Reading is not a natural process. There are many steps and connections that need to happen in the brain for students to learn how to read.

Word Recognition X Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

Created by Dr. Hollis Scarborough

Contains 2 strands: Language Comprehension and Word Recognition

The Language comprehension strand includes: Background knowledge, Vocabulary, Language Structures, Verbal Reasoning, and Literacy Knowledge

The Word Recognition strands include: Phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition

All of these strands intertwine together. If the student has mastered all of the strands, reading comprehension will take place.

Pre-alphabetic phase: little knowledge of le4tter sounds, use pictures to represent letters

Partial alphabetic phase: learning that letters represent sounds and the shape of letters

Full alphabetic phase: decoding harder words, unfamiliar word patterns

Consolidated alphabetic phase: learn more about words and syllables

According to McFarlan, 77% of English language learners speak Spanish.

English learners have substantially lower test scores than English-speaking students.

Research indicates that it takes English learners at least five years to reach the same oral skill level as their English-speaking peers.

Some language learners face not only a language barrier but also a cultural barrier.

Make students feel comfortable.

• Build on student experiences and familiar concepts.

• Provide students with background knowledge

• Designate language and content objectives for EACH lesson

• Graphic organizers.

Insight that spoken words are made up of a sequence of somewhat separable sounds - called phonemes

The sound in spoken words matches directly to the letters in written words (vise-versa)

Every words can be broken apart into phonemes

Every written word is made up of specific symbols from the alphabet

Every sound in a spoken word is represented by letters

It is more than knowing the alphabet

The Alphabetic Principle is the concept that letters represent individual phonemes in a spoken word.

The principle is critical for learning how to read and spell

Alphabetic Understanding - Know that words are made up of letters and sounds

Phonological Recording - knowing how to translate letters into appropriate speech sounds

Children’s vocabulary knowledge grows tremendously throughout school years.

According to NAEYC (2014), by the age of 3 there is a 30 MILLION word gap between children from wealthiest to poorest families.

According to Beck et al (1987) there are 3 levels of word knowledge.
1. Unknown- unfamiliar words
2. Acquainted- basic meaning only after student gives it some attention (typical vocabulary words)
3. Established- words know easily and automatically

Vocabulary Programs Should:
1. Provide children with frequent, extensive, and varied language approaches.
2. Includes instruction in individual words.
3. Provides students with instruction in learning words independently.
4. Fosters word consciousness-builds students interest in words

This also involves reading, writing, speaking, and listening

Teaching individual words depends on how much students know and how well you want them to know the words you present.
1. Learning Basic Vocabulary- Building basic vocabulary words. Learn to Read most frequently used words in English language. (sight words)
2. Learning to Read unknown words- learning to read words that are already in their oral vocabulary (sight words and high frequency words)
3. Learning New words that represent known concepts- these words are not in oral or reading vocabularies- but they have an available concept of the word (ELL learners)
4. Learning New words that Represent New concepts- MOST DIFFICULT - Total unfamiliar words. Also different dialect of words (soda vs. pop; cart vs. buggy)

3 Tier Words:

Tier One Words- Basic Words. Don’t necessarily need to be taught. (dog, cat, house)

Tier Three Words- low frequency words. Usually found in specific domains of literature. Usually
taught in content areas (science, social studies, math)

Tier Two Words- High frequency words for mature language uses. These are the words to focus
on. (ferocious, magnitude, etc.)

Fluency is the ability to read rapidly, smoothly, without many
errors, and with appropriate expression (Dewitz et.al, 2020)

Often done orally but silent reading fluency is extremely
important.

When done silently, a fluent reader reads rapidly, without stumbling over words and WITH COMPREHENSION.

Fluency is important because our brain can only do one thing at a time. Reading demands that we attend to two operations - decode individual words, and engage in a cognitive processes to understand what we are reading. (If too much of our mental capacity is used to focus on words we will not comprehend the text)

Phonological Awareness - having an awareness of sound properties in words - having the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words

• Word Awareness: knowing how many words are in a sentence (clap out words, push up counters for words)

• Alliteration: producing and identifying words that start with the same sound (name games, fun phrases)

• Syllable awareness: counting parts in a word (clapping, pushing up counters, breaking up words and have students guess)

• Rhyming: words that end with the same sounds

Phonemic Awareness - spoken language consists of a series of small sound units or phonemes and the ability to manipulate these phonemes

The reading and writing behaviors that precede and develop into conventional literacy

Children who are in the process of learning what reading and writing are for and how to do it

Children enter school at various levels!

Children need to acquire two insights about language: the Alphabetic Principle and Phonemic Awareness

Language is the key component to reading comprehension

We must be able to understand language to comprehend

Children can comprehend before they can read

Word Awareness - knowing how many words are in a sentence. (clap out words)

Alliteration - producing and identifying words that start with the same sound. (name games)

Syllable Awareness - counting parts in a word (clapping, pushing up counters)

Rhyming - words that end with the same sounds