Elementary School
Address reading issues early.
In third grade, school age children are expected to “read to learn” instead of “learn to read”. In today’s educational system, every subject has a reading and writing component; even P.E! Consequently, a student who has not achieved grade level fluency by the end of second grade is on a path to school failure across every subject. A child who struggles begins believe they are “dumb” around the third grade.
In my elementary reading instruction, I target the following skill development.
Phonological Phonemic Awareness
The ability to recognize the sounds that are in words. This includes being able to hear the individual letter sounds and syllables. Phonemes are letters that represent the sounds in words.
Phonics and Decoding
Children’s reading development is dependent on their understanding that letters and combinations of letters blend together to make up words.
Fluency
The rate, accuracy and expression that a student reads affects how a student understands what they are reading. Schools measure rate and accuracy to diagnose a reading deficit.
Vocabulary
Beginning readers hear and understand the meaning of words before they can actually read those words in print. A student with a small vocabulary struggles to understand words in their school work because they are unfamiliar.
Comprehension
The goal of all reading is to understand and gain knowledge from print. If a student reads too slowly, they will struggle to understand what they read. Simply, their brain is working too hard decoding the letters to understand the meaning of the text.
Writing
To compete in the job market, strong writing skills are necessary for success. Writing is a complex task that allows a student to express their ideas in an organized understandable way and should be taught alongside reading.