Reading 101
Research has learned and identified:
Good Readers
Struggling Readers
60% of kids learn to read regardless of any factors
25% need a little extra help
15% it's most difficult thing they ever have to do (next to learning the multiplication facts)
Understanding Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness – the ability to identify and manipulate oral language; words, syllables, onsets, rimes.
Phonemic awareness – the ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
mat = /m/ /a/ /t/
chalk /ch/ /a/ /lk/
Phonemic awareness is very important because it’s the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.
Phonemic awareness is a strong predictor to reading success!
English is a difficult language!
We have 44 phonemes (units of sound) with 1200 different spellings.
The next closest language is French with 32 phonemes, and 250 spellings!
Our brains take 4 steps when identifying a written word on a page:
1. Detect the phonemes (smallest unit of sound)
2. Analyze those phonemes
3. Processes those phonemes into words by moving over to using phonics (this is where the spoken word teaches us how to read)
4. Words are vocalized (either silently or aloud)
We learn to speak by listening to language and readers learn to read by listening.
The Importance of Dopamine and Emotional Memories
Our brains love it.
Students have many negative experiences with reading.
Success is VERY important to your children right now.
Affect + Behavior = Cognition
Reading requires several brain functions all at once (or very close together)
All the above supports comprehension.
Behaviors and Comprehension Strategies Good Readers Use That Your Student Should Be Able To Talk To You About after being in my class:
Research has learned and identified:
Good Readers
- Are phonemically aware
- Understand alphabetic principle
- Can identify printed words quickly and fluently
- Can manage text selections based on difficulty
- heard the language of text in infancy and toddlerhood (parents read to them)
- strong language spoken in house from birth to now (provides sound structure, language patterns)
Struggling Readers
- Do not have a strong phonemic awareness (hearing the sounds that letters/words make)
- Cannot identify the printed word quickly or fluently
- Did not have birth-to-school experiences of being read to.
- Limited bedtime/laptime reading experiences.
- Not exposed to strong language in the home
60% of kids learn to read regardless of any factors
25% need a little extra help
15% it's most difficult thing they ever have to do (next to learning the multiplication facts)
Understanding Phonemic and Phonological Awareness
Phonological awareness – the ability to identify and manipulate oral language; words, syllables, onsets, rimes.
Phonemic awareness – the ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
mat = /m/ /a/ /t/
chalk /ch/ /a/ /lk/
Phonemic awareness is very important because it’s the foundation for spelling and word recognition skills.
Phonemic awareness is a strong predictor to reading success!
English is a difficult language!
We have 44 phonemes (units of sound) with 1200 different spellings.
The next closest language is French with 32 phonemes, and 250 spellings!
Our brains take 4 steps when identifying a written word on a page:
1. Detect the phonemes (smallest unit of sound)
2. Analyze those phonemes
3. Processes those phonemes into words by moving over to using phonics (this is where the spoken word teaches us how to read)
4. Words are vocalized (either silently or aloud)
We learn to speak by listening to language and readers learn to read by listening.
The Importance of Dopamine and Emotional Memories
Our brains love it.
Students have many negative experiences with reading.
Success is VERY important to your children right now.
Affect + Behavior = Cognition
Reading requires several brain functions all at once (or very close together)
- Our eyes/brains consider the visual component of the letter/word
- Our brains consider whether what we read makes sense based on knowledge of our language structure
- Our brains consider whether what we read sounds right.
All the above supports comprehension.
Behaviors and Comprehension Strategies Good Readers Use That Your Student Should Be Able To Talk To You About after being in my class:
- Make predictions, and constantly revise them.
- Get information from many places; text, picture, real world
- Identify a negative or positive “connotation” of an unknown word
- Infer
- Reread parts to make sense
- Visualizing in their head
- Asking questions
- Stop and think about what you know at this point
- Use background knowledge
- Connect information to what they already know
- Good Voices
- Bad Voices
- Reciting Voices
- Conversation Voice
- Summarize
- Evaluate the text, problem, etc.
- Reading is thinking. The reader must make sense of the book and bring their own understanding to it. Kids think that if they say the word, that is reading. Nothing else is required.
- Sticky Notes: Super important. They force the reader to focus on what they are thinking. This trains the brain to become aware of what it is thinking and to be able to read simultaneously.