• Blending: Joining letter sounds together to form words 

• Segmenting: Breaking a word apart into its sounds 

• Rhyming: Recognizing and manipulating the sounds in words

Phonemic awareness is a phonological awareness that focuses on recognizing and manipulating phonemes, the minor units of sound in words. It's a key component of reading and reading comprehension, and it helps people understand what they read and hear. "Phonemic awareness may be better understood when placed in the context of two superordinate constructs: phonological awareness and metalinguistics." (Yopp, 2000). It is fascinating how it ties to reading comprehension- as stated in the article, there are many ways to understand P.A. from a place of context- one being reading comprehension- the most vital importance of new readers is the ability to have patience and using such methods like the breakdown method.

Two-Classroom Activities: I Spy

This is a common game that can be adapted for different ages. The teacher or caregiver models, "I spy a /h/ /a/ /t/. What do I spy? Yes, it is a hat!" The difficulty level can be adjusted as the student's blending skills improve. 

• Rhyming storybooks

  Reading rhyming stories helps children develop phonemic awareness by allowing them to recognize letter and sound patterns. It also helps increase vocabulary and motivates learning. 

One-At Home Activity:

Food Word Identifying Game: At the grocery store, have your child identify the syllables in food names. It can help them remember the words and shapes, and even the item's look can help them quickly grow with phonemic growth.

Website for Phonemic Awareness: Heggerty.org: This foundation focuses on the transformation of literacy and Has an ideal mission of unlocking the vast potentials of writing and reading.

https://heggerty.org/about-us/

Vocabulary reading fluency and comprehension are critical components of literacy, representing the words a student needs to understand to communicate effectively through reading and writing. Fluency, which involves reading accurately, quickly, and with proper expression, is made up of three parts: accuracy (identifying letters and words correctly), rate (reading at an appropriate speed), and prosody (using phrasing, intonation, and expression while reading). As fluency develops through practice, it allows students to construct meaning from text better, leading to greater confidence and success in other literacy areas.

Classroom:

1. Breakdown Word List: This is an essential concept in understanding both vocabulary and fluency with reading and understanding. It is similar to a spell bee game, though this challenges the student to break the world down piece by piece to understand the importance of each letter and how it sounds.

2. Word Sight: This fun activity in the classroom helps with remembering and increases sight remembrance. Does it seem like there's a lot to remember? Not having photos of words and their items in the photo makes it easier to remember. This method can work for all students regardless of learning difficulty.

   
   

   At-Home Activity:

3. Reading together: Reading aloud to your child, taking turns reading, and having them read to you can help build vocabulary. You can read various materials, such as fiction, nonfiction, magazines, chapter books, or graphic novels. Listening to books read by others can help develop fluency. You can have your child listen to audiobooks on CD or online before asking them to read independently.

Wesbite: Readworks.org

https://www.readworks.org/

What is Readworkers.org?

It is a reading comprehension breakdown that offers content for families with students who struggle with vocabulary breakdown and reading/writing fluency. It doesn't matter if the student is disabled or not. It provides care for students who struggle. Their end goal is maximizing a child's fullest potential.

• Vocabulary: The ability to understand the words and phrases in a text 

• Text comprehension: The ability to use the language in a text to understand its meaning 

• Background knowledge: The information and experiences a reader brings to the text 

• Fluency: The ability to recognize words quickly, even words that can't be sounded out 

• Sentence construction and cohesion: The ability to understand how sentences are built and how ideas connect within and between sentences 

• Text structure and organization: The way information is presented in a text, such as with headings, subheadings, and logical sequencing 

Decoding, fluency, and vocabulary are all part of Comprehension- it is important to remember- the crucial role of essential reading skills like decoding (sounding out words), fluency (reading smoothly and accurately), and strong vocabulary in achieving reading comprehension. It also emphasizes the importance of critical thinking skills, like connecting ideas across sentences to fully grasp a text's meaning. It suggests that active engagement through reading aloud and discussing personal experiences can significantly enhance reading development in children.

Role-playing: Although it may sound strange, acting out characters or re-telling stories based on plays is very important in promoting Comprehension. Why? Role-playing is a versatile teaching method that significantly enhances understanding of texts by engaging students in actively recalling, comprehending, and representing characters, events, and concepts through acting out scenarios. This, in turn, boosts motivation and vocabulary development and promotes deeper reading engagement across various subjects. Enhances understanding. Role play can help students understand texts by requiring them to recall, comprehend, and reflect on how to represent characters, events, and concepts. Increases motivation Role play can help students become more motivated to read and increase their self-efficacy as readers. Improves vocabulary Role play can help students expand their vocabulary. Promotes deep reading Role play can help students develop a practical stance that supports deep and independent reading. It can be used for different subjects. Role play can be used to work on many subjects, not just reading Comprehension. For example, it can be used to understand a certain age's society or the functioning of the body's organs.

Chart Play: In basic terms, Graphic Match Make is a helpful tool for improving reading comprehension skills. It is highly versatile and can be used with any text and framework to help readers understand words and concepts.

At Home Activities: Five Finger Re-tell is a telling event from beginning to end, which helps the child understand and sum up the progression and main focus of the story.

Character: Who was in the story?

Setting: Where did it take place?

Events: What happens in the story?

Ending: How did it end?

Who is your favorite character?

All these questions can prepare for more confident behavior with not being a good reader but speaking in public more.

https://barbershopbooks.org/programs/

iSpy: Has a traditional theme- in many ways, whether in small groups or large, it helps with focus and being attentive- segments the words into a blend of sounds to have your students understand a mix of objects and use context clues.

Classroom 2 Activity:

Phonics Dice: Having words and pictures of the words on the dice can help students understand words, their meanings, and what they look like. It's like having a photographic memory, which is the ability to vividly remember visual information, including minute details, from a single exposure, like looking at a picture. Children at a young age can only remember something they have seen one critical moment at a time.

At-Home Activities:

Bingo

It's one of the oldest, well-exciting games to play around a family event- but how does bingo work with Phonics? Interesting is a game that helps students learn phonicPhonicsacticing letters, sounds, and reading words. Again, no matter a child's development, it helps them in many ways.

https://www.abcmouse.com/abc/?8a08850bc2=T1208928719.1727854831.0194

Kim YG. Developmental, Component-Based Model of Reading Fluency: An Investigation of Predictors of Word-Reading Fluency, Text-Reading Fluency, and Reading Comprehension. Read Res Q. 2015 Oct-Dec;50(4):459-481. doi: 10.1002/rrq.107. Epub 2015 Apr 13. PMID: 26435550; PMCID: PMC4590774.

Yopp, H. K., & Yopp, R. H. (2000). Supporting phonemic awareness development in the classroom. The reading teacher, 54(2), 130-143.