The Big 5 Areas of Reading
Professional Development
Phonological Awareness
What is it?
Phonological awareness is being able to recognize and manipulate sounds in words
without attaching the letters. It also includes rhyming and recognizing when words share
the same sound.
What Does it Look Like?
Children can show they have phonological awareness skills in several ways, including:
• Identifying and making rhymes:
“The pig has a (wig).”
“Pat the (cat).”
“The bunny is (funny).”
• Identifying and working with syllables in spoken words:
“I can clap the parts in my name: An – drew.”
• Identifying and working with parts of words:
“The first part of sip is s-.”
“The last part of win is –in.”
• Identifying and working with individual sounds in words:
“The sounds in sun are s- u- n-.”
Assess Your Student By …
Administering the DIBELS assessment in which the student is asked to:
 Identify the initial sound in a word
 Produce all the sounds in 3-4 sound words
Phonics
What is it?
Phonics teaches students that letters stand for particular sounds. Students are taught to
use these sounds to make words. There are different ways to teach phonics. For
example, some will teach phonics by teaching individual sounds (s-a-m), and some will
teach phonics by teaching word chunks (s-am).
What Does it Look Like?
Children can show they have phonics skills in several ways, including:
• Identifying letter sounds
“Look at this letter S. What sound? /s/”
• Breaking down new words.
“Read this word
MAP. /m/ /a/ /p/. What word? /map/.”
Assess Your Student By …
Administering the Dibels assessment, which tests the student’s knowledge of letter/sound
correspondence as well as their ability to blend letters into words.
Fluency
What is it?
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, effortlessly, and with good expression.
This is important because time is not spent trying to figure out the words, but in focusing
on the meaning of what is being read. Studies have demonstrated a close relationship
between fluency and reading comprehension.
What Does it Look Like?
Children can show their reading is fluent by:
• Reading effortlessly and with expression
• Reading sounds naturally, as if they are speaking
Assess Your Student By…
As students become readers, fluency is assessed through a variety of oral reading
assessments that evaluate speed, expression, smoothness, and effortless decoding. Our
district currently uses both the DIBELS Next and AIMSweb assessments.
Vocabulary
What is it?
Comprehension is the essential outcome in reading and cannot be understood without a
strong vocabulary base. Vocabulary includes understanding what words mean when we
see them in written materials, like books, or understanding words that people use in
conversation.
What Does it Look Like?
Children can show they have strong vocabulary skills by:
 Recognizing that a new word being read is one they have heard and understood
before:
- Sounding out a new word (d- i- g-) and recalling they have heard
and understood that word before.
 When misreading an unfamiliar word the student knows to adjust the
pronunciation so that it makes sense in the context of the text being read.
 Understanding what an author is communicating by knowing the meanings of a
lot of words.
Assess How Your Child is Doing By …
Although there is no formal vocabulary assessment used by our district, students are
exposed daily to words through classroom literacy activities, repeated readings of stories,
discussions, and many opportunities to hear quality literature through teacher read alouds.
Comprehension
What is it?
Comprehension is the reason for reading. Comprehending what is read means that the
child understands what he or she has read and is able to communicate it to others.
What Does it Look Like?
Children can show they have strong comprehension skills in several ways, including:
• Setting a purpose for reading such as:
• finding an answer to a question
• figuring out how to put something together
• completing homework assignments
• experiencing the pleasure of great literature
• Monitoring what they are reading and slowing down when the material gets difficult.
• Answering questions about what has been read.
• Summarizing what has been read.
• Predicting what will happen next in the story.
Assess How Your Child is Doing By …
In addition to the retelling component of DIBELS Next and the Maze of AIMSweb,
teachers informally evaluate comprehension through classroom and small group
discussions. As students begin to read, assessments are administered to evaluate student
use of comprehension strategies while reading and to determine instructional reading
levels.
References
¤Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. (2003). Put Reading
First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read
Kindergarten through Grade 3. Jessup, MD: National Institute for
Literacy.
¤Learning Point Associates. (2004). A Closer Look at the Five Essential
Components of Effective Reading Instruction: A Review of Scientifically
Based Reading Research for Teachers. Naperville, IL: Learning Point
Associates.
¤National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of
the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: an evidencebased assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its
implications for reading instruction. Retrieved November, 4, 2011, from
http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/nrp/smallbook.htm.
Additional Resources
¤Florida Center for Reading Research
www.fcrr.org
¤Reading Resource
www.readingresource.net
¤Reading Rockets
http://www.pbs.org/launchingreaders/rootsofreading/