Reading in the Lower School
Learning to read and write is an essential foundation of education. Learning to read is such an incredibly complex neurological task that it is often described as miraculous. The Ellis Lower School is devoted to helping each student develop a strong literacy base upon which she will build. I’m pleased to have transitioned from classroom teacher to Lower School Reading Specialist. I now work with the classroom teachers to support literacy instruction for each and every Lower School student. Literacy teachers everywhere use special language to describe what we do and see each day in our classrooms. Below is an introduction to some of the language we use when talking about reading.
1. Phonological awareness is not the same thing as Phonics instruction – Phonological awareness refers to the whole spectrum of awareness of speech sounds. Our spoken language consists of parts:
- A spoken sentence consists of separate words. (word awareness)
- A word consists of separate syllables. (syllable awareness)
- A syllable consists of separate sounds, or phonemes. (phonemes)
- Phonemic awareness involves listening closely to speech in order to identify, categorize, blend, segment and manipulate sounds. (Here’s a trick I use to remember the difference between phonemic awareness and phonics. Phonemic awareness can be done in the dark--”reading” with your ears. Phonics happens once you pick up a pencil or look at print--reading with your eyes and ears.)
Phonics instruction goes beyond sound-symbol knowledge. Readers begin to map sounds onto spellings and to decode words. Initially phonics instruction is linked to letter formation (following the Handwriting Without Tears pathways) in order to link motor memory with sounds. Students are explicitly taught how to blend sounds into words. This is systematically done following the six basic syllable patterns of English.
Lower School teachers have been trained in systematic, multi-sensory approach to teaching phonics based on the tried and true research of Orton-Gillingham.
2. Instructional and Independent Reading Level – All readers have fluid levels of reading no matter what the age or stage. For example: I’m an independent and fluent reader of classic fiction, yet I am at an instructional level when I read technical texts about computers. I do not automatically know all of the words in computer books, so I read more slowly to figure out new words and to think about what they mean. Our task as teachers of literacy, pre-kindergarten through grade 4, is to identify where explicit instruction is needed in order to increase students’ independent reading levels. The instructional reading level is the level at which our students receive reading instruction. The student reads the text with teacher guidance and is challenged enough to stimulate reading growth. Independent reading level is the level at which a student can read a text without the teacher’s assistance. Comprehension should average 90% or better and word recognition should average 95% or better. With coaching, our students learn to identify for themselves classroom and library books which are on their independent level by using these criteria:
- EASY books (These are no-brainer books. They may be old favorites that we re-read, and re-reading is an excellent strategy for strengthening reading),
- “JUST RIGHT” books (not too easy, not too hard)
- STR-E-T-CH books are those that have 5 or more unknown words on one page. (Teachers call this the 5-finger-rule: if there are 5 unknown words on a page then it’s not an independent read.) Stretch books are good to read with someone (and a dictionary!) close by.
3. Sight words vs. High Frequency Words – Sight words do not follow phonetic rules and they cannot be learned by phonetic spelling rules . These words must be learned by sight. Examples of sight words: people, once, says, they, does. Sometimes teachers refer to sight words as “red words” and have students write the words in red crayon to strengthen the visual and tactile learning of the sight word. High Frequency Words are a list compiled by Edward Fry (and before him, Dolch) of the words most frequently used in the English language. The first 300 words are considered to be standard for mastery in the Lower School. Many of Fry’s high frequency words are also sight words.
4. Literal and Inferential Comprehension – These two terms refer to how well a reader makes meaning from the words. Literal comprehension refers to the student’s understanding of what the text on the page says explicitly. Inferential comprehension is a deeper understanding of those words and the connections the reader makes. In Lower School, book groups spend time talking about the text and the thoughts that take us beyond the text. These discussions require girls to support their thoughts with evidence within the text, extend their thoughts beyond the text by making connections from one text to another text or by making connections between text to their own lives.
5. Fluency – Fluency is the ability to read smoothly, easily, and readily with freedom from word recognition problems. I’ve heard it said that “fluency happens when Decoding meets Comprehension.” During the fluency stage, the reader becomes “unglued”’ from the print, that is, they can recognize many words quickly and accurately by sight and are skilled at decoding those words they don’t recognize by sight. A fluent reader can:
- Read at a rapid rate
- Automatically recognize words (smoothness/accuracy)
- Phrase correctly (prosody=the ability to read a text orally using appropriate pitch, stress and phrasing)
The next wave of reading researchers are expanding their definition of fluency. Not only do phonemic awareness, alphabet knowledge, sound-spellings and sight words impact fluency, but also the speed with which a child can perform these tasks.
Envision Her at Ellis
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