The “Big 5” of Reading

1. The “Big 5” of Reading February 2006

2. Reading Skills Development

3. Good readers are active and think as they read.Good readers use meta-cognitive strategies to think about and have control over their reading.(Put Reading First, 2001 p. 49)

4. Assessment Tools • Running Records or Rigby Benchmark • DIBELS • Observation Survey • Informal Reading Inventories (IRI) • Words Their Way • Core Reading program assessments • Fluency checks • High Frequency Word Lists

5. Assessment (Continued) • Observation is a powerful assessment tool. • Teachers can determine students’ understanding of the reading process and knowledge of reading strategies. • Make them tell you what they are thinking as they read. • We use all of these things to help group our students and drive our instruction.

6. The Big 5! Daily • Phonemic Awareness • Phonics • Fluency • Vocabulary • Comprehension

7. Phonemic AwarenessPre K-Grade One • Phonemic awareness is the ability to notice, think about, hear, and manipulate the sounds or phonemes that compose words in spoken language. • It involves: • Segmenting-pulling apart words into sounds • Blending-putting sounds back together • Manipulating-adding, deleting and substituting these sounds

8. Phonemic Awareness (continued) • Phonemes are the smallest units of sound in spoken words • /m/ /a/ /p/ • First Second Third • Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill that consists of multiple components and does not involve print.

9. Research says…. • Explicitly and systematically teaching children to manipulate phonemes significantly improves children’s reading, comprehension and spelling abilities. • Phonemic awareness is a strong predictor of later reading success.

10. Phonological Awareness Continuum

11. PhonicsGrades K-3 and for students not at grade level. • Phonics Instruction teaches children the relationship between the letters (graphemes) of the written language and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. • Phonics teaches children to use these relationships to read and write. It is a tool, not an end of itself. • Phonics helps children learn and use the alphabetic principle.

12. Research says… • When introduced in Kindergarten and First Grade, explicit systematic phonics instruction is significantly more effective than alternative programs that provide nonsystematic or no phonics instruction. • Phonics improves word recognition, spelling and reading comprehension. • This is not the old workbook and worksheets to just fill in a letter. It is making words, finding patterns in books and using phonics patterns in writing.

13. FluencyGrades 1-5 • Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly (automaticity). • Fluency is the ability to read text with accuracy at an appropriate rate, and with appropriate expression/phrasing (prosody).

14. Fluency (continued) • Fluent readers focus on and can devote attention to comprehension. • Non-fluent readers focus on decoding. • Fluency is important because it provides a bridge between word recognition and comprehension. • Fluency develops from practice. Students need to read and re-read and re-read appropriate books at their independent level. • Fluency can be very motivating to students.

15. Techniques for Developing Reading Fluency • Repeated Reading • Partner Reading • Echo Reading, Choral Reading • Chunking • Tape-Assisted Reading • Readers’ Theater • Timed Reading • Read Alouds

16. Research says… • Repeated and monitored oral reading improves fluency. • Repeated reading can benefit most students throughout elementary school, as well as struggling readers at higher grade levels. • It develops because students are given opportunities to practice reading with a high degree of success.

17. VocabularyGrades K-5 • Vocabulary refers to words we must know to communicate effectively. • Oral vocabulary refers to words that we recognize in listening (receptive) or use in speaking (productive). • Written vocabulary refers to words we recognize in reading (receptive) or use in writing (productive).

18. Research says… • Becoming literate requires knowing thousands of words. • Gaps in vocabulary start in preschool. • Word knowledge in preschool correlates to comprehension in upper elementary. • Vocabulary is central to learning. • Lots of exposure to books and wide reading are essential. • Instruction can make a difference.

19. What Can We Do to Close the Gap? • Explicit robust vocabulary instruction: • Offers rich information about words and their uses. • Provide frequent and varied opportunities for students to think about and use words. • Enhance students’ language comprehension and production. • Connect new words with prior experiences. • Include labeling and classifying sorts.

20. Tier One: Basic Words • The most basic words; rarely require instruction. • clock • baby • happy • boy • sit • to • run

21. Tier Three: Low-Frequency Words • Seldom used, often limited to specific domains • isotope • lathe • peninsula • prospector • outrider

22. Tier Two: Rich Words • High Frequency words Instruction with these words can add productively to a student’s language ability • coincidence • absurd • delicious • fortunate • eager

23. Tier Two Words • Generate a list of possible words which describe a picture. • Beat the Parent • “I’m thinking of a word” ex. Happy • What’s in the bag? • Each child gets one bag, looks inside, and chooses six words that describe the item.

24. ComprehensionGrades K-5 • Reading comprehension is best facilitated by systematically teaching students a variety of techniques and systematic strategies to assist in the following: • Recall information • Question generation • Answer questions • Summarize information • Sequence events • Learn new vocabulary • Monitor their comprehension • Recognize story structure • Organize information using graphic organizers

25. Research Say… • Monitor as they are reading • Create mental images • Determine what is important • Infer while reading • Synthesize • Make connections • Text to self • Text to text • Text to world

26. Comprehension Framework • Before Reading: • Set a purpose for reading. • Preview the text to: • Activate and build background knowledge • Introduce vocabulary • Make predictions

27. Comprehension Framework (continued) • During Reading: • Stop for reactions, comments, and predictions. • After Reading: • Help your child: • Determine important ideas and summarize. • Draw conclusions and make inferences. • Focus on story structure and themes.

28. Comprehension Strategies • Think Aloud • Begin reading a passage aloud while your child listens or follows along. When you come to a trouble spot, stop and think through it aloud while they listen to what you have to offer.

29. Comprehension Strategies • Listening Thinking Activity • Preview the text and make predictions based on the title. As you read aloud stop and think out loud making connections or changing predictions.

30. Just Right Books • The availability of appropriate reading materials greatly impacts children’s literacy development. The more books the better the reading achievement. (Routman 2002) • Students need texts that they can read accurately, fluently, and with good comprehension (Allington 2001 & 2005)