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For my own teaching journal of resources to remind how to improve students reading comprehension.

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

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determining when the compression breakdown occurred through assessment:

"students might not have met a comprehension standard because they have difficulty understanding basic details, seeing how details are related, drawing a conclusion based on details, or formulating a response. Observation, quizzes, discussions, and examination of students’ work are needed to reveal why the standard isn’t being met or growth is not adequate."

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Second and Third grade comprehension activities.

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Kindergarten and first grade comprehension activity

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Both decoding and language comprehension are said to be of equal importance and can be represented by the

mathematical formula:

R=D xC, where R is reading,

D is decoding, and C is language comprehension.

Students will experience difficulty if either decoding or language comprehension is inadequate. Decoding is used in a broad sense and so goes beyond sounding out words to include a full range of word recognition skills that are applied “accurately and quickly.” C encompasses level of language development, vocabulary, background knowledge, and thinking skills. C is measured through listening comprehension in which students retell a selection that has been read to them. According to the Simple View, you can’t comprehend a selection if you don’t know the meanings of most of the words in a selection or if you know the meanings of the words but can’t decode them, that is they are in your listening vocabulary, but you don’t recognize them when you see them in print. As Duke and Cartwright (2021) note, the Simple View has been criticized because

there are students who have adequate word recognition and language comprehension but who experience difficulty understanding what they read. They proposed expand-ing SVR to include active self-regulation, which encompasses motivation, engagement, strategy use, and executive function skills, such as setting goals.

text from:

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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Vocabulary is....

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Integrate vocabulary in my daily and weekly classroom. You cannot teach students the dictionary in one lesson or unit you must use these words in your daily lesson to give students a concrete understanding of the words.

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Weekly Vocabulary Words for Kids - June 28

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Increase your child's vocabulary with these weekly vocab lists and activities!

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TEACH THEM HOW TO USE TO DICTONARY!

Both the physical dictionary and a mobile version.

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Search an online dictionary written specifically for young students. Kid-friendly meanings from the reference experts at Merriam-Webster help students build and master vocabulary.

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Find Definitions Written for Kids | Merriam-Webster Student Dictionary

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Kid-friendly meanings from the reference experts at Merriam-Webster help students build and master vocabulary.

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Vocabulary for kindergarten or first grade.

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Vocabulary activity for second or third grade.

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For future reference on how my students score based on vocabulary:

"A high-vocabulary, low-comprehension score, for example, is often a sign that a student needs extra instruction in the use of comprehension strategies. A low-vocabulary, high-comprehension score might indicate the need for language development. Occasionally, norm-referenced tests yield surprises. Sometimes children, because of shyness or other factors, hide their talents. Norm-referenced tests occasionally spotlight a student whose abilities have gone unnoticed"

from our textbook

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Build background and vocabulary: It is important to develop background knowledge and vocabulary in all children. For some children from low-income families, this development will have to be extensive. Limited incomes generally mean limited travel and lack of opportunity for vacations, summer camps, and other enriching activities. As you develop background and concepts, build the vocabulary that goes along with them.

from our textbook

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"In studies, students who read more acquired more vocabulary and achieved higher scores on tests of cognitive ability..."

citation: Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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Why is Fluency Important?

Fluency is the key element in proficient reading. Fluency is the essential link from word recognition to comprehension. Fluency is the basic building block that sets students from word callers to readers.

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Fluency is freedom from word identification problems that might hinder comprehension in silent reading or the expression of ideas in oral reading. Fluency has levels of complexity. Surface fluency refers to rate of reading and reading with expression. Deep fluency means that the reader controls rate of reading and reading with expression to maximize comprehension (Topping, 2006). “The critical test of fluency is the ability to decode a text and understand it simultaneously” (Samuels, 2006, p. 41).

Citation: Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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Assessing Fluency

To assess reading rate, which is a key element in fluency, time the student’s oral and silent reading for each passage (see Table 3.5, Estimated Average Rates of Oral and Silent Reading). For oral reading, you can note how many words the student reads in the first minute of reading or time how long the student took to read the whole selection and divide that into the number of words read correctly. Silent reading rate is also assessed by dividing the number of words read by the time spent reading. Use timings from the instructional level, not the frustration level. If the student reads more than one passage at the instructional level, average the reading rates. In the early grades, growth in reading rate is rapid but slows down in the interme-diate grades. Oral reading rate is no longer much of an issue once students’ oral read-ing rate reaches 110 words per minute. At that point decoding is relatively automatic (Morris et al., 2011). However, silent reading rate is a concern and should continue to increase. A large drop in oral or silent rate, as students move up into higher levels, even when comprehension and word recognition are adequate, could be indicating difficulty processing text in an efficient fashion.

Text from:

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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Second and Third Grade Fluency Activities.

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Kindergarten and First Grade Fluency Activity.

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While this excerpt from our textbook focuses on students with intellectual disabilities this is an important reference for both fluency and comprehension. I want to keep this because I will have many students who struggle with these two pillars of literacy and this excerpt references a good online program that I can have for the future and it explains the importance of providing appropriate materials, reading aloud, scaffolding, and the feedback which allows students and teachers to identify and build on the students level of fluency.

Provide appropriate materials that students need materials that appeal to their

age but that are on the appropriate reading level. A language-experience approach in which they read stories that they have composed is especially effective because it is based on students’ language (see Chapter 12). Access to high-quality literature can also be provided through read alouds and shared reading (Lemons et al., 2016). Using a well-constructed literacy program is also recommended (Lemons et al., 2016). This might be a program designed for students with special needs or perhaps an adaptation of the school’s intervention program. One program, Friends on the Block, was specifically designed for students with intellectual disabilities. Friends on the Block is an early literacy program that consists of 14 levels and 60 e-books. Foundational skills developed included phonemic awareness and basic single-syllable phonics, with the aim of developing students’ ability to read 300 high-frequency regular and irregular words. Key comprehension and fluency skills are also developed. Extensive practice and review are provided. Routines feature carefully constructed scaffolds designed to reinforce key word recognition skills.

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Phonics in my opinion is the largest section in the 5 pillars of literacy with vocabulary a close second. In our textbook it talks about the importance of phonics even for intermediate and middle school students who miss the phonological foundations and, therefore struggle in their ability to read more complex literature. In this excerpt from our textbook, I wanted to keep this as a reference for the future to understand the different phonics program approaches to reading and spelling using phonics.

Most phonics programs take a print-to-speech approach. Students are shown the

letter a and told that it makes the sound /a/ as in apple. They then read words and stories containing short-a words. However, a few programs take a spelling or speech-to-print approach. In a speech-to-print presentation, students listen to the sound /a/ and hear it in the spoken words apple, astronaut, and add. They are told that /a/ is spelled with the letter a. They spell and read words that contain a/a/. Speech-to-print approaches organize skills around speech sounds. They present the speech sound and then the main ways of spelling it. Focus is on the 44 speech sounds.

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Why is phonics important is not a simple answer. There are different theories on phonics for learning to read and it is because the English language is not made for a simple right and wrong understanding for students. An example is teaching students letter sounds for each letter when philosophers cannot even agree on how many English sounds are in the English alphabet. While this excerpt from our text is rather long, it basically addresses one theory that phonics should be acquired through reading and that is because while many English words are irregular the beginning and end is usually regular therefore putting them into stories and students becoming familiar with them in a context will give students a better understanding of phonics into words into sentences into stories.

This theory of the stages of reading has two very important implications for the teaching of reading. First, it suggests that nearly all the words we acquire are learned through phonics, especially in the beginning stages (Duke & Mesmer, 2016). Therefore, words to be learned should be taught through a phonics approach rather than through an approach based on visual memory. Most words that have been classified as having irregular spellings are at least partly regular. For instance, the first and last letters of was are regular, as are the first and last letters of been. The stage theory also implies that instruction should be geared to the stage that

a student is in. For this reason, whole-class instruction in phonics is generally a poor practice. In virtually all classes, there is a range of phonics knowledge. Students have different levels of understanding of the alphabetic principle. Some are just beginning to grasp the concept that letters represent sounds. Others have a concept that each sound in a word is represented by a letter—as with /h/, /a/, /t/ for hat—and are learning short-vowel patterns that, for the most part, show a one-to-one correspondence between letters and sounds. More advanced students realize that not all words can be processed sound by sound. They have come to the understanding that some words have a final-e marker that indicates that the preceding vowel is long, as in hate, or a vowel digraph that performs a similar function, as in wait, in which the digraph ai represents long a. Instruction should be geared to students’ developmental level. Students who are just beginning to grasp that each sound in a word is represented by a letter and have not mastered short-vowel patterns are not ready for instruction in final-e or digraph patterns. Research clearly indicates that students make the most progress when they are grouped according to their developmental level (Juel & Minden-Cupp, 2000). The research strongly favors small-group, targeted instruction (National Reading Panel, 2000).

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Our textbook endorsed this free resource website to determine what phonics skills students have learned and which need to be taught. There are a lot of great informal assessments such as the Phonics Inventory that come with explanations for educators on how to administer and evaluate the data.

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Students identify upper- and lowercase letters.

Letter Recognition Test
Students select from four letters the one named by the teacher.

Students tell which of three words begins with the same sound spoken by the teacher.

Estimates students' foundational skills from beginning consonants to multisyllabic words.

Students provide sounds for consonant letters.

Assesses students' ability to read key single-syllable patterns.

Students' select from three single-syllable words the one that correctly completes a sentence.

Students select from three multisyllabic words the one that correctly completes a sentence.

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Students identify upper- and lowercase letters. Letter Recognition Test Students select from four letters the one named by the teacher. Students tell which of three words begins with the same sound spoken by the teacher. Estimates students' foundational skills from beginning consonants to multisyllabic words. Students provide sounds for consonant letters.

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What is Phonics?

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Reference for understanding the broad standard of teaching phonics at all grade levels. This excerpt from our textbook gives the breakdown of many different objectives for the standard “Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words”

“Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words”

is a standard and is accompanied by a number of supporting standards, such as “Decode words with common prefixes or suffixes” (National Governors Association, 2010a, p. 16). This supporting standard can be broken down into a series of instructional objectives such as this one: “Be able to use the prefix pre to read and derive the meanings of words, such as pretest, presale, preview, pregame.” The objective can also be expressed as a learn-ing intention or learning target. “We are learning to use the prefix pre so we can figure out the meanings of words that begin with it” (learning intention). “I can use the prefix pre to figure out the meanings of words that begin with this prefix” (learning target). Noting that the terms such as learning goal, learning objective, and learning target

Pearson eTextbook Video Example 3.1 Mapping Curriculum to Standards Instruction is more effective when teachers use backwards mapping in their planning.

are subject to “misconceptions and diverse perspectives,” Marzano (2017, p. 11) recom-mends that schools operationally define these terms and use them in a consistent way. See Figure 3.1. Objectives are sometimes confused with activities. Activities are what students do to achieve an objective. They are th

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Phonics activity for my future second/third grade class.

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k1_p034_vowel_stars.pdf

A phonics activity for my future Kindergarten class.

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Bottom up Vs Top Down Phonics Approach:

Bottom-Uppers In the bottom-up approach, children literally start at the bottom and work their way up. 1. First, they learn the names and shapes of the letters of the alphabet. 2. Next, they learn the sounds represented by the letters, beginning with single con-sonants and gradually moving into more complex elements.

3. Third, as they learn basic letter–sound correspondences, they combine letter sounds into words.

Bottom-up procedures are intended to make learning to read easier by breaking complex tasks into their component skills. Instruction proceeds from the simple to the complex. In essence, there are probably no 100-percent bottom-uppers among reading teachers. Even those who strongly favor phonics recognize the importance of higher-level strategies.

Top-Downers A top-down approach, as its name indicates, starts at the top and works downward. Learning to read is seen as being similar to learning language; it is holis-tic and progresses naturally through immersion. Subskills are not taught because it is felt that they fragment the process and make learning to read more abstract and dif-ficult. One of the most influential top-down models of reading—but now being widely disputed—is that proposed by Ken Goodman (1994). According to Goodman, readers use their background knowledge and knowledge of language to predict and infer the content of print. Readers use the three cueing system: semantics, syntactics, and graphophonics.Semantic cues derive from past experiences, so students construct meaning by bringing their background of knowledge to a story. Syntactic cues derive from knowledge of how the structure of language works. Graphophonic cues refer to the ability to sound out words or recognize them holistically. Based on their use of these cues, students pre-dict the content of the text, confirm or revise their predictions, and reread if necessary. When reading the sentence “The cat meowed,” readers can use their knowledge of the sounds that a cat might make, context clues, syntactical knowledge that a verb generally follows a noun, and perhaps the initial consonant m to reconstruct the word meowed. Relying heavily on pictures and context, students make extensive use of semantic and syntactical cues before using graphophonics cues. According to Goodman’s theory, it is not necessary for the reader to process all the letters of meowed. However, to make use of background knowledge, context clues, and initial consonant cues, the reader must consider the whole text. If the word meowed were read in isolation, the reader would have to depend more heavily on processing all or most of the letters of the word.

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Defining the key elements of phonemic awareness:

The main skills developed in phonological awareness, which includes phonemes and larger speech units, are rhyming, alliteration, identification, blending, segmenting, and manipulating. • Rhyming is the ability to recognize that two words rhyme or to produce a rhyming word. Producing a rhyme is more difficult than recognizing one.

• Alliteration is the ability to note that words begin with the same sound: Which word begins like sun: boy lion six?

• Identification is the ability to identify a speech element within a word (Scarborough & Brady, 2002). Identification includes the isolation of phonemes: What is the first sound in sun? What is the last sound in dog?

• Blending (synthesis) involves putting word parts together, combining /h/ + /a/ + /t/ or /h/ + /at/ to form hat and is easier than segmenting.

• Segmenting (analysis) consists of dividing words into speech sounds: dividing hat into the phonemes /h-/a/-/t/ or onset-rime /h/ + /at/.

• Manipulating involves adding, deleting (sometimes known as elision), or substitut-ing sounds in words (adding s to top to form stop, deleting t from stir to form sir, substituting /m/ for the /h/ in hat to make mat).

text from:

Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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There is different levels of phonemic awareness and a scope and sequence of how to introduce and determine your student's mastery of the skill.

Screenshot of table from out textbook

citation: Gunning, Thomas G. Creating Literacy Instruction for All Students. Available from: Yuzu Reader, (11th Edition). Pearson Education (US), 2024.

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Phonemic Awareness Activity for my classroom to identify if students can hear and understand the segment and blend of words.

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In class I could do the following games or approaches to address phonemix awareness:

1. Dribble Dribble Shoot: Students will dribble each phoneme in a word and shoot to put the whole word together. Example: Win (Dribble) Dow (Dribble) Window (Shoot)

2. Hand Hand Clap: Student will visualize presentation of their left hand and then right hand for two phoneme words the clap their hands together to blend the two sounds togethers to complete the word as one.

Example: Sh (right hand) oot (left hand) Shoot (clap together)

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A great resource for my future class, parents, or personal reference to understand the difference between phonics and phonemic awareness

Why Phonemic Awareness is important:

1. Segment words into individual sounds

2. Blend sounds to make a word

3. Manipulate sounds within a word

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A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, in the word “cat,” there are three phonemes, or three units of sound, /c/ /a/ /t/. Likewise in the word “night,” there are also three phonemes, even though there are five letters, or graphemes. A phoneme isn’t the same thing as a letter. Instead, it’s the sound a letter or letters make. /igh/ makes the long I sound, so it’s only one phoneme.

citation: "What Is Phonemic Awareness? A Guide for Educators and Families"

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Through many enlightening scientific studies in literacy development, we now have a much better understanding of how our brains learn to read. So many different elements have to come together to make it work-it's remarkable when you think about it! One of these non-negotiable elements in the early literacy process is manipulating and distinguishing between the sounds in words, also known as phonemic awareness. Chances are you've heard of it, but you might have some questions. We'll cover what you need to know as we dive deep into this critical part of acquiring reading and writing skills.

What is a phoneme?

First, let's talk phonemes. A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word. For example, in the word "cat," there are three phonemes, or three units of sound, /c/ /a/ /t/. Likewise in the word "night," there are also three phonemes, even though there are five letters, or graphemes. A phoneme isn't the same thing as a letter. Instead, it's the sound a letter or letters make. /igh/ makes the long I sound, so it's only one phoneme.

A good rule of thumb is that phonemic awareness is mostly oral, while phonics deals with the letters or print you can see.

Let's try it! Can you count the number of phonemes in these words? (Hint: It helps to close your eyes when you say the words aloud so you don't get stuck on the number of letters.)

(Answers: 3, 5, 2)

Why do we need to teach phonemic awareness?

It's important to teach early readers that words are made up of phonemes and that we can break them apart and blend them together to make words. Without grasping this essential concept, students will struggle to decode. Instead, they might rely on memorization when they read. Of course, they have to develop a strong understanding of letters too, but both of these are critical building blocks for success in learning to read.

Also, there are 44 distinct sounds in the English language, while there are more than 200 ways to represent those 44 sounds. A little confusing, right? Understanding that words are made up of sounds is not very intuitive. We don't hear the individual sounds in words when we say them, we hear the word spoken as a unit. Since hearing individual sounds in a word is not necessarily automatic, we have to explicitly teach students the skills they need. Similarly, in order to spell words, you have to be able to segment or take apart sounds in words. Some might need more instruction than others to master it, but all will benefit from the extra practice.

Another consideration that makes phonemic awareness tricky is something called coarticulation. When you say a word out loud, an individual sound often overlaps with the sound right before or after it, making it harder to distinguish.

The International Dyslexia Association offers a detailed guide on the process of developing phonemic awareness. Check it out for deeper understanding and helpful teaching tips.

What about phonological awareness?

You may have heard the terms "phonemic awareness" and "phonological awareness" used interchangeably, but there's an important distinction between the two. Phonemic awareness falls under the umbrella of the broader skill of phonological awareness, which encompasses the ability to recognize sound parts in spoken language. This includes rhyming and syllables, or bigger chunks in words, while phonemic awareness focuses on the individual sounds. A solid foundation in phonological awareness is necessary for developing strong phonemic awareness.

Want to learn more about the difference between phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, and phonics? Check out this helpful video from Learning at the Primary Pod.

What are the main components of phonemic awareness?

There are six main features of phonemic awareness. The tasks are progressive, meaning that the higher-level skills require proficiency in each of the previous ones. For example, in order to successfully do phoneme substitution, a student must be capable of doing each of the preceding skills.

Here's an example of each of these tasks:

Check out this video from Susan Jones for more information about each of the six components and how to teach these specific skills in the classroom:

How do I teach phonemic awareness?

Now that you know what is it, let's talk about how to teach it. Most likely, there will be a range of phonemic awareness skills in your class, depending on the grade level and experience of your students. Some students will be able to do these tasks on their own, while others will require more intentional and explicit instruction. While phonemic awareness is most often taught early, older students who have not mastered these skills would greatly benefit from learning them as well.

Assess

Like many things we teach, it's helpful to start out by finding out what students already know. You can do this by using formal and informal assessments. Really Great Reading, an explicit literacy program, offers a free diagnostic tool to help identify students' strengths and deficits. Head to their website and fill out this form, click on Phonological Awareness Survey (which includes phonemic awareness assessments), and you'll receive an email with a copy of the comprehensive assessment.

Make it fun!

Once you know the skills students need to practice, including manipulatives in your instruction is a great way to support developing phonemic awareness skills. Students can use these interactive tools to help them segment and blend sounds in words. On her blog Fun in First, Jodi Southard offers some helpful recommendations for types of manipulatives your students will love. Playdough to Plato also has a detailed lesson plan for how to use the popular Pop-It toy for a fun lesson.

Integrated Daily Practice

Even though phonemic awareness is an important component of learning to read, that doesn't mean you have to teach it first. In fact, one of the best ways to incorporate it is alongside explicit phonics instruction. Newer research suggests the importance of simultaneously using both to optimize learning for students.

A fun activity called Switch It, from Reading Simplified by Marnie Ginsberg, combines phonics with phonemic awareness. The task incorporates phonemic segmentation and manipulation along with decoding and the alphabetic principle to boost each of these skills.

Teach one or two skills at a time

Students need to have a baseline level of phonemic awareness before they can benefit from integrated instruction. Using a designated tool to work on targeted phonemic awareness skills can get everyone up to speed and doesn't take up much time. Take a look at these programs for comprehensive instruction:

Heggerty

This program is designed for classroom instruction or intervention. Lessons are targeted and explicit and designed to last 10 to 15 minutes.
Heggerty Curriculum
Kilpatrick

With extensive information on early literacy development, this book offers comprehensive summaries of research and a step-by-step program to use.
Equipped for Reading Success
Incorporate activities into centers or small group instruction:

The Florida Center for Reading Research offers great activities for focused phonemic awareness practice, as well as many other literacy skills. You can easily incorporate them into your literacy routine or small group instruction.

Make it consistent

Consider adding extra practice to your morning meeting or other daily routines. Many activities can double as games or transition times. Check out these suggestions from Sarah's Teaching Snippets for some inspiration.

Whether you decide to invest in a program or take advantage of free online resources, there are so many great ways to support students' phonemic awareness. Either way, knowing the basics about this important literacy skill will enhance your instruction and set your students up for success.

Want to learn more? Don't miss:
40 Low-Prep Phonological Awareness Activities What Is Reading Intervention? 10 Helpful Science of Reading PD Books for Teachers
Which phonemic awareness resources do you use? Tell us in the comments!

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What Is Phonemic Awareness? A Guide for Educators and Families

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We define the concept of phonemic awareness, discuss why it's important, and share resources to implement it in the classroom.