• Incorporate visual, auditory, and kinesthetic activities.

• Use technology (apps, interactive tools) for engaging practice.

• Provide targeted support based on individual proficiency levels.

• Pair students with peers for collaborative learning.

• Teach phrases and sentence structures students can use in real-life situations.

• Integrate English practice into other subjects like math and science to build fluency.

• Celebrate progress and effort, fostering a safe environment for risk-taking in language use.

This component deals with recognizing, analyzing, and producing sounds.

• Orthographic Processor (Visual System)

This component processes written symbols and connects them to sounds and meanings.

• Semantic Processor (Meaning System)

This component focuses on understanding word meanings and connecting them to concepts.

• Syntax Processor (Sentence Structure System)

This component involves understanding how words are arranged in sentences to convey meaning.

• Before Reading

Activate Background Knowledge: Connect the text to students' prior knowledge and experiences.

Preview the Text: Use pictures, titles, and headings to predict content.

Set a Purpose for Reading: Encourage students to ask, "Why am I reading this?"

• During Reading

Questioning: Encourage self-questioning to monitor understanding (e.g., "What does this mean?").

Visualizing: Teach students to create mental images based on the text.

Annotating: Use sticky notes, underlining, or highlighting to mark key information.

• After Reading

Summarizing: Have students identify the main idea and key details.

Retelling: Encourage students to orally or visually retell the story or text.

Responding: Use discussions, journal entries, or graphic organizers to deepen understanding.

Pre-Alphabetic Stage

Students recognize environmental print and rely on visual cues (e.g., logos).

Partial Alphabetic Stage

Students begin to associate some letters with their sounds, often focusing on the first and last sounds of words.

Full Alphabetic Stage

Students can decode most words using letter-sound knowledge.

Consolidated Alphabetic Stage

Students recognize patterns (e.g., word families, digraphs) to read and spell efficiently.

• Supports Comprehension: Fluent readers spend less cognitive effort on decoding, enabling them to focus on understanding the text.

• Encourages Reading Enjoyment: Fluency makes reading smoother and more engaging.

• Boosts Writing Skills: Fluent readers are more likely to write clearly and effectively, as they internalize sentence structure and word use.

• Pre-Writing Stage

Students draw pictures or scribble to represent ideas.

Focus is on expressing thoughts visually.

• Emergent Writing Stage

Students begin to write letters and use inventive spelling.

Recognize that writing represents spoken language.

• Early Writing Stage

Simple sentences and basic punctuation appear.

Students begin to use known spelling patterns.

• Transitional Writing Stage

More complex sentences and ideas emerge.

Writing becomes more organized with clearer structure.

• Fluent Writing Stage

Students write multiple paragraphs with varied vocabulary and ideas.

Writing demonstrates clear purpose and audience awareness.

By understanding Ehri’s phases, educators can design developmentally appropriate lessons to help students progress toward fluent, automatic word reading, a foundational skill for successful reading comprehension and writing.

1. The Two Main Strands

1. Language Comprehension (Upper Strand)

Develops through understanding spoken and written language.

Includes background knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension skills.

2. Word Recognition (Lower Strand)

Focuses on decoding words and recognizing them automatically.

Includes phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition.

2. Components of Language Comprehension

1. Background Knowledge

Knowledge about the world enhances understanding of texts.

2. Vocabulary

The larger a student’s vocabulary, the better they comprehend texts.

3. Language Structures

Understanding grammar and sentence structure aids comprehension.

4. Verbal Reasoning

Using logic and reasoning to interpret texts.

5. Literacy Knowledge

Familiarity with text structures and genres.

Components of Word Recognition

1. Phonological Awareness

Ability to hear and manipulate sounds in words.

2. Decoding (Alphabetic Principle)

Understanding letter-sound relationships to read words.

3. Sight Recognition

Automatic recognition of high-frequency and irregular words.

How the Strands Work Together

• Integration: The strands of language comprehension and word recognition combine to create skilled reading.

• Early Reading: In younger students, word recognition plays a larger role.

1. Phonological Awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate sounds in spoken language. It is a critical precursor to learning to read and write.

2. Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness is a more specific subset of phonological awareness, focusing on the ability to identify and manipulate phonemes, the smallest units of sound.

3. The Alphabetic Principle

The alphabetic principle refers to understanding that letters and letter combinations represent sounds in spoken language.

4. Phonics

Phonics is the relationship between letters and sounds in written language. It builds on phonological and phonemic awareness to help students decode (sound out) words and improve their reading skills.

5. Phonological Awareness Activities

Engaging students in activities that strengthen phonological awareness helps build the foundation for reading and writing. These activities include:

6. Phonological Processing and Reading Fluency

Phonological processing refers to how well the brain can recognize and process sounds in spoken and written language. Efficient phonological processing is linked to better reading fluency and comprehension.

7. Common Phonological Challenges

Some students may struggle with phonological awareness, which can lead to reading difficulties such as dyslexia.

8. Phonology and Spelling

Phonological awareness supports spelling by helping students connect sounds to letters. Teaching students how to segment and blend sounds is essential for accurate spelling.

The Simple View of Reading (SVR) is a framework that explains reading comprehension as the product of two essential components: decoding and language comprehension. This model emphasizes that both skills are necessary for effective reading and understanding texts. Here are the key points:

1. Two Essential Components of Reading

The Simple View of Reading suggests that reading comprehension (RC) is determined by the interaction of decoding and language comprehension. Both are needed to fully understand written texts.

Decoding (D) is the ability to translate written words into spoken words, or sounding out words.

Language Comprehension (LC) is the ability to understand spoken language, including understanding the meanings of words, sentences, and stories.

2. The Equation for Reading Comprehension

Reading Comprehension (RC) = Decoding (D) × Language Comprehension (LC)
This means that both decoding and language comprehension contribute to how well a student understands a text.

If either component is weak, it impacts reading comprehension. For example, a student may be able to decode words but struggle with understanding what they mean in context, or vice versa.

Structured Literacy is a term often used to describe an approach to teaching reading that aligns closely with the Science of Reading. It involves a set of instructional practices that are designed to help students build the foundational skills they need for reading, writing, and spelling in an organized, logical manner.

The Science of Reading and Structured Literacy are research-backed approaches that provide a clear, systematic framework for teaching reading and writing. They emphasize the importance of explicit instruction in foundational skills like phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension, all of which work together to develop strong readers and writers. These approaches are especially beneficial for struggling readers, including those with dyslexia, as they provide a structured, evidence-based path to literacy success.