Reading Interventions

Phonemic awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words.
- Phonemic awareness is important because it improves children’s word reading and reading comprehension as well as helping children learn to spell.
- Phonemic awareness can be developed through a number of activities, including asking children to; identify phonemes, categorize phonemes, blend phonemes to form words, segment words into phonemes, delete or add phonemes to form new words, and substitute phonemes to make new words.

Phonics instruction helps children learn the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.
- Phonics instruction is important because it leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle, which is the systematic and predictable relationship between written letters and spoken sounds.
- Phonics instruction is effective when it is systematic and explicit. The instruction should include a carefully selected set of letter-sound relationships that are organized into a logical sequence with precise directions for learning them.

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly.
- Fluency is important because it frees students to understand what they read.
- Fluency can be developed by modeling fluent reading and by having students engage in repeated oral reading.
- Monitoring students progress in reading fluency is useful in evaluating instruction and setting instruction goals and can be motivating to students.

Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognize in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print.
- Vocabulary is important because beginning readers use their oral vocabulary to make sense of the words they see in print. Readers must know what most of the words mean before they can understand what they are reading.
- Vocabulary can be developed indirectly, when students engage daily in oral language, listen to adults read to them, and read extensively on their own. Vocabulary can be developed directly, when students are explicitly taught both individual words and word learning strategies.

Text comprehension is important because comprehension is the reason for reading.
- Text comprehension is purposeful and active.
- Text comprehension can be developed by teaching comprehension strategies explicitly, through cooperative learning, and by helping students use strategies in combination and flexibly.

Emma Wilkie