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Reading for Kids
Reading is part of the communication domain necessary for learning.
Reading for kids is part of the CPA domain. Reading comprehension strategies and reading vocabulary are used in all content areas, as well being the critical link between learning and thinking.
To improve reading comprehension, teachers must be able to effectively teach and intervene with all of the components of reading.
Remedial reading programs are full of reading strategies to help kids reach proficiency standards.
Teachers use games to teach reading and work hard at improving reading comprehension.
This is all good, but the question comes when teachers wonder exactly what area of reading is the root of a child's difficulties.
Reading is part of the communication domain. There are components of reading for kids that support foundations for literacy. They are:
Emergent Reading
Phonological Awareness
Word Analysis
Reading Vocabulary
Reading Comprehension
Reading Applications
"Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body." ~Joseph Addison
Teaching Reading Strategies: Emergent Skills
This is the foundation of teaching reading strategies. Emergent skills in reading means a student understands the alphabet, has sound and word knowledge and understands how print works (left tonight, purposes for types of reading/print).
Without strong emergent literacy skills, a student is at risk for future reading and writing disabilities.
Phonological Awareness is the next step. Without this, a child will not be a successful reader. There is only so far a student can go with sight words. Phonological Awareness refers to "the manipulation and usage of the structure of words, syllables and sounds (this is apart from the meaning)," (NRP, 2000).
Reading For Kids: Effective Emergent and Phonological Skills
The student should:
Emergent
Understand how to hold a book
Understand how to use a book
Recognize that print has meaning
Tries to retell the story by pointing at pictures and using own words
Begins to recognize letters and specific known words
Make new words from deleted sounds in known words (The word is "bat." Take off the "b" and add an "r." What word do you know have? "Rat.")
Add sounds to known words or syllables
Use syllabication to distinguish beginning, middle and ending sounds
Use syllabication to make new words
Recognize word patterns (Brain Research and Learning shows a strong correlation between patterns and making meaning)
Identifies onsets and rhymes
Teaching Reading Strategies: Reading Vocabulary
Reading vocabulary has two parts: Word Analysis and Reading Vocabulary Knowledge (generally Tier 2 vocabulary words).
Word Analysis skills means that students can understand apply alphabetic principles to decoding. This ability to decode leads to enhanced vocabulary as they begin to use root words (base words) to make meaning in new words. It also applies to being able to use syllabication skills to break a word down and derive meaning from parts of the word.
Vocabulary Knowledge refers to known words that are necessary for effective reading comprehension. We use different types of vocabulary for different purposes.
In order to make meaning from text (which is the purpose of reading), children must be able to understand high frequency words and phrases (such as those found on the Fry Lists) and more complex words and phrases like idioms and multiple-meaning words.
Reading for Kids: Effective Reading Vocabulary
The students:
Associate sounds and symbols
Use decoding skills
Understand and uses prefixes, suffixes and root words
Uses word family knowledge as a decoding strategy
Use context clues to aid in decoding and comprehension
Use contractions, compound words and abbreviations
Understand and uses homonyms, synonyms and antonyms
Use figurative language
Can provide age-appropriate definitions for new words
Can differentiate between a word being used as a noun or as a verb
Use etymologies (word history or origins) to make meaning for new words
Reading Comprehension Strategies
Reading Comprehension and Applications are part of the domain of Reading Strategies. This is the interaction between the text and the reader. To comprehend a text means that the student can purposefully monitor understanding while reading and use experiences to extend meaning.
Applying strategies is how readers connect information within a text, as often we read something that we have little experience with. This is where using critical thinking skills comes in.
Reading for Kids: Effective Reading Strategies
The students:
Understand and use a variety of types of sentences
Gain meaning from sentence and story structure
Make meaning with implied outcomes
Effective summarize a story or text
Identify main idea and details
Understand structure of different genres
Draw conclusions and predict outcomes
Describe cause and effect, problem and solution and sequencing of events
