<Alphabetic Principle>
In the area of the alphabetic principle, as children learn about alphabets, they can identify letters in upper and lower cases. They also learn phonics which is the sounds related to each letter and automatic with practicing recognizing letter sound relations. Because alphabetic principle is one of the basic academic skills for reading, it is very important to children.
Teachers can ask children to name letters that they see, to pronounce sound of letters, and to choose letters that have specific names. For instructional options, teachers can provide specific activities such as alphabet books are good for children to develop their vocabulary skills. Teachers may want to use songs, chants, rhythms, poems, and oral language for memorizing letters easily. Using sand or shaving foam is another option for the activity. When children are provided audio, videotapes, or computer, it will be helpful for the pronunciation.
<Phonemic Awareness>
The definition of phonemic awareness is that knowing sounds and putting them together. With this skill, children can identify the specific phonemes with printed text. The reason it is important is that phonemic awareness can improve children’s reading skills. As children improve their reading skills, they can read books effectively.
There are several ways to access phonemic awareness. Teachers should observe that the child can recognize consonants and vowels in words, the child can produce rhyming words, the child can blend phonemes and make some words, and the child can re-create phonemes as they adding or dropping consonants or vowels. Teachers also can use commercial or state-designed assessments. It is standardized and easy to access. Practicing rhyming, segmenting, and blending phonemes are the most common instructional options. I think if teachers use instructional options well, children may really enjoy learning phonemic awareness.
<Oral Reading Fluency>
Oral reading fluency is one of the reading skills that lead children to read smoothly, quickly, and correctly. If children do not have this skill, they may have understanding problems when they read books. As well as that, oral reading fluency is related to recognizing automatic words, decoding words, and recognizing syntactic and semantic units so it is important.
For accessing this skill, teacher can document children’s strategies of what works and does not work. It helps teachers put out materials appropriate for each child and diagnosis problems. Teachers can ask children to read books silently, aloud, and together in group reading as the instruction options.
As the article mentioned, I also think CBM assessment is a great way to access this reading skills. Teachers and children take some time for checking time and understanding reading levels.
<Comprehension>
If the child has comprehension skill, then s/he truly understands what s/he read. If the child does not have comprehension skill, s/he can read books but does not know what the stories of the books. Children also can reflect their previous knowledge or experiences to the book they read. That is why this skill is important for children.
Teachers can access reading comprehension as doing retellings, asking questions, discussing key ideas, review questions, and testing. For instructional options, “Question-Answer Relationships (QAR)” or some specific lessons about strategies such as detecting or summarizing can be used.
<Vocabulary>
Vocabulary is definition and meaning of words. If the child does not know definition of the word, then s/he will be stuck. Vocabulary is one of the fundamental things for reading.
Teachers can ask children to read, define, and used words for making sentences. Posting new words of difficult words on the walls or board will lead children to see the words and memorize the words quickly. Providing small cards is one of the great ideas of instructional options.
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