Reading Instruction
Reading Instruction
OF
READING INSTRUCTION
By Dena Morgan
Phonemic Awareness (a subset of phonological awareness) is the ability to hear, identify and manipulate individual sounds
(phonemes) in words.
• English has 41 individual phonemes
You will know your students have good phonemic awareness when they can:
√ Identify words from a list that begin with the same sound
√ Isolate the beginning and ending sounds of words
√ Segment (c/a/t/) and blend (c/a/t/ = cat)
√ Phoneme deletion (spark without the s is park), addition (if you add s to the beginning of park is spark) or substitution
(change the b in bun to an f makes fun)
Phonics Instruction
Phonics is the understanding of the relationship between phonemes and graphemes. Learning to read words is dependent on good
phonemic awareness.
Grapheme: visual representation of phonemes
• one letter (a,b,c) or
• groups of letters (qu, ph, ch, igh)
• Learning to spell depends on the ability to distinguish individual sounds in words
There are many good phonics programs available targeting the various stages of decoding and spelling.
Fluency Instruction
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately with appropriate pacing intonation and expression. Reading fluency is the bridge
between word recognition (phonics) and comprehension.
Fluent readers are able to:
• Recognize words automatically
• Group words into phrases
• Attend to punctuation
• Adjust their pace
• Use inflection
Activities that promote vocabulary development involve representing words in a variety of ways:
• Dictionary definition
• Synonyms and/or Antonyms
• Part of speech (noun, verb, etc)
• Classification (what group does it belong to)
• Comparison (alike or different)
• Real-life examples
• Graphic version (drawings, pictures, symbols)
• Role playing
• Repeated Readings (promotes comprehension as well)
Effective Instruction involves the explicit teaching (through think aloud modelling) of a variety of comprehension strategies at
developmentally appropriate stages.
Armbruster, Bonnie B, et al. (2001). Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read. Kindergarten
through Grade 3.
Shanahan, Timothy. “Five Things Every Teacher Should Know About Vocabulary Instruction.”
ReadingRockets.org, Shanahan on Literacy, September 2019. Retrieved from
https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/five-things-every-teacher-should-know-
about-vocabulary-instruction
https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/fluency