The Five Components of Reading Brought to you by: Mrs. Cowan

What are the Five Components of Reading? Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds—or phonemes—in spoken words. Phonics—the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. Fluency—the capacity to read text accurately and quickly, including oral reading skills. Vocabulary—the words students must know to communicate effectively. Comprehension—the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read

What is Phonemic Awareness? Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and play with individual sounds—or phonemes—in spoken words.

Activities to Improve Phonemic Awareness Sound Scavenger Hunt: 1. Choose a sound for the child to remember. Start with one sound at a time and progress to four at a time. For kindergartners, start with M, B, T and D. For first graders, use any sounds except S, SH, CH or R. 2. Tell your child that s/he is going on a sound hunt. Child must find one item in the house that includes each sound (you can specify the size the item has to be, so they're not dragging furniture around). Give your child a specific timeframe in which to collect the item(s). 3. When the child returns with all items, review the sound connected to each item. 4. After children are successfully remembering sounds and finding household items, you can do the follow up activity over the next days and weeks: Each time your child hears a word that contains a sound from the scavenger hunt, and can repeat the word or describe the item to you, s/he scores a point. You can record points with stars or stickers on a chart toward some designated reward.

Activities to Improve Phonemic Awareness Anytime, Anywhere: 1. You say a word. 2. Your child says a word that begins with the sound that your word ends with. 3. You say a word that begins with the sound that your child's word ends with, and so on.

Activities to Improve Phonemic Awareness Anytime, Anywhere: 1. You provide a sound ("s"). 2. Your child provides a second sound that blends with the first sound and contains both sounds ("st"). 3. You provide a word with the "st" sound (street). 4. Your child quickly provides another word (star). 5. The game continues until one of you cannot quickly think of a word with the blended sound or says an incorrect word for the blend. That player is "it" and starts the next round of the game.

Activities to Improve Phonemic Awareness Many more activities can be found by visiting the following websites: s/phonemicawareness456.htm s/phonemicawareness456.htm html html 4. blanc.k12.mi.us/kbodary/phonemic_awaren ess.htm

What is Phonics? Phonics is the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.

Available Resources for Phonics Help Many activities geared toward improving phonics skills can be found at the following websites: 1. oxford.com/phonics/control_page/front2.htm oxford.com/phonics/control_page/front2.htm htm htm Games and workbooks can be purchased at a wide range of stores such as Barnes and Noble, School Aids, and even Walmart.

What is Fluency? Fluency is the capacity to read text accurately and quickly, including oral reading skills.

Activities to Improve Fluency Have your child read familiar texts such as Dr. Seuss repeatedly. Have long and detailed conversations with your child. Visit many places and expose your child to many different activities such as a museum, park, grocery store, etc.. Take field trips on-line to places you may not be able to otherwise go.

What is Vocabulary? Vocabulary is the words students must know to communicate effectively.

Activities to Improve Vocabulary Read to your child daily in addition to having your child read to you. Have long and detailed conversations with your child. Visit many places and expose your child to many different activities such as a museum, park, grocery store, etc.. Take field trips on-line to places you may not be able to otherwise go.

What is Comprehension? Comprehension is the ability to understand and gain meaning from what has been read.

Activities to Improve Comprehension Before your child reads, ask your child questions such as : 1. What do you think the story will be about? 2. What is going to happen? 3. What makes you think that? 4. What clues helped you make that choice? 5. Why do you think that is going to happen? 6. How did you know that? 7. Look at the cover and pictures then make predictions. 8. Does it remind you of anything? 9. How do you think the character feels? Why?

Activities to Improve Comprehension As your child reads, ask your child questions such as : 1. What is happening in the story? 2. Tell me what is going on. 3. What clues in the story have led you to think that? 4. What do you know that is similar to this story? 5. What does the book remind you of? 6. What do you know about the book’s topic? 7. Does this book remind you of another book? 8. What is the main idea of the story? 9. What details support the main idea? 10. What do you know that is similar to this story? 11. Tell me about the story. 12. What else do you recall?

Activities to Improve Comprehension After your child reads, ask your child questions such as : 1. What was the story about? 2. Tell me what happens in the story. 3. What happens in the beginning? Middle? End? 4. Who are the characters in the story? 5. What is the problem? 6. How do the characters solve the problem? 7. Did you like the story? 8. What did you like about the story? What did you dislike? Why? 9. What does the story make you think about? 10. Does the story remind you of anything?

Additional Reading Strategies Talk with your child often to build listening and speaking skills. Read to your child often. Even older children enjoy being read to. Talk to your child about the words and ideas in books. Ask your child to tell in his/her own words what the story was about. Encourage your child to read on his/her own. Listen to your child read books that he/she has brought home from school. Be patient. If your child reads slowly and makes a lot of mistakes, ask him/her to reread a paragraph or page. Let your child know you are proud that he/she is reading. Talk about new words that your child has read or heard. Help your child learn the meaning of new words by using the dictionary. Show your child how to use pictures in books to help figure out what words mean. Let your child see you reading. Encourage your child to read while you are reading. Even if you are not an independent reader, let your child know that you value reading and that reading makes life richer in many ways. Make sure your child has plenty of quiet time to read without distractions such as television and video games. Encourage your child to write often—for example, letters to friends, grocery lists, and s. Help your child find and correct spelling mistakes. Ask your child’s teacher how you can help your child practice at home what he/she is learning at school. (Courtesy of

Final Notes Just remember, each of these components build on one another like building blocks. Thank you for coming!!