Reading

Reading Videos and Songs

 

What are five essential components of reading?

1. Phonemic Awareness-the ability to hear, focus on, and work with the individual sounds in words.

2. Phonics– the relationship of the sounds of spoken language to the letters in written words.

3. Fluency–the ability to read text smoothly, accurately, and with expression.

4. Vocabulary–words that students need to know to communicate. Vocabulary refers to knowing words, their definitions and context.

5. Comprehension– is the understanding of the meaning in text. It is the goal of all reading and all reading instruction.

  

 What are reading centers?

Each day children complete a different reading center that goes along with what is being taught during their core reading instruction time. Each center focuses on a specific skill and falls under one of the following five domains:

1.    Reading

2.    Listening

3.    Writing

4.    Word Work

5.    Letters and Sounds

 

Along with these centers children always have to complete an accountability sheet that they need to finish during the 30 minute center period. Children also have a weekly center contract that is signed by the teacher each day. This helps promote student responsibility for their own learning.

Phonemic Awareness Activities

Phonemic Isolation: recognizing individual sounds in words. Example: What is the beginning sound in pan?”

Phoneme Identity: recognizing the same sound in different words. Example: “Which sound is the same in bat, bell, and bug?”

Phoneme categorization: recognizing the word in a group of words that has the odd sound in a word. Example: “Which of these words–man, met, mug, call– has a different beginning sound?”

Phoneme blending: listening to and combining a sequence of sounds. Example: “What word is this /c/, /a/, /t/?”

Phoneme segmentation: breaking a word into sounds? Example: “How many sounds are there in slide?”

Phoneme Deletion: recognizing what remains when a phoneme is removed from a word. Example: “What is brake without the /b/?”

Phoneme Addition: adding a phoneme to a word. Example: “What word do you have if you add /s/ to the beginning of mile?”

Phoneme Substitution: substituting one phoneme to make a new word. Exmaple: “Change the /n/ in pan to /t/. What word did you make”?

 

Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?

“Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, focus on, and work with the individual sounds–or phonemes-in spoken language. Once students begin to understand how sounds work together to make spoken words, they can then relate the sounds to the letters in written words.” –Storytown Instructional Approach

High Frequency Words

High frequency words are the vocabulary words children learn in kindergarten. They are the words that occur most often in text and help children begin to read fluently. It is good to work on these words with your child at home. Work on spelling them and reading them. Refer the the link below to download the words that are taught throughout the school year. The fist link is a list of the words and the second link is a document that contains flashcards you can print out to use at home.

Word List

High Frequency Word Cards

Reading Comprehension Strategies

Answer Questions

Generate Questions

Recognize Story Structure

Summarize in your own words

Extra practice

Some places children can go to obtain extra practice on reading skills taught in the classroom are websites. I have created a list of some websites I feel may be helpful throughout the year. This list of interactive websites can be found at on my “links page” and a list is also distributed at open house.

Parent Broshure Wilbur