National Reading Panel (NRP; 2000) conducted a comprehensive analysis of existing reading research that met high standards for quality. The NRP, similarly to the NRC, concluded that reading instruction should address the domains of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Effective classroom reading instruction includes teaching phonemic awareness (in kindergarten and 1st grade, and for older students who need it) and phonics or word study explicitly and directly with opportunities to apply skills in reading and writing connected text (e.g., Ehri, 2003; Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, & Seidenberg, 2001; Snow et al., 1998), with integrated instruction in fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (e.g., Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004).
National Reading Panel (NRP; 2000) conducted a comprehensive analysis of existing reading research that met high standards for quality. The NRP, similarly to the NRC, concluded that reading instruction should address the domains of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Effective classroom reading instruction includes teaching phonemic awareness (in kindergarten and 1st grade, and for older students who need it) and phonics or word study explicitly and directly with opportunities to apply skills in reading and writing connected text (e.g., Ehri, 2003; Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, & Seidenberg, 2001; Snow et al., 1998), with integrated instruction in fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (e.g., Chard, Vaughn, & Tyler, 2002; Gersten, Fuchs, Williams, & Baker, 2001; Jitendra, Edwards, Sacks, & Jacobson, 2004).
Effective reading teachers teach skills, strategies, and concepts. Skills are things students learn to do. In reading, students must learn skills such as associating letters with their sounds (such as saying the sound of the letter b and blending these sounds to form words [as in sounding out words]). Strategies are routines or plans of action that can be used to accomplish a goal or work through difficulty. Students can be taught strategies to use when they come to a word they don’t know, strategies for spelling unknown words, strategies to help them write summaries of paragraphs, and other kinds of strategies. A word-reading strategy is described below. Finally, students must learn concepts, or ideas. They need background knowledge related to reading and to the topics they are reading about.
By: Analyn D. Lugtu|Teacher III |Balanga Elementary School|Balanga City, Bataan
