WHAT IS READING?

An Overview

Amy Pregulman

Stanley British Primary School

November, 2013

READING IS… Phonological awareness

Ability to hear and appreciate the sounds of language

Phonemic awareness Ability to connect sounds to letters

Fluency Lexicon

Development of vocabulary Comprehension

Using schema, sensory images, asking questions, inferring, determining importance, synthesizing

FLUENCY

WHO NEEDS FLUENCY? Everyone!

Very young children with the development of oral language

Early readers as they are building literacy skills

Transitional readers as text gets more challenging

Fluent readers in new genres

Nonfluent Readers Fluent Readers

Fail to use punctuation cues with variation in the voice

Reflect punctuation with pitch, pausing, stress and intonation in voice

Pause randomly Pause appropriately

Read in a choppy or word-by-word way

Group words into 3-4 word phrases that make sense in the text

Stress few words or place inappropriate stress

Place stress on words that reflect meaning

Fail to differentiate dialogue Read dialogue in a way that reflects aspects of characters

Read slowly or stops Read with good momentum although not so fast that phrasing is lost

Fail to vary speed Speed up or slows down for various purpose

Read in a way that doesn’t reflect awareness of language

Read in a way that reflects knowledge of language syntax

NON-FLUENT READERS Process visual information slowly Read word by word Have inefficient word solving strategies Miss much of meaning and thus must

slow down to understand Ignore punctuation as a way to

construct meaning

FLUENCY BUILDING STRATEGIES Reading stories

Pair reading, taping voice, choral reading, small group instruction or one-on-one instruction

Reciting poems

Performing scripts Reader’s Theatre

Giving speeches/oral reports

Memorizing/ reciting lines for plays

WAYS TO BUILD FLUENCY Model good oral reading Overtly teach readers what

fluency is at all levels of literacy Provide oral support for readers Offer plenty of practice Encourage fluency through

phrasing

READ ALOUD… As you read model specific fluency

strategies…Notice the way I am using dialogue todayHow does my voice change with the

punctuation I use?Listen to my voice today. How do I alter my

voice as the characters change?

LINKING READING AND WRITING

Students read aloud from their writingThrough the writing craft discuss author’s

intentDiscuss sentence fluency as writersAs students develop an appreciation for

language as writers, their ability to manipulate it will increase.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT… Fluency happens in writing too!Handwriting Lots and lots of writing practice (not worksheets but actual writing!)

GOOD LUCK!!