5 Elements of Effective Reading Instruction
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Description: Phonemic Awareness- Phoneme Manipulating: Phoneme Swap (FCRR) - Teacher ready instructional activities for phoneme substitutions. PHONEME DELETION is a strategy that helps develop students’ phonemic awareness, which is part of phonological awareness. Phoneme deletion involves having students manipulate spoken words by deleting specific phonemes. If this task is too difficult initially, you can begin by having students delete syllables in compound words. Phoneme deletion tasks...
Description: As you teach content areas to ELLs of diverse backgrounds, you may find that they struggle to grasp the content, and that they approach the content from very different perspectives. Drawing on your students' background knowledge and experiences, can be an effective way to bridge those gaps and to make the content more accessible. This article offers a number of suggestions to classroom teachers as they find ways to tap into the background knowledge that students bring with them.
Description: To be effective, a program of vocabulary instruction should provide students with opportunities for word learning by: encouraging wide reading; exposing students to high-quality oral language; promoting word consciousness; providing explicit instruction of specific words; and providing modeling and instruction in independent word-learning strategies. Each of these components contributes to helping students overcome the major obstacles to vocabulary growth.
Description: Morphological awareness provides a powerful tool for improving many areas of literacy: Vocabulary comprehension Reading aloud Spelling Phonological awareness Reading comprehension
Description: Check out these Professional Learning Possibilities: Webshop Title: [TechKnowledgy 2021-22] Augmentative and Alternative Communication Instruction for Highly Impacted Students with ASD: High- and Low-Tech Strategies to Increase Communication Webshop Title: [TechKnowledgy 2021-22] Adapting Books and Creating Kits for Learning Webshop Title: [TechKnowledgy 2020-21] See Me, Hear Me, Touch Me, Read Me: Adapting Books So They Can eWorkshop Title: See Me, Hear Me, Touch Me, Read Me: Building a...
Description: Experts in the field of explicit reading instruction that supports student learning and progress to mastery provided sessions about syllabication and morphology, writing skills, and spelling for our April 30th 2022 Virtual Conference. Jennifer Hasser, Amy Siracusano, and Virginia Berninger shared their knowledge on these topics! These sessions are available again! VBIDA is able to offer the recordings of these session for $40.00 (for six months) thanks to the generosity of the...
Description: When reviewing curricula for Tier I instruction, it is essential to ensure they do not include instructional practices that are not aligned with the scientific evidence base of how children learn to read. The Curriculum Evaluation Guidelines are designed to highlight any non-aligned practices, or “red flags,” that may be present in the areas of: Word Recognition Language Comprehension Reading Comprehension Writing Assessment
Description: More Information & Recordings of the K-12 SOL Institutes in English Language Arts - K-12 SOL Conferences in English Language Arts utilize a train-the-trainer model featuring demonstrations by classroom practitioners, reading specialists, school and division administrators, higher education partners, the Virginia Literacy Partnerships Office (PALS), and the VDOE Office of Student Assessment. Presenters will provide professional development that focuses on continued implementation of engaging...
Description: This practice guide provides four evidence-based recommendations that teachers can use to deliver reading intervention to meet the needs of their students.
Description: In January of 2014 the Mississippi Department of Education began providing early literacy professional development to all K-3 educators using the Language Essentials for Teaching Reading and Spelling program. Participants received the professional development content across eight modules split into two phases. Each phase included six weeks of online coursework and three days of face-to-face workshops. Typically, educators completed one phase per academic year. Content ranged from learning the...
Description: We currently teach reading as if it is a skill to absorb rather than a skill to be taught. Research has proven again and again that the most effective way to teach children to read is phonics- the method of connecting sounds with letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system. However, for the past 40 years, we have used an approach known as balanced literacy, a method that aims to guide children into reading with minimal phonics, context clues and memorized sight words. Melissa...
Description: This video provides a brief overview of the science of reading and the different bodies of research that contribute to it.
Description: This Lesson Planning Table includes Areas of Focus, Time and Day as well as an Instructional Actitvity Menu to enrich your instruction.
Description: This practice guide provides four recommendations that address what works for English learners during reading and content area instruction. Each recommendation includes extensive examples of activities that can be used to support students as they build the language and literacy skills needed to be successful in school, including examples of how the recommendations align with Common Core and other contemporary state standards. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This...
Description: This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills, and is a companion to the practice guide, Improving Reading...
Description: The recordings include the opening, closing and concurrent sessions for: Day 1- Building Multi-Tiered Systems on a Foundation of Equity, Day 2- Ensuring Inclusive Practices for Students with Disabilities and Day 3- Effective Instruction Based in the Science of Reading. On Day 3, Dr. Sylvia Linan-Thompson models how to infuse language rich activities to promote literacy.
Description: This site includes the recordings of the Keynote: Transforming the Family Tree Through Literacy by Tracy Weeden as well as 6 other presentations. Check out: 1B: Structured Literacy Instruction for Tier 1 by Louise Spear-Swerling 2A: Reading Fluency: Essential Reading Comprehension by Jan Hasbrouck 2B: Choosing and Learning Decodable Text by Wiley Blevins
Description: In Wisconsin, disciplinary literacy is defined as the confluence of content knowledge, experiences, and skills merged with the ability to read, write, listen, speak, think critically, and perform in a way that is meaningful within the context of a given field.
Description: This tool provides personalized resources aligned with reading, writing and language skills for beginning readers. It is designed to help guide parents, caregivers, and professionals in recording the presence of important reading, writing, and language skills in Kindergarten through 5th grade.
Description: At the start of the 2021-22 school year, perhaps more than any other year, getting students off to a strong start is critical. Teachers and administrators are rightfully worried about what the data will show due to past instructional interruptions. During this event, Dr. Susan Hall discusses using MTSS data to determine how to address the literacy needs of K-5 students by pinpointing skill gaps and acting quickly to provide the most effective differentiated instruction. MTSS Data Webinar...
Description: This article by Joan Sedita explains why vocabulary instruction is an essential piece of reading instruction and outlines strategies that teachers can use to boost vocabulary instruction in their settings.
Description: The Frayer Model is a strategy that uses a graphic organizer for vocabulary building. This technique requires students to (1) define the target vocabulary words or concepts, and (2) apply this information by generating examples and non-examples. This information is placed on a chart that is divided into four sections to provide a visual representation for students.
Description: Teaching vocabulary is complex. What words are important for a child to know and in what context? In this excerpt from Bringing Words to Life: Robust Vocabulary Instruction, the authors consider what principles might be used for selecting which words to explicitly teach.
Description: A word map is a visual organizer that promotes vocabulary development. Using a graphic organizer, students think about terms or concepts in several ways. Most word map organizers engage students in developing a definition, synonyms, antonyms, and a picture for a given vocabulary word or concept. Enhancing students' vocabulary is important to developing their reading comprehension.
Description: What is chunking? Teacher tip: A simple technique to help your child read fluently. Games to build Reading Chunking Skills The Florida Center for Reading Research offers several activities to build chunking skills. Visit the 4th and 5th grade page and scroll to find FLUENCY. We recommend Reading Chunks, Division Decisions, and Chunk It Up!
Description: The purpose of the 2018 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) ORF (Oral Reading Fluency) study is to add new, policy-relevant information to the NAEP reading assessment. It includes, for the first time, a close examination of the oral reading fluency and foundational skills of fourth-grade public school students who perform below NAEP Basic on the NAEP reading assessment. “Foundational skills,” word reading and phonological decoding, are defined under the heading,...
Description: What is Reading Expression? YouTube Video: Read With Expression - Reading Strategy 2nd Grade YouTube Video: Fluency: Reading with Expression How to assess Reading Expression: Fluency Rubric Instructional Activities to build Reading Expression: The Florida Center for Reading Research offers several activities to build reading expression. Visit the 4th and 5th grade page then scroll to find FLUENCY. We recommend Impressive Expressive. Visit the 2nd and 3rd grade...
Description: What is Reading Rate? Reading speed and fluency: What you need to know How to calculate Reading Rate: Calculating Reading Fluency Instructional Activities to build rate: The Florida Center for Reading Research offers several activities to build rate. Visit the 4th and 5th grade page and scroll to find FLUENCY. We recommend Quick Sort. Visit the 4th and 5th grade page then scroll to find FLUENCY. We recommend Give Me Five. Visit...
Description: Learn what reading fluency is, why it is critical to make sure that students have sufficient fluency, how we should assess fluency, and how to best provide practice and support for all students.
Description: What is accuracy? Elements of Fluency Graphic (attached below) YouTube Video: Mastering Reading Accuracy How to assess Accuracy? Reading Assessment Tips: Measuring Accuracy and Fluency Elements of Fluency Accuracy Checklist (attached below) Instructional Activities to build accuracy: The Florida Center for Reading Research offers several activities to build accuracy. Visit the kindergarten and 1st grade page and scroll to find FLUENCY. We recommend Speedy Phrases. Visit the 2nd and 3rd grade...
Description: The Phonics Scope and Sequence Checklist, created by Doreen L. Mazzye, Ph. D, is designed to assist teachers in a more diagnostic approach to phonics instruction. Directions for use accompany the excel file download that teachers can use to record data about the next phonics instructions steps to take with each student.
Description: This is part of a reading video series for individuals with Down syndrome focusing on building auditory memory and the ability to discriminate between sounds.
Description: Growing Words is an instructional resource for K -5 teachers. Extensive research shows that understanding common prefixes and suffixes, and how they combine with basewords and roots will make students more effective readers, writers and spellers, while also significantly expanding a student’s vocabulary. In this guide, the K –3 component focuses on common prefixes and suffixes and how adding these word parts to base words changes the...
Description: Familiarity with Greek and Latin roots, as well as prefixes and suffixes, can help students understand the meaning of new words.
Description: This is a collection of resources for teaching morphology using a morpheme tree.
Description: These are games that address morphology instruction.
Description: Multisyllabic words can stymie struggling readers. Students rely on others for help or feel defeated before even trying to decode a long word. Giving students a strategy for figuring out multisyllabic words promotes fluency and independent reading. This article explains how to chunk words according to six syllable types. Students learn clues to determine whether the vowel is long or short. When they have mastered quick and accurate recognition of the syllable types, long words can be decoded in...
Description: This video will help you earn how to use the Spot and Dot Method with a three syllable word.
Description: This article discusses several key principles from research on MA (Morphological Analysis) that guided our development of a multidimensional approach to affix instruction. Next, they briefly discuss the research projects in which they refined and evaluated this approach with diverse elementary school students. They then describe the development of a list of affixes (and a similar list of Latin and Greek word roots) that provides a potential scope and sequence for affix instruction in...
Description: Don't make rules/generalizations the emphasis of phonics instruction. Teach only those rules/generalizations with the most utility. Emphasize applying the rules/generalizations rather than verbalizing them. Teach the rules/generalizations at a point when children can best understand and apply them. Never teach rules as absolutes.
Description: Why teach about syllables? Dividing words into parts, or "chunks" helps speed the process of decoding. Knowing the rules for syllable division can students read words more accurately and fluently. Understanding syllables can also help students learn to spell words correctly.
Description: Virginia LEARNS - Leading, Engaging, Assessing, Recovering, Nurturing & Succeeding contains a wealth of resources for teachers.
Description: Structured Literacy prepares students to decode words in an explicit and systematic manner. This approach not only helps students with dyslexia, but there is substantial evidence that it is effective for all readers. Get the basics on the six elements of Structured Literacy and how each element is taught.
Description: Sound walls support students with learning those tricky high-frequency words. They also support students in retaining and learning to read unfamiliar words on their own. A sound wall does the work of matching our articulation of speech sounds/phonemes to the letters/graphemes that represent those sounds. Learn more about why you should make the switch from word walls to sound walls.
Description: We want our readers to have automatic high frequency word recognition. Cognitive scientists have proven that we do not do this by storing words as visual images. Learn how phoneme/grapheme mapping can make your high frequency word instruction more valuable.
Description: The purpose of this presentation is to build your knowledge of orthographic mapping. Once you understand the importance, you will see the role it plays for students who have reading difficulties.
Description: Dr. Carol Tolman explains the transition from phonemic awareness to phonics.
Description: The alphabetic principle has two parts: Alphabetic understanding is knowing that words are made up of letters that represent the sounds of speech. Phonological recoding is knowing how to translate the letters in printed words into the sounds they make to read and pronounce the words accurately. The alphabetic principle is critical in reading and understanding the meaning of text. In typical reading development, children learn to use the alphabetic principle fluently and automatically. This...