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Definition : Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching, or otherwise changing words.

Application : This can be applied in several scenarios such as early childhood development. In early childhood education, phonological awareness can will be used to help the student develop foundational skills that they need for writing, reading and producing sounds.
Connection to mathematics : Rhyming and alliteration help students understand patterns and be able to see connections between words and phrases. This will be helpful to students that are about to start math classes and have to make these types of connections throughout the entire math course.
Equity and Justice : Phonological awareness is important because ALL students have the ability to learn it. When a student is able to understand phonological awareness, they are able to make connections, see patterns and communicate more complexly as well as many other skills that will help them in many areas of life.
Connections to mathematics: Phonological awareness plays a role in the development of foundational skills and cognitive processes that are important with math. By strengthening phonological awareness, educators can support the students mathematical thinking, problem solving and overall skills.
Equity and Justice : Phonological awareness promotes equity and justice by supporting language acquistion, reading profiency and culturally responsive teaching. By addressing phonological awareness needs. educators ensure equitable access to literacy and support students from diverse backgrounds including students with learning disabilities.

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Definition : the ability to read, write and speak a language with accuracy, consistency and speed. Fluency means the person can automatically recognize and decode words when reading or hearing the language.
"With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with fluency issues that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do."
Application : As a middle level math teacher, I will apply fluency by helping the students gain conceptually understanding. When students have a strong foundation in basic math operations, they can better understand complex concepts, such as algebraic expressions, equations and functions.
Connections to mathematics : Students are able to develop efficient and effective problem solving skills, mental math skills and abilities and communication skills. Fluency helps students be more confident as mathematical thinkers and communicators.
Equity and justice : Educators work towards ensuring all students have equitable access to the resources, support and opportunities necessary for developing mathematical fluency.

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Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their…

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Definition : The ability to communicate verbally with spoken words in a variety of languages. Regardless of the language being spoken, it includes vocabulary, grammar, comprehension and pronunciation.
Oral language, the complex system that relates sounds to meanings, is made up of three components: the phonological, semantic, and syntactic (Lindfors, 1987).

Application : Some key applications within education are language development, communication and social interaction, reading comprehension and academic language proficiency. I will incorporate this development within my students by doing activities in my classroom such as class discussions, debates, role play, story telling and collabarative projects.

Connections to Mathematics : Oral language is relevent to math because of lectures, activities, projects and assessments which all require a type of communication. Within mathematics, we complete lessons that may involve an acronym or something a student may have to orally repeat in order to learn.

Equity and Justice : Oral language relates to equity by allowing the students to learn through conversations. Students can communicate through hand motions or gestures, electronics, facial expressions and translators.

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What is Oral Language? In today's linguistically diverse elementary classrooms, research suggests that a universal approach to building academic vocabulary and conceptual knowledge holds huge promise for closing the opportunity gaps among English learners. In Cultivating Knowledge, Building Language, Nonie Lesaux and Julie Harris present a knowledge-based approach to literacy instruction that supports young English learners' (ELs) development of academic content and vocabulary knowledge and sets them up for reading success.

In today's blog adapted from the book, the authors answer, "What is oral language?"

Oral language is the system through which we use spoken words to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings. Developing ELs' oral language, then, means developing the skills and knowledge that go into listening and speaking-all of which have a strong relationship to reading comprehension and to writing. Oral language is made up of at least five key components (Moats 2010): phonological skills, pragmatics, syntax, morphological skills, and vocabulary (also referred to as semantics). All of these components of oral language are necessary to communicate and learn through conversation and spoken interaction, but there are important distinctions among them that have implications for literacy instruction.

The Components of Oral Language

A student's phonological skills are those that give her an awareness of the sounds of language, such as the sounds of syllables and rhymes (Armbruster, Lehr, and Osborne 2001). In addition to being important for oral language development, these skills play a foundational role in supporting word-reading development. In the early stages of learning how to read words, children are often encouraged to sound out the words. But before even being able to match the sounds to the letters, students need to be able to hear and understand the discrete sounds that make up language. Phonological skills typically do not present lasting sources of difficulty for ELs; we know that under appropriate instructional circumstances, on average, ELs and their monolingual English-speaking peers develop phonological skills at similar levels, and in both groups, these skills are mastered by the early elementary grades. Students' skills in the domains of syntax, morphology, and pragmatics are central for putting together and taking apart the meaning of sentences and paragraphs, and for oral and written dialogue.

Syntax refers to an understanding of word order and grammatical rules (Cain 2007; Nation and Snowling 2000). For example, consider the following two sentences: Sentence #1: Relationships are preserved only with care and attention. Sentence #2: Only with care and attention are relationships preserved.

In these cases, although the word orders are different, the sentences communicate the same message. In other cases, a slight change in word order alters a sentence's meaning. For example:
Sentence #1: The swimmer passed the canoe.
Sentence #2: The canoe passed the swimmer.
Morphology, discussed in more detail in Chapter 7, refers to the smallest meaningful parts from which words are created, including roots, suffixes, and prefixes (Carlisle 2000; Deacon and Kirby 2004). When a reader stumbles upon an unfamiliar word (e.g., unpredictable), an awareness of how a particular prefix or suffix (e.g., un- and -able) might change the meaning of a word or how two words with the same root may relate in meaning to each other (e.g., predict, predictable, unpredictable) supports her ability to infer the unfamiliar word's meaning. In fact, for both ELs and monolingual English speakers, there is a reciprocal relationship between morphological awareness and reading comprehension, and the strength of that relationship increases throughout elementary school (Carlisle 2000; Deacon and Kirby 2004; Goodwin et al. 2013; Kieffer, Biancarosa, and Mancilla-Martinez 2013; Nagy, Berninger, and Abbott 2006).

Pragmatics refers to an understanding of the social rules of communication (Snow and Uccelli 2009). So, for example, pragmatics involve how we talk when we have a particular purpose (e.g., persuading someone versus appeasing someone), how we communicate when we're engaging with a particular audience (e.g., a family member versus an employer), and what we say when we find ourselves in a particular context (e.g., engaging in a casual conversation versus delivering a public speech). These often implicit social rules of communication differ across content areas or even text genres. Pragmatics play a role in reading comprehension because much of making meaning from text depends upon having the right ideas about the norms and conventions for interacting with others-to understand feelings, reactions, and dilemmas among characters or populations, for example, and even to make inferences and predictions. The reader has to be part of the social world of the text for effective comprehension.

Vocabulary knowledge must be fostered from early childhood through adolescence.

Finally, having the words to engage in dialogue-the vocabulary knowledge- is also a key part of oral language, not to mention comprehending and communicating using print (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan 2013; Ouellette 2006). Vocabulary knowledge, also referred to as semantic knowledge, involves understanding the meanings of words and phrases (aka receptive vocabulary) and using those words and phrases to communicate effectively (aka expressive vocabulary).

Notably, vocabulary knowledge exists in degrees, such that any learner has a particular "level" of knowledge of any given word (Beck, McKeown, and Kucan 2013). This begins with the word sounding familiar and moves toward the ability to use the word flexibly, even metaphorically, when speaking and writing. Vocabulary knowledge must be fostered from early childhood through adolescence. Deep vocabulary knowledge is often a source of difficulty for ELs, hindering their literacy development (August and Shanahan 2006).

If you would like to learn more about Cultivating Knowledge, Building Language, you can download a sample chapter here:

or

Nonie K. Lesaux, PhD, is the Juliana W. and William Foss Thompson Professor of Education and Society at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Lesaux leads a research program guided by the goal of increasing opportunities to learn for students from diverse linguistic, cultural, and economic backgrounds. Her research on reading development and instruction, and her work focused on using data to prevent reading difficulties, informs setting-level interventions, as well as public policy at the national and state level.

Julie Russ Harris, EdM, is the manager of the Language Diversity and Literacy Development Research Group at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. A former elementary school teacher and reading specialist in urban public schools, Harris's work continues to be guided by the goal of increasing the quality of culturally diverse children's learning environments.

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What is Oral Language? In today's linguistically diverse elementary classrooms, research suggests that a universal approach to building academic vocabulary and conceptual knowledge holds huge promise for closing the opportunity gaps among English learners.

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Definition : A method of teaching, reading, and writing sounds involved in a spoken language. It is recognized and associated with sounds to letters and eventually being able to decode words.
Phonics is a "way of teaching the code-based portion of reading and spelling that stresses symbol-sound relationships; especially important in beginning reading instruction" (Massachusetts 2017 English Language Arts and Literacy Framework ).

Application : To incorporate phonics instruction in my classroom as a middle level teacher, I will use strategies and resources to teach letter-sound correspondences, word sorting, word building activities, word games, and reading materials that emphasize phonics principles. Integrating this type of phonic instruction within my classroom will also help support students independent reading skills, comprehension skills, and vocabulary development.

Connections to mathematics : Phonics instruction can contribute to the development of foundational skills and cognitive processes that are important for mathematics.
Equity and Justice : By prioritizing equity and justice in phonics instruction, educators work towards ensuring that all students have the oppurtunity to develop strong literacy skills and succeed academically. Some ways phonics can support mathematics is vocabulary development, symbolic representation, word problem solving, and critical thinking skills.

Equity and Justice : Phonics in education relates to equity and justice by providing systematic and inclusive approaches to literacy instruction, ensuring that all students, including those from any background, have access to the foundational skills needed for reading and writing, promoting equal oppurtunities for literacy development. This approach is equitable and helps address literacy gaps and empowers students to be more confident and profiecient readers and writers.

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Right now, our children are being asked to learn everything virtually. Most of their current assignments involve academic websites and completing online assignments. What if you could include some hands-on activities to teach phonics and math to your children? No printer required and they get away from being glued to a computer or tablet screen!

Activities to Teach Phonics and Math

Here are some activity ideas to teach phonics and math. Added bonus ... you don't have to purchase anything to do these activities. All can be done with items you currently have in your home!

Phonics Activities

All of these activities to teach phonics will work on words containing certain single letter sounds (m, s, t, r, p, etc.) or multiple letter sounds (sh, pl, gr, ee, ay, etc.).

Phonics Games

Turn some popular games into activities to teach phonics. They are a fun alternative to learning words with phonics patterns.

Phonics Pictionary - Think of as many words as you can that contain the phonics sound and write them down on small pieces of paper. Using a pencil and paper, pick up a word and draw a picture of that word. Your child has to guess what word it is. You can switch and take turns who is drawing and who is guessing.

Word Family Activities

In addition to teaching phonics sounds, these are some activities that focus on word families.

Rhyming Twist - Using a straw and toilet paper tube, create a word family "spinner". Cut the tube into two parts (⅓ and ⅔). On the smaller part, write a variety of beginning sounds, and on the larger part, write the word families. Place both tubes on the straw and allow your child to "spin" them, creating a variety of words.

Sliders - Cut a slit and a rectangular opening in an envelope. Write the word family to the right of the opening (example at). Using a strip of colored paper, write beginning sounds down the strip. Your child can slide the strip through the envelope to create a variety of words.

Sticky Notes - Write a variety of beginning sounds on a piece of paper, and the word families on sticky notes. Have your child mix and match the word families with the beginning sounds to create words.

Eggs - Write a word family (ex. op) on the bottom part of the plastic Easter egg. Write a variety of beginning sounds for that word family on the top part of the plastic Easter egg. Your child then puts the egg together and spins the part with the beginning sounds to create words. Have them read each word as they spin it.

Magic Spoon - Write a word family on the back of a plastic spoon (ex. "an"). On a piece of paper, write beginning sounds that create words in that word family (ex. m, p, c, r, t) Your child places the spoon after each beginning sound and reads the words.

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Math Activities and Games

We don't want you just focusing on phonics activities, so we wanted to include games you can use to teach math as well.

Board Games - Play board games that involve counting, such as Candy Land, Chutes and Ladders, Trouble, Monopoly, etc.

Snack - When giving your child a snack, have them count out a certain number of pieces, making groups. Can they identify which group has the most and which group has the least?

Shape Scavenger Hunt - Ask your child to find objects in your house that are a certain shape. Need to extend it? Ask them to find solid shape objects (cylinder, sphere, cube, and cone).

Cooking/Measuring - While you are baking, have your child help you measure out the ingredients. As an extension... Can they double the recipe or cut it in half?

Money Skip Count - Every child loves to play with money! Why not use it to help them skip count?! Give your child a variety of pennies, nickels, and dimes. Your child will need to sort them first and then arrange in a line before practicing counting by 1s, 5s, and 10s. Double up the pennies and they can skip count by 2s.

Playing Cards Math - Use a deck of playing cards and remove the jacks, queens, and kings. Shuffle and deal the whole deck between the two of you. Each of you flip a card over and add the two cards together. Whoever says the sum first wins both cards. The game ends when one player has all of the cards. You can also play greater than/less than this way.

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Share with Us

Let your children "unplug" and enjoy some fun hands-on activities and games that teach phonics and math. We would love to see pictures of the games that you come up with. Please take a picture and share them in the comments below. Or if you have an amazing hands-on activity you are using at home, we would love to hear it. Sharing our ideas right now is key to helping us all get through this together!
- Written By Janessa Fletcher
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Right now, our children are being asked to learn everything virtually. Most of their current assignments involve academic websites and completing online assignments. What if you could include some hands-on activities to teach phonics and math to your children? No printer required and they get away from being glued to a computer or tablet screen!

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Definition : The words and phrases that make up a language. It is an important part of language development, communication and comprehension.
Having a strong vocabulary leads to efficient conversations and fluency in a language.
Application : As a middle level educator, I will incorporate ideas such as explicit vocab instruction, contextual reading, word games, word roots, and vocabulary journals for the students to help support their vocabulary development and empower my students with the language skills they need for academic success.
Connection to mathematics : Mathematical vocabulary is essential for students conceptual understanding, problem-solving abilities, communication skills and academic achievement in math. As a math teacher, I can incorporate various instructional strategies such as vocab instruction, word walls and collabarotive discussions.
Equity and Justice : shown by ensuring all students, regardless of their socioeconomic background and linguistic heritage, have equal access to vocabulary instruction, resources and support. Some ways to incorporate equity and justice related to vocabulary instruction in a classroom would be pre-teaching key vocab words, using multiple representations, using culturally responsive vocabulary and encouraging cooperative learning and peer discussions.

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Definition : It is the ability to understand and make meaning from a language whether it is written or spoken. It is to understand both literal terms and metaphorical terms. With the proper comprehension, a person can summarize a reading or a discussion.
"One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words. Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read"

Application : In my middle school classroom, as the teacher, I will use things such as conceptual understanding, problem solving, mathematical reasoning, communication including explanations, and real world applications to apply comprehension. By prioritizing comprehension and using these strategies, I will help create a classroom where students are able to develop a deep understanding of math.

Connections to mathematics : Comprehension is connected to mathematics through logical reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving skills, numerical literacy, and abstract thinking. These mathematical skills and abilities will contribute to students overall comprehension across different subjects by enhancing their logical, analytic and interpretive capabilities.

Equity and justice : Comprehension relates to equity and justice in the classroom by ensuring equal access to knowledge and oppurtunities for all students, regardless of their background or socio-economic status. Some examples of strategies that can promote equity and justice in comprehension instruction would be using culturally relevant texts, multimodal approaches, using explicit instruction and encouraging collabrative learning.

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Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read.

One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words. Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read - what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.

Target the Problem: Comprehension

What the problem looks like

A kid's perspective: What this feels like to me

Children will usually express their frustration and difficulties in a general way, with statements like "I hate reading!" or "This is stupid!". But if they could, this is how kids might describe how comprehension difficulties in particular affect their reading:

It takes me so long to read something. It's hard to follow along with everything going on.

I didn't really get what that book was about.

Why did that character do that? I just don't get it!

I'm not sure what the most important parts of the book were.

I couldn't really create an image in my head of what was going on.

A parent's perspective: What I see at home

Here are some clues for parents that a child may have problems with comprehension:

She's not able to summarize a passage or a book.

He might be able to tell you what happened in a story, but can't explain why events went the way they did.

She can't explain what a character's thoughts or feelings might have been.

He doesn't link events in a book to similar events from another book or from real life.

A teacher's perspective: What I see in the classroom

Here are some clues for teachers that a student may have problems with comprehension:

He seems to focus on the "wrong" aspect of a passage; for example, he concentrates so much on the details that the main idea is lost.

She can tell the outcome of a story, but cannot explain why things turned out that way.

He does not go behind what is presented in a book to think about what might happen next or why characters took the action they did.

She brings up irrelevant information when trying to relate a passage to something in her own life.

He seems to have a weak vocabulary.

She cannot tell the clear, logical sequence of events in a story.

He does not pick out the key facts from informational text.

He cannot give you a "picture" of what's going on in a written passage; for example, what the characters look like or details of where the story takes place.

How to help

With the help of parents and teachers, kids can learn strategies to cope with comprehension problems that affect his or her reading. Below are some tips and specific things to do.

What kids can do to help themselves

Use outlines, maps, and notes when you read.

Make flash cards of key terms you might want to remember.

Read stories or passages in short sections and make sure you know what happened before you continue reading.

Ask yourself, "Does this make sense?" If it doesn't, reread the part that didn't make sense.

Read with a buddy. Stop every page or so and take turns summarizing what you've read.

Ask a parent or teacher to preview a book with you before you read it on your own.

As you read, try to form mental pictures or images that match the story.

What parents can do to help at home

Hold a conversation and discuss what your child has read. Ask your child probing questions about the book and connect the events to his or her own life. For example, say "I wonder why that girl did that?" or "How do you think he felt? Why?" and "So, what lesson can we learn here?".

Help your child make connections between what he or she reads and similar experiences he has felt, saw in a movie, or read in another book.

Help your child monitor his or her understanding. Teach her to continually ask herself whether she understands what she's reading.

Help your child go back to the text to support his or her answers.

Discuss the meanings of unknown words, both those he reads and those he hears.

Read material in short sections, making sure your child understands each step of the way.

Discuss what your child has learned from reading informational text such as a science or social studies book.

What teachers can do to help at school

As students read, ask them open-ended questions such as "Why did things happen that way?" or "What is the author trying to do here?" and "Why is this somewhat confusing?".

Teach students the structure of different types of reading material. For instance, narrative texts usually have a problem, a highpoint of action, and a resolution to the problem. Informational texts may describe, compare and contrast, or present a sequence of events.

Discuss the meaning of words as you go through the text. Target a few words for deeper teaching, really probing what those words mean and how they can be used.

Teach note-taking skills and summarizing strategies.

Use graphic organizers that help students break information down and keep tack of what they read.

Encourage students to use and revisit targeted vocabulary words.

Teach students to monitor their own understanding. Show them how, for example, to ask themselves "What's unclear here?" or "What information am I missing?" and "What else should the author be telling me?".

Teach children how to make predictions and how to summarize.

More information

Find out more about comprehension issues with these resources from Reading Rockets, The Access Center, and LD OnLine:

Other recommended links:

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Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read.

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"A child’s writing development parallels the child's development as a reader. Part of early print awareness is the realization that writing can be created with everyday tools such as pens, pencils, crayons, and markers. Children begin to imitate the writing that they see in the environment."
Definition: When a language is physically written down to express thoughts, ideas and information. Writing involves the same aspects of oral language.
Application : I will apply writing development in my classroom by providing frequent opportunities for students to engage in structured writing activities, by offering explicit instruction when it comes to writing with grammar or sentence structures and by always providing constructive feedback to my students to encourage the revision of their writing.
Equity and Justice :  Writing in education relates to equity and  justice by providing a platform for vocies to be heard, fostering inclusive representation nad promoting social justice. Through writing, students can express their different experiences, perspectives, and ideas, giving them the chance to advocate for equity, diversity and inclusivity in education and in society.

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