The Five Components of
Reading
Brought to you by:
Mrs. Cowan
What are the Five
Components of Reading?
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Phonemic awareness—the ability to hear, identify,
and play with individual sounds—or phonemes—in
spoken words.
Phonics—the relationship between the letters of
written language and the sounds of spoken language.
Fluency—the capacity to read text accurately and
quickly, including oral reading skills.
Vocabulary—the words students must know to
communicate effectively.
Comprehension—the ability to understand and gain
meaning from what has been read
What is Phonemic Awareness?
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Phonemic awareness is the
ability to hear, identify, and play
with individual sounds—or
phonemes—in spoken words.
Activities to Improve
Phonemic Awareness
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4.
Sound Scavenger Hunt:
Choose a sound for the child to remember. Start with one sound at a time and
progress to four at a time. For kindergartners, start with M, B, T and D. For first
graders, use any sounds except S, SH, CH or R.
Tell your child that s/he is going on a sound hunt. Child must find one item in
the house that includes each sound (you can specify the size the item has to be,
so they're not dragging furniture around). Give your child a specific timeframe in
which to collect the item(s).
When the child returns with all items, review the sound connected to each item.
After children are successfully remembering sounds and finding household
items, you can do the follow up activity over the next days and weeks: Each
time your child hears a word that contains a sound from the scavenger hunt,
and can repeat the word or describe the item to you, s/he scores a point. You
can record points with stars or stickers on a chart toward some designated
reward.
Activities to Improve
Phonemic Awareness
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Anytime, Anywhere:
You say a word.
Your child says a word that begins
with the sound that your word ends
with.
You say a word that begins with the
sound that your child's word ends
with, and so on.
Activities to Improve
Phonemic Awareness
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Anytime, Anywhere:
You provide a sound ("s").
Your child provides a second sound that blends
with the first sound and contains both sounds
("st").
You provide a word with the "st" sound (street).
Your child quickly provides another word (star).
The game continues until one of you cannot quickly
think of a word with the blended sound or says an
incorrect word for the blend. That player is "it" and
starts the next round of the game.
Activities to Improve
Phonemic Awareness
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2.
3.
4.
Many more activities can be found by
visiting the following websites:
http://pals.virginia.edu/Virginia/Activities/
http://www.iusd.k12.ca.us/parent_resource
s/phonemicawareness456.htm
http://www.nea.org/teachexperience/ifc030
408.html
http://teacher.grandblanc.k12.mi.us/kbodary/phonemic_awaren
ess.htm
What is Phonics?
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Phonics is the relationship
between the letters of written
language and the sounds of
spoken language.
Available Resources for
Phonics Help
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Many activities geared toward improving phonics
skills can be found at the following websites:
http://www.sadlieroxford.com/phonics/control_page/front2.htm
http://www.kidskonnect.com/Phonics/Phonics.html
http://www.starfall.com/
http://www.tampareads.com/phonics/phonicsindex.
htm
Games and workbooks can be purchased at a wide
range of stores such as Barnes and Noble, School
Aids, and even Walmart.
What is Fluency?
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Fluency is the capacity to
read text accurately and
quickly, including oral
reading skills.
Activities to Improve
Fluency
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Have your child read familiar texts such
as Dr. Seuss repeatedly.
Have long and detailed conversations
with your child.
Visit many places and expose your child
to many different activities such as a
museum, park, grocery store, etc..
Take field trips on-line to places you
may not be able to otherwise go.
What is Vocabulary?
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Vocabulary is the words
students must know to
communicate effectively.
Activities to Improve
Vocabulary
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Read to your child daily in addition to
having your child read to you.
Have long and detailed conversations
with your child.
Visit many places and expose your child
to many different activities such as a
museum, park, grocery store, etc..
Take field trips on-line to places you
may not be able to otherwise go.
What is Comprehension?
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Comprehension is the
ability to understand and
gain meaning from what
has been read.
Activities to Improve
Comprehension
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Before your child reads, ask your child questions
such as:
What do you think the story will be about?
What is going to happen?
What makes you think that?
What clues helped you make that choice?
Why do you think that is going to happen?
How did you know that?
Look at the cover and pictures then make
predictions.
Does it remind you of anything?
How do you think the character feels? Why?
Activities to Improve
Comprehension
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As your child reads, ask your child questions
such as:
What is happening in the story?
Tell me what is going on.
What clues in the story have led you to think that?
What do you know that is similar to this story?
What does the book remind you of?
What do you know about the book’s topic?
Does this book remind you of another book?
What is the main idea of the story?
What details support the main idea?
What do you know that is similar to this story?
Tell me about the story.
What else do you recall?
Activities to Improve
Comprehension
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After your child reads, ask your child
questions such as:
What was the story about?
Tell me what happens in the story.
What happens in the beginning? Middle? End?
Who are the characters in the story?
What is the problem?
How do the characters solve the problem?
Did you like the story?
What did you like about the story? What did you dislike?
Why?
What does the story make you think about?
Does the story remind you of anything?
Additional Reading Strategies
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Talk with your child often to build listening and speaking skills.
Read to your child often. Even older children enjoy being read to.
Talk to your child about the words and ideas in books.
Ask your child to tell in his/her own words what the story was about.
Encourage your child to read on his/her own.
Listen to your child read books that he/she has brought home from school. Be patient. If your child reads
slowly and makes a lot of mistakes, ask him/her to reread a paragraph or page. Let your child know you
are proud that he/she is reading.
Talk about new words that your child has read or heard. Help your child learn the meaning of new words
by using the dictionary.
Show your child how to use pictures in books to help figure out what words mean.
Let your child see you reading. Encourage your child to read while you are reading.
Even if you are not an independent reader, let your child know that you value reading and that reading
makes life richer in many ways.
Make sure your child has plenty of quiet time to read without distractions such as television and video
games.
Encourage your child to write often—for example, letters to friends, grocery lists, and emails. Help your
child find and correct spelling mistakes.
Ask your child’s teacher how you can help your child practice at home what he/she is learning at school.
(Courtesy of http://www.read-to-learn.org/)
Final Notes
Just remember, each of
these components build on
one another like building
blocks.
 Thank you for coming!!
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