was no need to push. His brain could memorize words but not blend sounds together. Still, it was early. But then we were playing a game with his little brother when I discovered he could not even rhyme! He had just turned five. Now I was worried. Rhyming is supposed to be one of the earlier phonological skills. How did I miss this?! I realized he did in fact lack several phonological awareness skills. I guess I thought he'd get it naturally. We've read to him since birth and we have our fair share of rhyming books. The reality is although it comes naturally for many children, it does not for all. Many children need to explicit instruction and more practice to develop these skills.

To wrap up my long story, I got to work. After he developed that phonemic awareness, he was ready to sound out words using print (a.k.a. phonics). He had the two components: letter knowledge and phonemic awareness to actually blend the words. We need to do this for our students too. Make sure they have the phonemic awareness first- then move to phonics (decoding and encoding).

What is Phonemic Awareness

Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up words. For example, the word"chick" has 3 phonemes and the word flip has 4 phonemes.

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made up of individual phonemes (sounds). When a child has phonemic awareness, he or she can hear and manipulate the individual sounds in words. Phonemic awareness is auditory and does not involve print.

Phonics is the study of the sound-symbol relationship (sounds and their corresponding letter or letters). Phonemic awareness is a precursor to phonics. Phonics does involve print.

Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?

Children need to be able to hear the sounds in words before they can begin to read or write them. When they are sounding out a word, they need to be able to blend those sounds together. They may know the letter-sound relationship and be able to sound out: /k/ /a/ /t/. They must have phonemic awareness in order to blend those sounds together to read the word "cat".

When spelling words, a child needs to be able to do the opposite. They must segment, or break apart, the sounds of the word. For some kids, those skills come more naturally. For many children, the ability to blend and segment words needs to be taught and practiced with guidance.

Several studies show that phonemic awareness is a key indicator of reading success.

Examples of Phonemic Awareness

Grouping words by similar sounds: Ball, bear, and bike all start with /b/.

Isolating Sounds: Identifying the first, middle, and last sounds in words.

Blending sounds into words: /w/ /i/ /sh/= wish

Segmenting words: wish has 3 phonemes and is broken up this like: /w/ /i/ /sh/

Manipulate sounds within words: Change the /w/ to /d/. What word? dish

You can get a printable version of this here.

Now onto the goods. Here are some activities that we enjoyed doing together.

Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities:

Stretching Sounds with a Slinky

I do this with my kindergarten small groups every day. There are three ways we do this:

I use the slinky to stretch a word and they guess the word. (They are blending sounds).

I give them a word and they stretch the sounds with the slinky (they are segmenting)

Make it a game: One student gets a picture card. They segment the word with the slinky and the group guesses the word.

Right after this, I call on a classmate to guess his word. This game never gets old!

Using Connecting Cubes

Click HERE for a video.

I know what you're thinking. Sarah, these are the same activities just with different manipulatives. Yep, you got it! Repetition for our students is good. They think they are doing something different when you put something new in their hands.

You can do this same activity with syllables or with onset and rime.

"Pushing" Phonemes with Manipulatives

I use this one the most. You've seen it before. You can use anything to push the sounds: pennies, pom-poms, mini-erasers math counters, etc. I like to change it up seasonally, too. You can use acorns in the fall, little hearts in February, and white pom-poms for snowballs in the winter.

I use these with my small groups every day! I say a word and my students "push" the sounds. Then, I ask the group to point out certain sounds.

For example: If you break up the word shop, then you ask question like, "Which color says /p/?" and "What sound was the blue chip?"

It's a great warm-up to small group instruction.

After they are proficient with segmenting and blending, you can start manipulating sounds. For example, you can take away the green and say, "I'm taking away /sh/ in ship and adding in /ch/" (put another chip in its place).

Add in a Puppet

This is a favorite! Get a favorite stuffed animal or little puppet. I got this idea from this amazing teacher I worked with years ago in North Carolina. Get your little puppet or stuffy.

Tell your students that he speaks a slow language and you need help figuring out what he is saying.

Ask questions like, "What is your favorite color?" Have your puppet answer, "/r/ /e/ /d/". A little dramatic flare gets their attention. "What?! I can't understand you! Say it again." Have your puppet do it again. Then call on a student to "translate" for you.

This is always a fan favorite! Click HERE for the video.

I already blogged about this a few days ago, but I wanted to include it here, too.

Click here for a video.

Hop out the sounds of a word! The more movement the better, right? This video shows jumping on spots, but you can just jump in place. Click here for a video. (Sorry, it's a bit blurry!) In this video, I used SitSpots. They can be easily moved around the classroom.

Tracking Sounds:

I have all these trains and tracks since I have two boys. I'm putting them to use! LOL!

Click HERE for the video.

In this video, I'm showing you different ways to use this track:

Isolating sounds

Segmenting Sounds

Manipulating Sounds

Phonemic Awareness Resources

I made a little "take-home" kit for some of the parents at my school. I ended up using these in my own classroom. The cards have ideas for parents and teachers on each card. You'll only need to add a few extras to go with this.

You can see more about this kit here:

I also have a huge pack of activities for RTI and small groups. These are hands-on activities. You can find this here.

Update: Now with Google Slides!

And this is similar to the pack above except it is ALL print and go. No laminating and no color. You can find this here.

There is also a bundle of all three. You can find these here.

I also have another detailed blog post about phonemic awareness here. There are several tips on how to teach phonological awareness for the whole class.

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Tips and Activities for Phonemic Awareness - Sarah's Teaching Snippets

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What is phonemic awareneess and why is it important? This post answers those questions and gives ideas for how to develop a student's phonemic awareness.

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This post is long overdue! Phonemic awareness is a huge part of my curriculum. I wanted to share with you some things I do with my students to strengthen their phonemic awareness.

My introduction to phonemic awareness:

When I was a new teacher, I used to tutor over the summer. I was tutoring a student who was going to be in first grade. She had finished kindergarten knowing all of her letters and sounds, but not yet blending words together. I sat down with her and after five minutes I started sweating!

I had my handy dandy magnetic letters ready to go. I put out three letters to make a CVC word. Here's what I got: "/k/ /aaaaa/ /t/.... tap!" Huh? Okay, let's try this again. I sounded it out with her. Still no cat. So I tried another and another. Then I tried just two sounds. She would give me words that were close and sometimes words that weren't even in the ballpark. I'm pretty sure I got turtle for rat.

What I didn't know then is that she was lacking phonemic awareness skills. She knew her letters and sounds, but could not blend the sounds together to read the words. The same was true for spelling. She couldn't break up a word into its individual sounds in order to spell the word. Phonemic awareness skills need to be developed before reading can take place.
A Personal Story: (You can skip this if you want to get to the goods)
You have all seen my son on this blog before. He often tries things out for me now. Last year, I was so excited to start teaching him to read. He mastered his letters and sounds super early so I thought reading would be easy for him. Nope. He so easily memorized letters when he was 2 and "sight words" when he was four. I didn't want to push him before he was ready, but he seemed ready because of these things.

So I jumped right into CVC words. He really couldn't do it. So I stopped and waited. He was young, so there was no need to push. His brain could memorize words but not blend sounds together. Still, it was early. But then we were playing a game with his little brother when I discovered he could not even rhyme! He had just turned five. Now I was worried. Rhyming is supposed to be one of the earlier phonological skills. How did I miss this?! I realized he did in fact lack several phonological awareness skills. I guess I thought he'd get it naturally. We've read to him since birth and we have our fair share of rhyming books. The reality is although it comes naturally for many children, it does not for all. Many children need to explicit instruction and more practice to develop these skills.

To wrap up my long story, I got to work. After he developed that phonemic awareness, he was ready to sound out words using print (a.k.a. phonics). He had the two components: letter knowledge and phonemic awareness to actually blend the words. We need to do this for our students too. Make sure they have the phonemic awareness first- then move to phonics (decoding and encoding).

What is Phonemic Awareness

Phonemes are the individual sounds that make up words. For example, the word"chick" has 3 phonemes and the word flip has 4 phonemes.

Phonemic awareness is the understanding that words are made up of individual phonemes (sounds). When a child has phonemic awareness, he or she can hear and manipulate the individual sounds in words. Phonemic awareness is auditory and does not involve print.

Phonics is the study of the sound-symbol relationship (sounds and their corresponding letter or letters). Phonemic awareness is a precursor to phonics. Phonics does involve print.

Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?

Children need to be able to hear the sounds in words before they can begin to read or write them. When they are sounding out a word, they need to be able to blend those sounds together. They may know the letter-sound relationship and be able to sound out: /k/ /a/ /t/. They must have phonemic awareness in order to blend those sounds together to read the word "cat".

When spelling words, a child needs to be able to do the opposite. They must segment, or break apart, the sounds of the word. For some kids, those skills come more naturally. For many children, the ability to blend and segment words needs to be taught and practiced with guidance.

Several studies show that phonemic awareness is a key indicator of reading success.

Examples of Phonemic Awareness

Grouping words by similar sounds: Ball, bear, and bike all start with /b/.

Isolating Sounds: Identifying the first, middle, and last sounds in words.

Blending sounds into words: /w/ /i/ /sh/= wish

Segmenting words: wish has 3 phonemes and is broken up this like: /w/ /i/ /sh/

Manipulate sounds within words: Change the /w/ to /d/. What word? dish

You can get a printable version of this here.

Now onto the goods. Here are some activities that we enjoyed doing together.

Fun Phonemic Awareness Activities:

Stretching Sounds with a Slinky

I do this with my kindergarten small groups every day. There are three ways we do this:

I use the slinky to stretch a word and they guess the word. (They are blending sounds).

I give them a word and they stretch the sounds with the slinky (they are segmenting)

Make it a game: One student gets a picture card. They segment the word with the slinky and the group guesses the word.

Right after this, I call on a classmate to guess his word. This game never gets old!

Using Connecting Cubes

Click HERE for a video.

I know what you're thinking. Sarah, these are the same activities just with different manipulatives. Yep, you got it! Repetition for our students is good. They think they are doing something different when you put something new in their hands.

You can do this same activity with syllables or with onset and rime.

"Pushing" Phonemes with Manipulatives

I use this one the most. You've seen it before. You can use anything to push the sounds: pennies, pom-poms, mini-erasers math counters, etc. I like to change it up seasonally, too. You can use acorns in the fall, little hearts in February, and white pom-poms for snowballs in the winter.

I use these with my small groups every day! I say a word and my students "push" the sounds. Then, I ask the group to point out certain sounds.

For example: If you break up the word shop, then you ask question like, "Which color says /p/?" and "What sound was the blue chip?"

It's a great warm-up to small group instruction.

After they are proficient with segmenting and blending, you can start manipulating sounds. For example, you can take away the green and say, "I'm taking away /sh/ in ship and adding in /ch/" (put another chip in its place).

Add in a Puppet

This is a favorite! Get a favorite stuffed animal or little puppet. I got this idea from this amazing teacher I worked with years ago in North Carolina. Get your little puppet or stuffy.

Tell your students that he speaks a slow language and you need help figuring out what he is saying.

Ask questions like, "What is your favorite color?" Have your puppet answer, "/r/ /e/ /d/". A little dramatic flare gets their attention. "What?! I can't understand you! Say it again." Have your puppet do it again. Then call on a student to "translate" for you.

This is always a fan favorite! Click HERE for the video.

I already blogged about this a few days ago, but I wanted to include it here, too.

Click here for a video.

Hop out the sounds of a word! The more movement the better, right? This video shows jumping on spots, but you can just jump in place. Click here for a video. (Sorry, it's a bit blurry!) In this video, I used SitSpots. They can be easily moved around the classroom.

Tracking Sounds:

I have all these trains and tracks since I have two boys. I'm putting them to use! LOL!

Click HERE for the video.

In this video, I'm showing you different ways to use this track:

Isolating sounds

Segmenting Sounds

Manipulating Sounds

Phonemic Awareness Resources

I made a little "take-home" kit for some of the parents at my school. I ended up using these in my own classroom. The cards have ideas for parents and teachers on each card. You'll only need to add a few extras to go with this.

You can see more about this kit here:

I also have a huge pack of activities for RTI and small groups. These are hands-on activities. You can find this here.

Update: Now with Google Slides!

And this is similar to the pack above except it is ALL print and go. No laminating and no color. You can find this here.

There is also a bundle of all three. You can find these here.

I also have another detailed blog post about phonemic awareness here. There are several tips on how to teach phonological awareness for the whole class.

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Tips and Activities for Phonemic Awareness - Sarah's Teaching Snippets

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What is phonemic awareneess and why is it important? This post answers those questions and gives ideas for how to develop a student's phonemic awareness.

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I normally just wing it when it comes to doing learning activities with Henry. Just basing it off what I know he already knows and what I think should

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Touch & Read: Students touch each letter with a finger or pencil point and say the letter sound, then sweep left to right below the word and read the word.

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You've hit the gold mine! This is the jackpot of reading intervention activities and I'm so excited to share all of my favorites with you!

Below is a HUGE list of reading intervention activities you can do with your struggling readers that target all of the different learning styles.

Reading intervention is my passion. There is nothing more exciting than seeing a struggling reader learn how to read. After countless reading intervention activities, programs, small group lessons, and data tracking- seeing it all pay off. When the light bulb clicks and you see their faces light up with confidence.

We want ALL of our students to succeed. We find joy when our high kiddos succeed. But we spend sleepless nights worrying about those students who are falling behind. It can be so hard knowing what our students need and how to help them. If you're feeling stressed out, please go read my post on The Key to Stress Free Reading Intervention and hopefully that can help you a bit!

Once you're feeling good about reading intervention, then go check out this post for 11 Effective Reading Intervention Strategies you can implement now. Below are some specific multi sensory learning and reading intervention activities that I have found helpful in reaching my lowest sweet readers.

Side Note: Reading Intervention Helps

Just a quick note, if you need some extra direction for your reading intervention, I have a FREE Reading Intervention Cheat Sheet you can download here. It has student characteristics, tips, and activities specific to each area of reading. Seriously a lifesaver! I also have a Reading Intervention Assessment that will help identify exactly which skills each of your students need intervention in, which you can check out too.

Multisensory Learning in Reading Intervention

Studies have shown that learning is more likely to stick when engaging multiple senses at the same time. The more senses activated, the better! This list of activities takes a multi sensory approach to learning and focuses on pulling in all of the different learning styles.

What are the 4 Main Learning Styles?

All students learn differently, and struggling readers most likely won't respond to normal teaching methods. So I've organized this list of reading intervention activities by learning type. All of these reading intervention activities can be just out of the ordinary enough to engage any student. However, you can find surveys online to give students like this one or this one to help figure out what kind of learner they are.

The 4 Main Learning Styles:

1. Tactile learners (respond well to hands-on activities that involve touching and manipulatives)

2. Visual learners (respond well to visual cues and prompts they can see)

3. Auditory learners (respond well to listening, hearing, and talking about concepts)

4. Kinesthetic (respond well to movement and interaction)

Students can have any combination of the above learning styles-there is no hard-set rule for categorizing different learners. However, students will often lean towards one or two learning styles and it's great to capitalize on what they enjoy and respond to best.

Again, even if your student does not fall neatly into any of these categories, all of these activities are engaging enough to appeal to most students. We are all really "multisensory learners!"

Reading Intervention Activities for Tactile Learners:

These reading intervention activities are great for those students that like to use their hands and feel as they learn. They are especially great for younger readers, but they can still work for all ages.

1. Making Words with Letter Tiles

This is one of my go-to reading intervention activities. Use magnetic letters like and place them on mini cookie sheets (I found my cookie sheets at Walmart). A set like this is also good for a class set.

1. Make a CVC word together

2. Then discover other words in the same word family by swapping out the first letter

3. Try swapping out the last letter and the vowel

4. Compare how the words sound as you change one letter

**I would just focus on switching ONE letter position at a time (the first, middle OR last letter) for each lesson, not all three at once.
Give students something to touch while sounding out words or reading sentences. This can be a dot, blank square, line, etc. As they first begin to read, one-to-one correspondence is so important-both with each letter as they sound out words, and each word as they read sentences. Try some of the touch-intervention activities included in my CVC Intervention Binder, Phonics Intervention Binder, or Fluency Intervention Binder.

I have a whole blog post about using play-dough to teach phonics! Play-dough is such a fun way for students to learn hands-on! This is definitely a student favorite reading intervention activity.

This is one of my favorite, simple reading intervention activities! I use it at the beginning of the year when we are working on blending words together.
Arm Slide Blending Activity:

1. Start with your left arm held out in front of you, like a slide.

2. Then use your right hand to pat down your shoulder as you say each sound.

3. When you say all the sounds, go back up to your shoulder and slide your hand down the slide as you say the whole world.

You can see a video of this in my Instagram "Teaching" story highlights.

This works great in small groups, but can be done whole class too. It's great for introducing spelling and sight words! Basically, you give them something to touch or experience for each word. Then they remember that feeling and associate it with the word, so they can recognize it when they see it again.
For example, when we were learning the "-in" word family:

For the word "pin", I had each student hold up their finger, and gently brushed each finger with the tip of the pin.

Next, for the word "chin" I had them gently touch their neighbor's chin.

Then, for the word "grin", I had them push the corners of their mouth up into the biggest grin they could make.

Obviously, some words are easier than others, but get creative! You can get really good (and silly!) at making sensory associations.

Reading Intervention Activities for Visual Learners:

These reading intervention activities work well for students who like to see and get a good visual picture of what they are learning.

6. Color Code

Color coding reading intervention activities work great for specific phonics patterns.

Assign a color to different parts of the word.

You could use blue for consonants and red for vowels, pink for a phonics pattern and purple for the rest of the word, green for the base word and yellow for the ending, etc.

I like to have the part we are focusing on be in a color that stands out more.

Use whiteboards with dry-erase markers for extra engagement!

Here's a post that explains how to teach phonics patterns, and this strategy works great with it!

Marking up words with highlighters was a skill I learned in high school, but works for beginning readers as a reading intervention activity too!

1. Start with writing the word you are focusing on written out in front of you

2. Then use other colors to draw attention to important parts

For example:

Circle the vowels

Underline the prefixes

Cross out the silent letters

Break apart chunks/syllables.

You can also mark up sentences by circling the nouns/verbs, or breaking apart subject/predicate.

Amp up engagement by using whiteboards, or better yet, write directly on the desk or table with dry-erase markers! They wipe off pretty easily with a tissue or a baby wipe.

8. Visual Cues

Posters, picture flash cards, and anchor charts are great to include with your reading intervention activities! Have visual cues easily accessible for students to refer back to whenever they need help.

Some ideas for visual cues include:

Hang posters up on the wall.

Print out little cards to put on a binder ring to use as a personal visual cue booklet for students to keep at their desks.

Name tags with references are also a great way to help visual learners.

When I taught the alphabet, I used pictures of words that went with each sound that the letter made EVERY day.

Something to note with visual cues and posters is that just plain words are not always the most effective. The more visual aspects (like pictures, colors, arrows, graphic organizers, etc.) the better! You can use fancy sight word flash cards like , or even just simple flashcards like these.

Videos and games are super engaging reading intervention activities. They often provide great visuals, PLUS catchy tunes and repeated audio cues (which are also great for auditory learners!). There are so many great resources out there. Some of my favorite FREE sites are:

A big page full of words can be overwhelming for our struggling readers. It helps to narrow their focus to just one letter or word at a time.

An easy way to do this is to use a finger pointer or pointing stick.

Have students use the pointer to track along the word or page as they sound out words and read sentences.

Keep fun reading pointers in your basket of reading intervention activities at your guided reading table.

The Dollar Store has little drink-stirring sticks, fun rings, fairy wands, or even witch fingers (depending on the season). Sometimes you can get lucky with the Target Dollar Spot too. Anything that is "stick-like" to point with, or that goes on your finger will work! Here are some fun ideas from amazon!

I spent a week at the ECRI (Exemplary Center for Reading Instruction) Training Retreat, and over and over again it was emphasized how much writing is connected with brain development. The actual act of writing words out (while spelling them OUT LOUD) has proven to be one of the most efficient ways for students to learn to read tricky words.

Think about it-even though the activity is so simple, it is so multi-sensory at the same time! Students say the letters out loud (auditory), write them down (kinesthetic AND visual), and if you cover up a word and try to write it from memory or add tracing the letters again with your finger it hits tactile too!

Writing as Reading Intervention:

1. Have students keep a notebook for Guided Reading warm-ups.

2. Give a focus word for the day, and as a group, spell the word out loud as you write each letter.

3. Repeat at least three times.

4. As a challenge, try covering up the original word they wrote and do the next 2 from memory!

5. Each day add a new word, practicing all of the other words for the week as well.

You'll be amazed at how easily the students will be able to read the words at the end of the week (even though you just practiced writing and spelling them)!

Have students write their spelling word, sight word, or letter and draw pictures to represent it. When they come up with their own visual representation, it tends to stick with them better. They can recall the image they created to go with the word, and use it to help them remember the word next time they read it.

Reading Intervention Activities for Auditory Learners:

13. Music

Use music as a super fun and effective reading intervention activity. You can get fancy and choose a popular song and re-write the lyrics to it to teach the concept, or you can use some classic ones that are pretty easy to change the words to. Below are some easy song ideas. You can also add actions to the songs and hit kinesthetic learning as well!

BINGO- To help spell any 5 letter word

Row, Row, Row Your Boat- "A, a, a says /a/; a says /a/ /a/ /a/; a, a, a, a; letter a says /a/" or with any 3 letter word "a n d spells and; a n d spells and" etc.

Mary Had a Little Lamb- "Letter a says /a/ /a/ /a/" or "a and i say /A/ /A/ /A/"

Rhymes are another way to help cue students' memories for vocabulary words, spelling words, or key concepts. Come up with a rhyming (bonus for silly!) phrase students can memorize and think whenever they come across a certain skill. For example:

"I before e, except after c."

"When two vowels go a'walking, the first one does the talking."

"Silent e plays a game, makes the vowel say it's name."

Also along the lines of rhyming, reading poetry can be very satisfying for auditory learners. Hearing the rhymes at the ends of lines makes sense for them and gives them a cue for reading. I love using these CVC word decodable poems and blends decodable poems.

Rhythm provides great listening cues as well as repetition and tactile/kinesthetic input. Use a patting, clapping, or snapping pattern. Say a rhythmic cue while doing the pattern, and have the students repeat it back to you. Examples of rhythmic reading intervention activities you can use are:

Letter Names and Sounds (while reading an ABC chart)

Pattern -> pat-pat clap-clap

Progression -> move to just "pat-clap"

Spelling Words:
Pattern -> Make your own! Just use a new pattern for each group of words that have the same amount of letters.

For each pat/clap/snap say a letter.

Repeat pattern for each word that has that same amount of letters.

Involving social skills is great to include in reading intervention activities. Teaching somebody else has been known to be one of the most effective ways for a person to learn something. They have to understand themselves, then put it into words that another person can understand. Teaching a friend is also great for auditory learners because it involves talking. They hear themselves speaking and listen to the other person's questions and responses.

1. Have two students partner up and take turns being the "teacher" to explain a concept.

2. Then have them switch.

Reading Intervention Activities for Kinesthetic Learners:

17. Brain Dance

Believe it or not, you can use dance in your reading intervention activities! I learned this in my dance integration class in college, and it is AMAZING!! It was developed by Anne Green Gilbert and it helps students focus, feel refreshed, and calm down. This is perfect for a brain-break or a warm-up. It gets students moving and blood flowing so they have the energy to think, but it also stimulates parts of the brain in a way that helps students focus better.

Watch this video to see how to do it. Put it to some "Piano Guys" music, and it is magical!! 😍

Let students make BIG actions by stepping and jumping! For these reading intervention activities:

1. Write one letter, word, or sight word on a piece of paper and lay them out in a line.

2. Students read the letter or word as they step (or jump) on it.

3. If you are working on sentence reading, lay words out to make a sentence.

4. If you are outside, you can use chalk and write the words in hopscotch squares and play hopscotch with them!

19. Actions

I am huge on actions in my reading intervention activities! Actions can help students memorize almost anything. You can have actions already made up, but I have found that they are more memorable if the students help you come up with them.

Make an action for each letter of the alphabet that goes with the sound it makes.
Ex: hands together in a "slither" motion for S (snake), arms outstretched in a clapping motion for A (alligator), etc.

Make an action for each of your spelling words or sight words.

Focus on the vowels, they are crucial for learning to read! Make an action for the short and long sound for each vowel.
Ex: For short "e" cup your hand by your ear like you are old and can't hear ("eh?") and for long "e" show your teeth and move your hand like you are brushing your teeth ("eeee").

Reading intervention activities that involve games are especially motivating for your competitive kiddos! They get hands on opportunities by picking up and moving a game piece, and the game gives them context and motivation.

1. Make a simple board game by drawing squares in a path, with a "Start" and "Finish" square.

2. On each square in between write a spelling word, spelling pattern, sight word, vocabulary word, etc.

3. Choose a couple of squares to be fun squares like "move forward 2 spaces" or "loose a turn".

4. Let students roll a die to move their game pieces, and read/define whatever word they land on.

Here are some fun already-made St. Patrick's Day phonics board games that make great reading intervention activities!

21. Stretching Out Words

Having props your students can use in your reading intervention activities is a great way to bump up engagement. Use rubber bands or slinkies to " stretch" out the sounds in words, and then "snap" them back together when you say the whole word.

1. Hold the slinkie in two hands

2. With each sound you say, stretch the slinkie a little more

3. Then bring the two ends of the slinkie back together as you say the whole word.

22. Toy Cars

Toy cars in your reading intervention activities? This is instant engagement!

1. Have words written with the letters spaced out.

2. Start out by stopping at each letter as you say the sounds.

3. Then slowly "drive" the car under each letter as you say the sound.

4. Finally, drive the car quickly under the word as you say the whole word.

This helps transition from broken, segmented sounding out into the smooth sounding out that helps students learn to say the whole word.

Having buttons to press and interact with is another good way to reach kinesthetic learners. You can buy tap lights from the dollar store for pretty cheap and stick them in your basket of reading intervention activities. These are great for hands-on phonemic awareness practice too. For more strategies for phonemic awareness, read out this blog post!

Use them to practice sounding out words.

1. Put a light under each letter of a word.

2. Have students tap the lights as they sound the word out.

Use them for segmenting words.

1. The teacher says a word.

2. The student taps a light for each sound in the word as they say it.

3. For example... Teacher: "cat" Student: tap "/c/" tap "/a/" tap "/t/"

Learning the alphabet in sign language opens up a WORLD of possibilities in your reading intervention activities! At the beginning of the year, we practice spelling the alphabet in sign language as we walk down the hall (bonus for keeping them quiet in the halls! 🙌).

Challenge students to spell their spelling words or phonics patterns in sign language. It gives them a different medium to work with (their hands) when reading them on paper just isn't clicking with them. It also gives them a chance to move!

Here are some additional blog posts you might find helpful!

Regardless of the type of learner your student is, all students need lots and lots of exposure to reading and good books. Here are 3 steps from 4 Kinder Teachers that will help you create meaningful read aloud experiences.

Now that you have all these ideas for reading intervention activities to use with your students, check out this blog post with 6 tips to make your reading interventions actually work!

Suzy from Grade School with Suzy also has some great tips for helping struggling readers here.

If your students are struggling to find motivation to read, I also love these strategies for motivating students to read, from Teaching with Kaylee B. She has so many great ideas!

I know many teachers also worry about the summer slide for their struggling readers. This post from Anna Kelly's Creations gives some summer reading activity ideas to help keep your kiddos reading through their break!

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Reading Intervention Activities to Help your Struggling Readers

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Do you have struggling readers you just can't reach? This mega list of reading intervention activities will help you teach all students how to read!

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Nonsense words are words like 'blurst' or 'terg' which sound like they could be real words, but have no meaning. You may ask, what is the point of teaching children words that are not real, and they will never use? Well, using nonsense or silly words is an important part of your reading strategy for kids. Firstly, it's important for children to practising reading all and any word, real or not! This will help them practice the sounds they have learnt so far and put their decoding knowledge to use. Secondly, it's a great way for teachers to assess children's phonetics ability by seeing if they know individual sounds, and whether they can blend them together to decode words they have never seen before. Check out this Phase 2 & 3 Phonics Screening PowerPoint.

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Science of Reading Lesson: Orthographic Mapping

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Prefix Activities for 4th and 5th Grade - The Meaningful Teacher

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Need engaging and simple ways to teach prefixes? Use these comprehensive prefix activities and prefix lesson plans in your classroom tomorrow!

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Are you required to teach a list of vocabulary words each week? Vocabulary words are a very important piece of teaching students to read. Learning and mastering essential vocabulary words can be achieved through vocabulary graphic organizers, vocabulary templates, no-prep vocabulary worksheets, vocabulary games, and a vocabulary display for your classroom wall!

Before we jump into the activities, if you prefer to see some of these activities in action, check out the video below!

Vocabulary Words of the Week in Journals

At the beginning of the week, we take two days to introduce all of our new vocabulary words for the week. When the words are introduced the teacher shows the word and a picture to match the word. The students take turns guessing what the word means. Finally the teacher reads the definition with the students. The students help the teacher determine an action that will represent the vocabulary word. This is a very important piece because research shows that when kinesthetics are included into learning, students are better able to retain the new information. All week this action is paired with the word whenever it is read or said. The students then write the word and definition onto their Words of the Week sheet and place it into the vocabulary journal for future reference.

Vocabulary Journals

Vocabulary journals should be a staple in every classroom. Vocabulary journals can take the form of a stapled packet, coil binded book, or hole punched binder. The purpose of a vocabulary journal is to have a place for students to keep all of their vocabulary practice and a place for them to look back and reference past vocabulary words. I love adding the vocabulary journals the parent teacher conference portfolios. I also love to have students bring their vocabulary journals back to the reading table during reading groups to reference or add information.

Free Editable Word Cards

Every week we put our new vocabulary words on cards. These cards are used all week for a variety of games and activities. At the end of the week, the students take the cards home to practice and keep. Download a free copy of the editable vocabulary cards here.

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Vocabulary Headbandz

Vocabulary Headbandz is a fun game that students love. Simply print off your vocabulary words onto these free editable vocabulary cards. Each student attaches a vocabulary word card to their headband. The youngest participant takes the first turn. Then play passes to the left. When it's your turn, just flip over the timer and ask each of the players a question that will help you figure out what the picture is on your head. Once you've asked each player a question, simply begin another round and then another. If you guess the vocabulary word before the timer runs out, simply take another card and put it behind your headband. Continue to ask questions until the timer runs out. For each vocabulary word that is guessed correctly, you get a point. The player with the most points at the end of the game is the winner.

Teacher Tip:
If you don't own the Headbandz game, the headbands could be made from sentence strips and binder clips.

Memory/Concentration

Memory (also known as Concentration) can be played two different ways. Students can have two stack of vocabulary words and take turns turning over two cards in an effort to get a match. Each time a card is turned, the student turning the card has to read the word aloud and use it in a sentence. If the student gets a match, he/she can keep the match and go again. If the student does not get a match, the next player takes a turn. Another variation of the game would be to have one copy of cards have the vocabulary words printed on them. The other set of cards has the definitions printed on them.

Vocabulary Display
Teacher Tip: Use two different colors of paper when printing the cards. Also, choose a dark color or make copies on card stock paper so the answers don't show through the back side of the card.
Vocabulary displays can be a powerful instructional tool. Complete the vocabulary posters with the students. Provide the students with their own vocabulary mini-posters to complete with the teacher. If you have more than one word per day, make multiple copies of each word and display them all. Leave this information up on the wall all week and at the end of the week, the expo marker can be wiped off with Lysol wipes or a Mr. Clean magic eraser.

Vocabulary Bingo

After the class has learned at least twenty-five different vocabulary words, bingo is a great option that students love to play that will provide a great opportunity to review. Students simply write a vocabulary word in each space of their bingo card. The teacher provides the definition of one of the words and the student finds the vocabulary word and covers it with a bingo chip. The first student to get 5 in a row, 4 corners, or black out wins the game.

Roll a Word

Students need a vocabulary word list or stack of word cards. This activity should be played with partners or small groups. Students take turns choosing a card/word. Then student rolls a dice and follows the prompt on the Roll a Word sheet. Other players determine if the answer is correct. Players take turns until the teacher decides that the time is up.

Vocab Short Stories

Writing stories is the ultimate determination of whether or not a student truly understands the meaning of his/her vocabulary words. The teacher writes the vocabulary words that he/she would like the students to use when writing their short stories before making copies. Students need to use all the vocabulary words in context all while forming a short story. This activity comes with templates for 8 words, 10 words, or 12 words as well as with or without space for drawing a picture to match the story.

Parts of Speech

Nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs are an important piece of students learning grammar so why not combine them with vocabulary word practice? Students read the words at the top of their sheet and then sort them into the proper grammar categories. This worksheet is available in 8 words, 10 words, or 12 words templates.

Draw a Word

Drawing detailed pictures of a word's meaning is another powerful tool to help students learn, understand, and retain a new vocabulary word. The teacher can choose the six words prior to making copies or the student can choose the six trickiest words.

Picture This

Give each student a vocabulary card with a number. Write the numbers from 1-25 (or however many students you have in your class). Once students get their card, instruct them not to show anyone their card. Provide the students some time to draw the vocabulary word with as many details as possible. The student needs to also include their card number in the corner of their drawing. Write the list of vocabulary words on the board and give each student a recording sheet. Students walk around the classroom and look at each picture. Then they write the vocabulary word answer in the correct box of their recording sheet. Another variation for teachers who want more structure would be to have students sit at their desk while students take turns coming to the front of the class one a a time to explain their picture to the class. Students who are sitting at their desks would need to determine the word that the picture is showing and write the answer on their recording sheet.

Act it Out

Act it Out is similar to Picture This except instead of drawings, the students would use actions. The actions are performed as a group or one at a time in front of the class for the others to guess the vocabulary word and write it on the recording sheet.

Vocabulary Word Mini Posters

Earlier in this post I explained vocabulary displays. When the teacher is completing the vocabulary posters with the students, the students can complete the mini posters and put them in the vocabulary journals. This is a great option to keep the students engaged and actively participating.

Vocabulary Dice

Vocabulary dice can be used with any list of vocabulary words. Give each student a list or stack of vocabulary words. Students can do this activity independently or with a partner. Once a word is chosen, the student rolls the dice and follows the prompt on the dice. Answers can be provided verbally or written on a piece of paper or marker board.

Vocabulary Sentences

Students choose five of the trickiest words from the vocabulary word list. Then the student writes a sentence that shows the meaning of the word in context within the sentence. Students can also color the vocabulary word within the sentence.

What's included in this 56-page vocabulary pack:

Vocabulary Journal

My 5-Day Vocabulary Routine

Words of the Week

Vocabulary Words Worksheet

Vocabulary Mini Posters

Roll a Word

Vocabulary Dice

Vocabulary Bingo

Vocabulary Short Stories

Draw a Word

Parts of Speech

Vocabulary Sentences

Act it Out

Picture This

Editable Word cards

Editable Grammar Flip Flaps

Vocabulary Posters with Display

Detailed Explanation with Pictures for each Activity

Click here to purchase the entire Vocabulary Pack resource.

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Are you required to teach a list of vocabulary words each week? Vocabulary words are a very important piece of teaching students to read. Learning and mastering essential vocabulary words can be achieved through vocabulary graphic organizers, vocabulary templates, no-prep vocabulary worksheets, vocabulary games, and a vocabulary display for your classroom wall!

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Strategy 19: Interactive Word Wall

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Vocabulary Pictionary

Vocabulary Pictionary: Drawing and Learning Words in a Fun Twist

Vocabulary Pictionary is a delightful twist on the classic drawing and guessing game. This creative and educational activity combines vocabulary building with artistic expression, enabling children to enhance their vocabulary while having a blast.

1. Drawing paper or whiteboard and markers for drawing.

2. List of vocabulary words to be used in the game.

3. Timer to limit drawing and guessing time.

4. Notepad and pen for each participant to write down their guesses.

1. Divide the children into teams, with each team taking turns drawing and guessing words.

2. A member from one team selects a word from the vocabulary list and starts drawing it within a limited time (e.g., 1-2 minutes).

3. The other team members try to guess the word based on the drawing. No verbal hints or letters are allowed.

4. If the team guesses the word correctly within the time limit, they earn a point.

5. Rotate drawing and guessing turns between teams, allowing each member to participate in both drawing and guessing.

6. Keep a tally of points for each team, and after a set number of rounds, declare the winning team.

Artistic Vocabulary Champion: Award a "Vocabulary Pictionary Champion" certificate to the member with the most accurate guesses or the most creative drawings.

Team Effort Acknowledgment: Recognize each team for their collective efforts and participation in the game.

Enhance vocabulary by associating words with visual representations.

Foster creativity and communication skills through artistic expression and word interpretation.

Promote teamwork and collaboration by encouraging children to work together to guess the words.

Vocabulary Pictionary seamlessly blends vocabulary expansion with creative expression. Children not only learn and understand new words but also exercise their imagination and teamwork skills. This game makes vocabulary learning enjoyable, memorable, and interactive, setting the stage for a lifelong appreciation of language and art.

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Vocabulary Pictionary: Drawing and Learning Words in a Fun Twist Introduction: Vocabulary Pictionary is a delightful twist on the classic drawing and guessing game. This creative and educational activity combines vocabulary building with artistic expression, enabling children to enhance their vocabulary while having a blast. Materials Needed: Drawing paper or whiteboard and markers for drawing.

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Student are divided into times and students have to give them a clue about the vocabulary word.

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Did you know that typically, only 5% to 10% of instructional time is devoted to vocabulary instruction, yet students, especially struggling students and English learners (ELs), need between 12 and 14 exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them (Durkin, 1978/79; Roser & Juel, 1982; Scott, Jamieson, Noel, & Asslin, 2003)? Teaching the meanings of important words before learning new content activates students' background knowledge and prepares them for learning and comprehending. In other words, teaching vocabulary provides the "Velcro" for new information to "stick to."

What Research Says About Effective Vocabulary Instruction

Vocabulary instruction must be explicit. Explicit vocabulary instruction includes an easy-to-understand definition presented directly to students along with multiple examples and nonexamples of the target word, brief discussion opportunities, and checks for understanding.

Vocabulary instruction must include multiple practice opportunities for using words within and across subjects. That is, instruction must be extended over time with opportunities for students to hear, speak, read, and write words in various contexts. This builds students' breadth and depth of vocabulary knowledge.

Vocabulary should be taught schoolwide and across all subject areas. Each subject has a unique set of vocabulary terms, and students need to know their meanings and how to use them in various contexts.

Word Selection

Instructional time is precious, and teachers are not able to address every unknown word students might encounter, so careful word selection is key. When deciding which words to target for explicit instruction, consider 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.

ELs may require even more careful word selection and extensive vocabulary instruction because they may be learning conversational language and academic language at the same time. Colorín Colorado provides additional information about selecting vocabulary words to teach ELs.

Some of Our Favorite Vocabulary Instructional Activities for ALL Content Areas

The five activities described below are effective ways to teach vocabulary for all students, but especially for struggling students, students with learning disabilities, and ELs.

1. Essential Words Routine

Teachers use a simple graphic organizer to preteach the meanings of important words in about 5 minutes per word. During this routine, teachers introduce target words with definitions, visual cues, and examples. Students engage in immediate practice using the words through collaborative student turn-and-talk activities.

Resources

2. Frayer Model

One way to have students extend their knowledge of important words is through a Frayer model. This graphic organizer builds vocabulary and conceptual knowledge across content areas. The strategy requires students (not the teacher) to define a vocabulary word and then list its characteristics, examples, and nonexamples. Frayer models can be completed in collaborative groups using textbooks and other subject-matter materials while the teacher circulates around the classroom and assists students.

Resource

Online module, examples, and templates from the IRIS Center

3. Semantic Mapping

Semantic maps visually display and connect a word or phrase and a set of related words or concepts. Implementing semantic map activities in your classroom will help students, especially struggling students and students with learning disabilities, recall the meanings of words and understand how multiple words or concepts "fit together." Teachers will find that using a semantic map, combined with explicit instruction and practice opportunities, is an effective way of expanding students' vocabulary and supporting their content knowledge.

Resources

4. Vocabulary Review Activities

Multiple opportunities to practice using new words is an important part of vocabulary instruction. In previous TCLD research studies, brief review activities were built into novel unit lesson plans to help students practice (and remember) the meanings of important words. Each of these activities takes 5 to 10 minutes and is easy to prepare.

Partner Review Routine: Partners work together to quickly review words learned the previous day.

Sentence Review Routine: Partners create sentences using words assigned by the teacher.

Examples and Nonexamples: The teacher tells students scenarios or shows pictures and students respond chorally to each scenario, indicating whether it is an example or nonexample.

What Word Fits? The teacher asks a question and student partners hold up an index card with the word that fits or answers the question.

Resource

Each activity is described in more detail beginning on page 33 of the TCLD booklet Reading Instruction for Middle School Students: Developing Lessons for Improving Comprehension

5. Morphemic Analysis Routine

Explicit instruction of words is important, but it is impossible to teach all the unfamiliar words students will encounter. One way to help students develop strategies for approaching unfamiliar vocabulary is to teach morphemes (prefixes, roots, and suffixes). Students can be taught the following morphemic analysis routine to help them engage in independent word study.

Resource

Learn more about the morphemic analysis routine by reviewing this online learning module from the Texas Adolescent Literacy Academies.
Have questions? Feel free to drop us a line!

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Five Research-Based Ways to Teach Vocabulary

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Did you know that typically, only 5% to 10% of instructional time is devoted to vocabulary instruction, yet students, especially struggling students and English learners (ELs), need between 12 and 14 exposures to words and their meanings to fully learn them (Durkin, 1978/79; Roser & Juel, 1982; Scott, Jamieson, Noel, & Asslin, 2003)?

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Reading Fluency Games

Flashlight, Flashlight

This fun little chant is great for younger students, and will keep them excited and engaged. It works best whole class since the lights will be off.

Materials Needed: A flashlight

Directions: Turn the lights off, and turn the flashlight on. When your students are finished singing the chant below, shine your flashlight on a word that is posted somewhere in your room, and have your students read it.

Chant: Flashlight, flashlight oh so bright.

Shine on a word with your light!

Modifications: Give control of the flashlight to your students. Students LOVE to ‘be in charge’. Allow them to shine the flashlight on different words. You can even have them choose who goes next.

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10 Fluency Games for Students - Enriching Young Minds & Hearts

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Kids want to have fun. All day, all night. Inside or outside. Clean or dirty. Loud or quiet. Life simply needs to be fun. That's where games come in! Here is a peek at some of the many engaging fluency games that students can play at school (and home) to help become fluent in each subject area.

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Working with words in a variety of ways helps build vocabulary. Grab free vocabulary graphic organizers for grades 3-5 on this post!

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Language Arts

This planning checklist for a choral reading lesson uses the poem "One Sister for Sale" by Shel Silverstein. See example ›

This PDF includes dozens of poems for shared, choral, paired, and echo reading. See example ›

The website below offers teachers several poetry options conducive to the Choral Reading strategy along with some interesting tips on reading and language development. See example ›

The example of choral reading found on this site uses the children's book James and the Giant Peach. See example ›

Science

This lesson plan includes examples of choral reading activities that correspond to introductory science concepts. See example ›

Social Studies

This website includes a script for the choral reading of the children's book Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. See example ›

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Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

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This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
Today we're sharing ten ways to improve reading fluency!
This post contains affiliate links.
We talk a lot about the importance of phonics.

We're always on the hunt for sight word activities.

And we know that comprehension deserves major attention.

What about fluency?

Reading fluency is an essential element of reading instruction in K-2. Today we'll talk about ten ways to improve it.

What is reading fluency?

Reading fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression.

Do you know a reader who struggles with fluency?

He. reads. every. word. like. this.

Or maybe you know a reader who trips over words. To her, reading is awkward and painful.

I personally know a reader (right in my own house) who reads automatically and with little stumbling. But he readslikethiswithoutabreath. I have to remind him to read with expression, to pay attention to punctuation, and to read with inflection in his voice.

Why is fluency important?

Whether our learners read haltingly, stumble over words, or read without expression, comprehension suffers.

Better fluency leads to greater understanding.

10 Ways to improve reading fluency
1. Read aloud to children to provide a model of fluent reading.
It's common for primary teachers to read aloud to their students. But as students get older, the treasured Read Aloud becomes something we do "if we have time."

A regular read aloud period is a must in any elementary classroom. No matter their age or ability, children need a frequent model of fluent reading. Not sure what to read? My go-to resource for book lists is What Do We Do All Day.

Also read: Why we should still read aloud to struggling readers
2. Have children listen and follow along with audio recordings.
A large listening library is ideal. If your school's budget doesn't allow it, borrow audio books from the library and place them in your listening center. Some teachers even record themselves as they read aloud to their class - then they place the recording in the listening center.
3. Practice sight words using playful activities.
When children know many words by sight, they're less likely to be awkward, choppy readers. I prefer games over flash cards. Thankfully, This Reading Mama and I have many ideas and printables to help you out!

EDITABLE READING GAMES - TYPE IN YOUR OWN WORDS
4. Let children perform a reader's theater.
Reader's theater requires no set or costumes and is a fantastic way to improve fluency. Children take turns reading their parts from a script and bring the text alive through their voices.

To create a script, create an original play with speaking parts or adapt a familiar story by typing it up into several speaking parts.

Looking for free done-for-you scripts?
5. Do paired reading.
Some teachers have made paired reading (also called "buddy reading") a daily practice within their literacy block.

To do paired reading, put students in pairs and have them read to each other. Pair more fluent readers with less fluent readers, but be careful not to make the ability gap too great. Children can take turns reading by sentence, paragraph, or page.

In a one-on-one situation, the adult and child can take turns reading.
Also read: How to use paired reading
YOUR STUDENTS WILL LOVE OUR PARTNER PLAYS!
6. Try echo reading.
With echo reading, the teacher displays an enlarged text so that students can follow along. This might be a Big Book or a text displayed on an interactive white board. The teachers often points to words as she reads a sentence or short paragraph. Then she points to the words again as students echo her reading.

When I was in graduate school I tutored a (very) tall sixteen-year-old who was reading at a second grade level. In his spare time he would much rather listen to rap than open a book.

I brought a book of Shel Silverstein poetry to our session, and together we did an echo reading of a funny poem. As he felt his reading grow stronger, this towering football player began enjoying himself. "This is tight!"
7. Do choral reading.
With choral reading the teacher reads an enlarged text several times until students are familiar with it. Then the class joins her as they read the text together. Nursery rhymes, songs, and funny poems are fantastic for choral reading.
8. Do repeated reading.
Echo reading and choral reading are both forms of repeated reading. Repeated reading is also something that students can do individually.

Choose a short passage of 100-200 words. Students can read the same passage multiple times. Have them time their reading and graph their results to see a visual record of improvement. A variation is to set a timer for 1-2 minutes and have students record how many words they read during each reading. Again, use a graph to chart progress.
9. Practice "scooping" phrases.
While we encourage beginning readers to point to each word as they read, this is something we want our readers to grow out of. Enter scooping phrases! Simply write a short passage on paper. Then guide your learner as he reads the passage and draws curved lines under each phrase. I highly recommend This Reading Mama's done-for-you pack!
10. Have your students do a lot of reading - at a level they can read independently.
I recommend using decodable text with beginning readers. Thankfully it's become much easier to find quality decodable text! Give students regular practice with these texts so they can put their phonics skills into practice.

Build fluency with our reader's theater pack

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Learn ten ways to improve reading fluency, and grab our free printable cheat sheet!

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Fluency is such an important aspect of reading, but it's often something that we only think of working on with our highest readers. I am constantly trying to think of ways to work on fluency even with my beginning readers.

These Sight Word Sentence Trees will be a perfect way for my students to work on sight words AND fluency.

The cards come in both a color version and a black and white version. I printed the black and white version onto colored paper to make them more eye catching for my students.

These cards will be laminated and placed on a metal ring. Early finishers will be able to grab these to practice. I can also throw these into a center for independent practice. These Sight Word Sentence Trees will also be perfect if I have a parent volunteer that can work with students.

I love that once I prep a couple sets of these for my class, they can provide practice for my students for the rest of the year.

You can check these out by clicking on the picture below.

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Sight Word Sentence Trees - Fun in First

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Fluency is such an important aspect of reading, but it's often something that we only think of working on with our highest readers. I am constantly trying to think of ways to work on fluency even with my beginning readers.

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Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...

Phrasing - putting words together in meaningful groups within a sentence

Expression - reading to match the feeling, paying attention to punctuation and dialogue

Emphasis - emphasizing certain words to match the author's meaning

Automaticity - reading known words without hesitation

Pace - reading like we speak; not racing through text, or reading in a staccato fashion (word by word)

I have broken down each of these five components into 9 Ways to Increase Fluency in your students.

Way #1 ~ Read It Like You Know It

If you have to stop and sound out a word, that's okay, but go back and reread the sentence. When reading it again, read the unknown word as if you've always known it.

Turn bumpy reading into smooth reading. If you read a sentence pausing after every word, go back and read the sentence again, chunking words into phrases.

Use the Word Wall. If you come to an unknown word, check the word wall to see if it is one you have learned before.

Practicing with Fluency Passages encourages your students to read a piece of text more than once. Students familiarize themselves with unknown words during each read, therefore increasing fluency.

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#2 ~ Pay Attention to Punctuation

We use different types of voice depending on the punctuation at the end of a sentence. (Period - read like we speak; Question Mark - raise your voice at the end of the sentence; Exclamation Point - excited voice)

Notice if there is punctuation within a sentence, such as commas, colons, etc. Teach students to chunk phrases before commas, so they can pause for a breath within a sentence.

End Punctuation Sort
Way #3 ~ Voices for Characters

Teach your students to pay attention to quotation marks (inside the quotes is the character / outside the quotes is the narrator).

Encourage your students to create voices for different characters. Reader's Theatre is a great way to help your students create characters through dialogue.

Students also need to be aware of the context in which the character is speaking. "What is the character feeling while talking?" Change your voice to match the mood of that moment.

Notice the author's tags in the text. They may not always use "said". Other possible words include "whispered", "shouted", or "cried". Make sure that your voice reflects that vocabulary.

Reader's Theatre Scripts
#4 ~ Read Like We Speak

No more "robot" reading (reading word by word). We need to read like we speak, chunking words into phrases before pausing to take a breath.

Read a story like you are teaching others. I always encourage my students to practice at home as if they are in front of their own classroom. My daughter likes to set up her stuffed animals and pretend they are her "students". LOL Reading at home is a necessity to increasing fluency!

Pause at the right parts of the sentence, so as not to change the original meaning. (For example: "The old men and women sat on the bench." To keep the meaning, it should be read like this... "The old men and women / sat on the bench." If it is read this way... "The old men / and women / sad on the bench." - The meaning could be that the women are old or young, we don't know.) It's crazy how pausing in a different spot can completely change the author's meaning of the sentence.

Way #5 ~ Reading Fluency Warm Up

Practice warming up before you read a hard book. In Guided Reading Groups, we start with reading common phrases that we see in many stories and passages. I create "Phrase Lines of Practice" for them to warm up with prior to giving them their book to read. By being able to chunk these phrases, students will increase their fluency.

Students can warm themselves up by reading an easier book smoothly before moving to a "just right" book. Many teachers have book bins for their students that contain books a little below, on, and a little above their reading level to practice with.

Sight Word Phrase Race
#6 ~ Read with a Partner

Strategically pair your students, so that they are practicing with someone who is on a similar reading level.

I like to challenge my students (especially my higher readers) to see if they can read in "one voice". Can they also include expression and pausing at the same time?

When taking turns reading, they are to listen to each other and provide feedback to their partner. What was a "keeper" (something great) and a "polisher" (something to work on)?

Way #7 ~ Listen to Yourself Read

I keep my class library in a corner away from my teaching/small group area. There are pillows, a rug, and bench in that area to encourage students to grab a book, sit down, and read. In this area, I like them to whisper read to themselves, so they can listen to what they sound like.

I also keep a small tub of fluency phones that students can use read to themselves. My younger students really like them, as they pretend they are "on the phone" with someone.

If I have students over there reading to themselves, I try to walk over at some point and "check in", asking them "How do you sound?".

#8 ~ Move Your Eyes

Teach your students to train their eyes to always "look ahead" in the text. This skill comes later, once less time is spent on decoding words. By being able to move their eyes quickly, they will be able to increase fluency.

Also encourage students to track text and "snap" to the next line quickly when reading. When students first start trying to do this, they may lose their place a few times. 😉 Using a pointer, or line reader may be helpful.

Way #9 ~ Make Reading Fluency Practice Fun!

Get our Tournament of Books in our Free Resource Library! (Password: ETTC2020)

1 Minute Fluency Drills: We work in partners to time our fluency and accuracy each day! Read more about how I do this here!

Read Around the World -

I use this activity to encourage my students to read at home and hopefully involve their families. Before school starts, I create posters with pictures of different landmarks around the world (Pyramids, Great Wall, Tower of Pisa, Machu Pichu, Statue of Liberty, etc.) Students are given a reading log with 20 spaces to record titles of books they read. (Kinder/1st) Every time they fill out a reading log, they are able to move to a new landmark and get a prize. I also create mini "passports" for them to have stamped after they visit each place.

AR Goals/Prizes -

Our Librarian helps us increase fluency by setting an AR point goal for each student and giving them prizes when they reach it. After reaching the first goal, another one is set and so on. It's a great way to check on their reading comprehension as well.

Try our FREE Phonics Poems today!
Help your students increase their fluency skills by using these Ways to Increase Fluency in Your Students. Don't forget to grab some of the great FREEBIES we have included throughout this post! 😊
-Written by Janessa Fletcher
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Increasing reading fluency in our students is one of the main goals of any elementary school teacher. If they are not fluent readers, they are unable to gain meaning (comprehend) from what they are reading. There are a few components to being a fluent reader...

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Have you ever wanted to unlock the secret sauce to reading comprehension? Of course, you have! Teaching reading in upper elementary is challenging. Providing students with an essential skill to rinse and repeat with every text they read sounds dreamy, right?! Annotation is the key to understanding texts beyond just the words. Honestly, annotation goes far beyond just highlighting and underlining. When reading teachers know how to teach annotation correctly, it becomes a pathway to deeper understanding for students. Let's dive into how to teach annotation in upper elementary!

Annotating With a Close Reading Model

Annotating is not necessary for everything students read. However, with many important reads, complex texts, or lengthy passages, annotating comes in handy. For students to put genuine effort into annotation, they must truly understand the purpose and benefits of annotating a text.

Explaining this is simple when you use a close reading model. A close reading model includes three readings of the text, with a specific purpose for each reading. Ensuring the students understand the purpose of each read gives students a task to focus on as they read. Specifically, the three reads target main idea and key details, craft and structure, and integration of knowledge. Thankfully, the Close Reading Passages Bundle has everything you need to walk students through the entire close reading process.

Studying the text in specific areas is exceptionally beneficial for the student. A few benefits are making deeper connections with the text, thinking critically, slowing down to comprehend, and so much more. Honestly, teaching annotation in upper elementary covers many essential skills to help students become stronger readers.

How to Teach Annotation During the First Reading

The purpose of the first reading is to determine what the text says. Have the students read the text independently and focus on pinpointing the main idea and key details as they read.

Annotating can be difficult when students first begin the process. However, using an annotating guide can make the process simple. Annotating guides show students what they should be looking for in the text and suggest an annotation mark or symbol they should use to mark their text. Specifically, students will mark unknown words, questions they may have, key details, and more.

As students become better at annotating, they will create their own version that best suits how they learn. Ultimately, annotating independently is the main goal of teaching students how to annotate.

How to Teach Annotation During the Second Reading

During the second reading, students should focus on the craft and structure of the text. This reading can be done with a partner, silently, or even as a teacher read-aloud. Encourage students to pay close attention to how the text says it instead of what the text says.

Using their annotation marks, students can focus on marking unknown words or phrases. Marking unknown words will help students discover new vocabulary. These new words can lead to a deeper understanding of the text, text structure, and the author's point of view. Luckily, the Close Reading Passages Bundle on how to teach annotation includes vocabulary questions for each of the five passages. Not only will students identify the meaning of words, but they will use text evidence to support their understanding.

How to Teach Annotation During the Third Reading

As students complete the first two readings, their confidence in annotating will grow. They will feel a deeper connection with the text with each read as they comprehend more. Ultimately, the third reading is all about digging deeper to determine the text's meaning. While students are reading, ask them to explore how the text connects to their own thoughts, feelings, or experiences. Above all, the third step of teaching annotation is crucial for students to integrate their knowledge with the text. Luckily, you can grab a free annotating guide and bookmarks below!

Tying it All Together

Writing is a fantastic way to end the close reading process! Including a write and respond prompt at the end will help truly showcase learning. Students will be eager to write about the fun new knowledge they gain from each text they have read and analyzed. Using specific details from the passage, their annotations, and the activities they complete, students will love tying it all together through written comprehension!

Honestly, once students learn the close reading model and teachers understand how to teach annotation, reading comprehension will skyrocket! Students will begin to dig deeper into each passage they read rather than just skimming through it. Annotation gives struggling readers a process to guide them through each text.

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Grab the annotating guides to create stronger readers!

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Save this image to your favorite reading comprehension board on Pinterest. When you are ready to teach annotating to your students, you will be able to come back to this blog!

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The Christmas Reading Comprehension Passages guide the teacher step by step through how to teach annotation and create strong readers.

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Are you looking for a fun way for students to practice retelling fictional texts? This Reading Comprehension Dice game is the perfect way to work on story elements in an engaging way. Students play a dice game to answer various comprehension questions. Read on to find out how I use this activity with my students!
This post includes affiliate links for which I may make a small commission at no extra cost to you should you make a purchase.
What is Roll-a-Retell?

Roll-a-Retell is a reading comprehension dice game for literacy centers. Students roll a dice and answer a question that corresponds to the number rolled. They can answer the question orally or in a written response. Dice games allow students to respond to the text in a more engaging way! This easy center can be printed or completed digitally in Google Slides™.

Preparing the Reading Comprehension Dice Game

Decide which skills you would like to focus on with the reading comprehension dice game. Some suggested skills include retelling, character analysis, story elements, making connections, and theme.

Try to use Bloom's Taxonomy to differentiate the questions. For example, if you're working on characters, a #1 question could be "Who was the main character" while a #6 question could ask "Would you be friends with the main character? Why or Why not?" After students are familiar with the activity they can create their own questions!

Choose a way to display the questions to students. You may want to create a visual for your literacy centers or on a bookmark. Digital options could be showing it on your board or with a QR Code for students to access the questions. It can be a bit more time consuming to create but you can save time with these slides that are already made for you!

Ways to Implement Dice Games

Guided Reading

This is my students' favorite activity to do during guided reading! After we finish reading a fiction story, we use a Roll-a-Retell game board to answer comprehension questions about the text. I select questions based on the skills that we are targeting within our group. It's a fun and easy way to informally assess students' comprehension of the text. Plus it's engaging and changes things up a bit for the students.

Literacy Centers

Students can work with a buddy to complete this activity during centers. They can each read an individual book or read a book together. After finishing the book(s), the students take turns rolling the dice. You may opt to have students orally respond to the questions or have them write down their answers.

Tip for Literacy Centers Setup

Independent Reading

Students can also complete this activity during independent reading. After they read a fiction book, they can answer comprehension questions about the story. This is the perfect opportunity for reading response in students' Readers Notebooks.

Why Use this Dice Game?

Hopefully you'll realize how effective and fun this simple activity can be for your students. You can easily make it with just some dice and a sheet of paper with 6 questions. You can also type your own questions into these editable templates that are already created for you!

Have you used a reading comprehension dice game with your students? Share your tips for implementing this or similar activities in the comments below!

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Make Literacy Centers Fun with a Reading Comprehension Dice Game | The Reading Roundup

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Find out about a fun reading comprehension dice game you can use with elementary students to work on story elements in an engaging way!

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Adler, C. (2004). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension.

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001) Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read kindergarten through grade three. Washington, DC: The U.S. Department of Education.

Boulineau, T., Fore, C, Hagan-Burke, S. and Burke, M. (2004). Use of Story-Mapping to Increase the Story-Grammar Text Comprehension of Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Spring, 2004), pp. 105-121

Nell K. Duke, P. David Pearson, Stephanie L. Strachan, and Alison K. Billman (2011) Essential Elements of Fostering and Teaching Reading Comprehension . From What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (4th ed.), International Reading Association.

Nell K. Duke, Alessandra E. Ward, and P. David Pearson (2021). The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction , The Reading Teacher, Vol 74, No. 6 (May-June 2021).

Dunst, C, Simkus, A, Hamby, D. (2012). Children's Story Retelling as a Literacy and Language Enhancement Strategy. CELLreviews 5(4). Asheville, NC: Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, Center for Early Literacy Learning.

Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating independence through student owned strategies 3rd Edition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Timothy Shanahan et al., Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2010). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

Trabasso, T., & Bouchard, E. (2002) Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically. In C. Block and M. Pressley, (Eds.) Comprehension instruction: Research-based practices (pp. 176-200). NY: Guilford Press.

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Story maps use graphic organizers to help students learn the elements of a book or story. The most basic story maps focus on the beginning, middle, and end of the story. More advanced organizers focus more on plot or character traits.

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5/10/2023

Every day in the U.S., school district leaders are coming to the realization that the way we've been teaching reading needs to change. According to the Nations Report Card (NAEP), only 33% of fourth-grade students and 31% of eighth-grade students performed at or above Proficient in reading in 2022. While this is the case, 95% of students are capable of learning to read proficiently when taught with a curriculum based on the science of reading.

As a result, during the last two years, almost 20 states have made moves to scrap literacy curricula in favor of those based on the evidence of the science of reading, with California, Ohio, and Georgia being the most recent to join the movement. While it is true that many states are developing their curriculum to align with the science of reading, implementing the science of reading can be complex.

Breaking down the science of reading into a set of components might seem like the most logical way to begin understanding it, but this actually reflects a misunderstanding of the science of reading at the highest level. There are no components to the science of reading, simply because it is not an approach or philosophy. Instead, the phrase "science of reading" represents decades of gold-standard research that shows us the science behind how the human brain learns to read.

What many people think of as the components of the science of reading are the skills and instructional methods that have been proven effective in teaching reading. Skills like decoding are a key component in literacy, and the science of reading is the body of research that proves the importance of explicitly teaching such skills.

In this article, we look at how the body of research that makes up the science of reading can be more easily understood through the following four frameworks and models, which are all interconnected:

The five pillars of reading instruction

Scarborough's Reading Rope

The Simple View of Reading

Structured Literacy

These approaches each have their own components and concepts to help us understand how we learn to read. When educators have a complete understanding of these instructional frameworks and models, they are able to effectively implement evidence-based practices in their classroom and help all of their students find reading success.

What are the Five Pillars of Reading Instruction?

The five pillars of reading instruction, also known as the five pillars of early literacy, are a set of key components developed by the National Reading Panel essential for reading proficiency. They include phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. Each component plays a crucial role in developing strong reading skills, and educators who understand and effectively teach these pillars are increasing the chances their students learn how to read proficiently.

Research in cognitive psychology, linguistics, and neuroscience has provided a wealth of evidence-based strategies and practices for developing each of the five pillars of reading. Understanding the science behind these pillars can help educators design effective instruction that supports students in becoming strong readers. In the following sections, we'll dive deeper into each of the pillar components and explore how the science of reading informs our understanding of each one.

1. Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, manipulate, and distinguish individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It involves understanding that words are made up of separate sounds and being able to hear, blend, segment, and manipulate those sounds. Research has shown phonemic awareness instruction is most effective when students are taught to manipulate phonemes with letters, when it explicitly focuses on one or two types of phoneme manipulations (rather than multiple), and when students are taught in small groups.

2. Phonics

Phonics refers to the relationship between letters and sounds in language. It involves understanding how letters represent sounds and using that knowledge to decode written words during reading and encode words during writing. Many people have the misconception the science of reading is solely based on phonics, but phonics is just one piece of a very large and complex puzzle. Research shows systematic phonics instruction "provides beginning readers, at-risk readers, disabled readers, and low-achieving readers" with a higher chance of learning how to read proficiently in comparison to other forms of instruction.

3. Fluency

Fluency refers to the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression. It involves automaticity in word recognition, comprehension, and prosody. This study shows students with strong oral fluency skills are more likely to succeed in other areas of the literacy acquisition process. This is because fluency serves as a bridge between being able to read or decode words and being able to comprehend what is being read.

4. Vocabulary

Vocabulary refers to the words students must know to communicate effectively through reading and writing. It includes understanding the meaning of words, as well as how words are used in different contexts.

5. Comprehension

Reading comprehension is the ability to understand and make meaning from what has been read. It involves using background knowledge, decoding skills, vocabulary, and critical thinking strategies to construct meaning from text. Reading comprehension itself is the application of multiple skill components, and can be seen as the main goal of reading. The skills needed for reading comprehension can be broken down with the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough's Reading Rope.

The Simple View of Reading & Scarborough's Reading Rope explained

Scarborough's Reading Rope and the Simple View of Reading are two widely recognized models that explain the complex process of reading. While both models are similar in that they identify different components that contribute to reading proficiency, they differ in the way they conceptualize and prioritize these components. Both of these models are foundational ways of understanding the science of reading research explaining how the human brain learns to read.

The Simple View of Reading (SVR)

According to Gough and Tumner's (1986) Simple View of Reading (SVR), reading comprehension is conceptualized through the combination of two skills: word recognition and language comprehension. The model is represented as a multiplication equation, showing that neither of these concepts is sufficient on its own-a lack of understanding of one concept could lead to overall reading failure. This is why it is so important for students to develop both alongside each other.
Decoding (Word Recognition) x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
In the SVR, decoding is comprised of the skill components: phonology, orthography and morphology. Language comprehension is comprised of the components of syntax, semantics, pragmatics, and discourse. Struggling with any one of these subcomponents can lead to overall reading comprehension struggles.

Scarborough's Reading Rope

With a slightly different skill component breakdown, Scarborough's Reading Rope offers a visual of the different components that need to be woven together for skilled reading. These strands are separated into two categories: word recognition and language comprehension. These two sections (the same main components represented in the SVR) are further broken down into smaller "strands" that represent the different skills that go into each category. All of these strands are critical for skilled reading and are dependent upon one another.

Word Recognition is a combination of:

Phonological awareness

Decoding

Sight recognition

Of these three, decoding is the element that helps bring everything together when it comes to word recognition. Decoding is the process of linking printed words or letters on the page to their spoken equivalents. A student's ability to decode words begins with their understanding of the language sound system and then proceeds to have a grasp on the writing system through an understanding of phonology, orthography, and morphology.

Language comprehension is the other necessary component of reading comprehension, and it makes up the top half of Scarborough's Reading Rope. Language comprehension requires the combination of

Background knowledge

Vocabulary

Language structures

Verbal reasoning

Literacy knowledge

While these skill components differ from the SVR's underpinning components of semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and discourse, they both comprise the skills needed to understand language and sentence structure.

Where does Structured Literacy come in?

Structured Literacy (SL) is a phrase coined by the International Dyslexia Association® (IDA), and it refers to a specific way of teaching students how to read. This method of teaching has been shown to support all students, regardless of background or skill level. The SL approach to teaching reading is defined by these parameters:

Explicit

This means that concepts and skills being introduced to students are directly taught and practiced-educators should not assume students learn principles of literacy on their own or through exposure alone. The aim is to provide ample guidance and practice to help students acquire new literacy concepts. It is important to give immediate feedback to minimize the possibility of students learning and practicing concepts incorrectly.

Systematic and cumulative

Each concept students are taught should build on top of the previous concept they learned, and their teacher should explain how each new lesson fits into the whole. New skills should be presented in a logically ordered way, progressing from simple to complex. Each new concept builds upon the previous one, with teachers making sure to explain how each new lesson connects to the previous ones. The goal is to enable students to gradually develop automatic reading skills, which allow them to move from learning to read to reading to learn.

Hands-on, engaging, and multimodal

SL recognizes students learn best when they are engaged and active in the learning process. This combines listening, speaking, reading, and writing, which in turn develops a student's language comprehension skills and fosters multimodal learning.The goal is to foster language comprehension skills by allowing students to experience learning in a more interactive and engaging way.

Diagnostic and responsive

This means educators are responsive to the needs of individual students. They should be continuously assessing student progress and adjust their teaching accordingly. Pacing, presentation, and practice for new concepts should be adapted to individual students' skill levels and understanding, ensuring students who need more time and guidance get that support. By being diagnostic and responsive, SL ensures every student receives the support and guidance they need to develop literacy skills effectively.

A structured literacy approach will teach the skill components identified by the National Reading Panel, the simple view of reading, and Scarboroughs's reading rope in an explicit, systematic, and responsive way that effectively helps all students learn to read.

Implementing the Science of Reading Components

Components like phonics, vocabulary, or syntax are but a small piece of science of reading-based instruction. As an ever-growing body of research, the science of reading continues to deepen our understanding of how we learn to read. The five pillars of early literacy, Scarborough's Reading Rope, the Simple View of Reading, and Structured Literacy are all derived from the science of reading research. Educators can use the components within these frameworks and models to inform their teaching practices. By including explicit instruction in reading skills from phonemic awareness to vocabulary and semantics, teachers can make sure all students have the opportunity to achieve reading success.

For educators looking to strengthen their literacy curriculum, take a look at this webinar, "Decoding is Only Half the Story: Challenges with Implementing the Science of Reading." In it, Dr. Suzanne Carreker explores the challenges of implementing the science of reading in the classroom, and offers a breadth of knowledge and advice for educators looking to integrate the science of reading into their classrooms.

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A Full Breakdown of the Science of Reading Components | Lexia

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What are the components of the science of reading? It's not that simple. Learn more through a breakdown of the five pillars of early literacy, Scarborough's Reading Rope, the Simple View of Reading, and Structured Literacy.