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If this is new for you, don't worry, it was new for me too! It's not something we learned about in our teacher training (though it definitely should have been!)
Let's break each of these five components down:
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate sounds (phonemes) in words.
A student's skill in phonemic awareness is a good predictor of later reading success. Here are ways you can help develop your students' phonemic awareness skills:
- Isolating sounds
- What is the first sound in mop? /m/
- What is the last sound in dig? /g/
- What is the middle sound in cat? /a/
- Blending sounds
- Blend these sounds together - /s/u/n/ = sun
- Segmenting sounds
- Let's break this word into its sounds - leg = /l/e/g/
- Deleting sounds
- Say bug. Now say bug with the /b/
- Adding sounds
- Say it. Now add /s/ and it's... sit
- Substituting sounds
- Say pen. Change the /p/ to /m/ = men
PHONICS
Phonics is the ability to match the sounds we hear and the letters that spell them. To be more technical, it is about matching the phonemes with the graphemes that spell them.
Through understanding phonics, students can decode. Decoding is where students sound out words by applying their knowledge of letter/sound relationships. Phonics is where students begin to "crack the code" of reading.
FLUENCY
Fluency is the ability to read with speed, accuracy and proper expression. A strong foundation in phonemic awareness and phonics leads to fluency. When a student doesn't have to sound out each word, their comprehension improves. Why? Put simply, it is because they are not using up their brain power on decoding each word. Instead they can use their brain power on understanding what they are reading.
VOCABULARY
Vocabulary involves knowing the meaning of words and how to use them accurately. According to the Really Great Reading website, reading comprehension is reliant on knowing 98% of the words in the text. Limited vocabulary plays a huge role in poor reading comprehension.
A great way to build students' comprehension is to read them picture books, and find interesting words within the book. Explicitly teach students the meaning of these words, giving sentence examples, synonyms and opportunities for students to think of their own sentences using the vocabulary.
COMPREHENSION
Comprehension is the ability to understand what is being read. It is the ultimate goal of reading. In the same way that phonemic awareness and phonics lead to fluency, well, fluency and vocabulary lead to comprehension.
Together, these five components are an essential part of effective reading instruction. By focusing on these five areas, we can help students build a solid foundation for reading success.
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