WHAT ARE READING PEDAGOGIES?

More specifically, reading pedagogy includes the principles, practices, and profession of
teaching reading. Reading pedagogy is the principle method of instruction that teachers use
with students. The research literature on effective literacy instruction has several recurring
findings.
WHAT ARE THE 5 MAIN TYPES OF READING STRATEGIES?
This panel concluded that there are five essential elements of effective reading instruction,
commonly known as the “Five Pillars of Reading”. These pillars include phonics, phonemic
awareness, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies.

Why is Phonemic Awareness Important?

Recognizing that words are made up of discrete sounds and that those sounds
can be changed, is essential for success in learning to read and spell. Similarly,
understanding the connection that words are made up of phonemes and that
phonemes are represented by graphemes is a vital skill for understanding print.
Being able to take words apart, put them together again and adapt them into a
new word (or even a nonsense word!) is a fundamental skill.

There would not be many benefits to teaching children new grapheme-phoneme

correspondences (GPCs) without some awareness of how they combine to make
a word. Reading with a child would involve listening to them string out individual
letters, without any meaning, and writing with a child would end up with them
having to be told which letters they need to write. This would be a stressful and
frustrating situation for all.

There is, of course, a time and a place for learning words by rote, for example,
‘tricky words’ or ‘common exception words’, but the strategies for learning these
would not be effective for learning to read and spell every single word.

How Does Phonemic Awareness Relate to Reading

and Spelling?
The Simple View of Reading (Gough and Tunmer, 1986) is a useful model
demonstrating how word recognition and comprehension are essential for
learning to read.

Acquisition of these two abilities requires the development of more specific skills:

 Phonemic awareness: the ability to identify and manipulate the distinct

individual sounds in spoken words.
 Phonics: the ability to decode words using knowledge of letter-sound
relationships.
 Fluency: reading with speed and accuracy. Being able to read
automatically, accurately and quickly is an important skill when learning to
read.
 Vocabulary: knowing the meaning of a wide variety of words and the
structure of written language.
 Comprehension: understanding the meaning and intent of the text.

A child who struggles with one of these interrelated skills, such as phonemic
awareness, is likely to have a poor reading ability.

Factors that can affect a Child’s Phonemic Awareness

There are a number of factors that can affect a child’s phonemic awareness.
Firstly, check that the child is pronouncing the phonemes correctly. There is a
tendency for people to put an ‘uh’ sound on some phonemes, for example, “cuh”
rather than “c” and “duh” rather than “d”. This leads to a struggle to blend
phonemes: for example with the word cat, instead of blending “c-a-t”, they may
attempt “cuh-ahh-tuh”, making “cuhahhtuh”, which can cause confusion as it’s
not a word.

Other factors which can affect a child’s phonemic awareness include:

Hearing difficulties: most children have a hearing test in their first year of
school,

Though temporary hearing loss following a cold and glued ear is common.
Hearing tests can be organized at any time by speaking to the child’s GP, school
nurse, or health visitor. There’s more information on hearing tests for children on
the NHS website.

Speech and language difficulties: a child may have difficulty pronouncing

sounds and words correctly. If this is the case they may need a Speech and
Language Therapy assessment, which again can be organized through the
child’s GP, School Nurse or Health Visitor. There’s more information on speech
and language assessments on the ICAN website.

Dyslexia: dyslexia is a learning difficulty that primarily affects accurate and fluent
reading and spelling. One of the characteristics of dyslexia is poor phonological
awareness, and children with dyslexia will often need extra support.

Autism: some children with autism have speech sound difficulties or auditory
processing disorders. Many children with autism are visual thinkers, and find
abstract concepts like oral blending and segmenting difficult to grasp. They are
more likely to benefit from using concrete objects, like magnetic letters.
Remember to avoid long verbal explanations.

Working memory: working memory is the ability to hold and manipulate

information in the mind for a short period of time. There is evidence to suggest
that verbal working memory can affect performance of phonological awareness
tasks and activities which involve following and recalling instructions, rote
learning, singing songs, retelling stories and copying sound patterns. Working
memory co-exists with dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD, but can also be a stand
alone problem.

WHAT ARE THE 7 ACTIVE READING STRATEGIES?

The seven strategies of highly skilled readers include activating, summarizing,

monitoring and clarifying, visualizing and organizing, searching and selecting,
questioning, and inferring.

3 ways to develop reading skills and make the reading

effective using story wheels
We have different strategies to develop reading skills. Incorporating all strategies, I have been using
'story wheels' in three ways to motivate and develop the reading skills of my students.
1. Reading through scenes:
A story or narrative is a connected series of events told through words, images, or any other
form of communication. Some stories are based on scenes. So I have prepared the story wheel on
basis of the scenes connecting the main theme of the story.

That helps my students understand the story well and easy for them to read the story in blocks.
Students often become discouraged with lengthy texts that require intense concentration. Giving
smaller segments allows the students to digest chunks in pieces, acquire academic vocabulary, and
build
confidence.
 So I divide the scenes into small reading blocks so they can read the words and sentences by
understanding the characters and events. And also transact the story using the reading blocks make
my students motivated to read the sentences well. This is one of my best ways to teach a story as well
as develop the reading skills of my students. It also helps me to incorporate the senses providing
extra reinforcement for students who are still growing their skills.

Phonics involves matching the sounds of spoken English with individual letters or
groups of letters. For example, the sound k can be spelled as c, k, ck or
ch. Teaching children to blend the sounds of letters together helps them decode
unfamiliar or unknown words by sounding them out.

WHAT DOES FLUENCY MEAN IN READING?

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper
expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read
fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers
read in phrases and add intonation appropriately.

WHAT IS FLUENCY IN READING AND WHY IS IT IMPORTANT?

Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with expression. Fluent
reading builds stamina for reading lengthy or complex texts. Reading fluency serves as
a bridge between word recognition and comprehension.

6 SMART STRATEGIES TO BOOST READING FLUENCY

1. Show them your own fluent reading.

2. Teach your child how to track words.
3. Try choral reading together.
4. Focus on sight words.
5. Recruit a friendly audience.
6. Record, evaluate, and repeat!
1. Show them your own fluent reading.
The more often your child hears fluent reading, the more likely they are to
pick it up. “Start by reading a paragraph or a full page from a book, and
then ask your child to read it,” says Brook Sawyer, Ph.D., an associate
professor focusing on language and literacy development at the College of
Education at Lehigh University. “When you provide that model, it’s an
opportunity for the child to get familiar with the story, understand the
pacing, and then mimic you.”
As you model, channel your high school drama class: Read with
exuberant, Oscar-worthy expressions and pause at the appropriate times
(at commas, periods, etc.) to demonstrate the cadence of our language.
It’s also helpful to play audiobooks in the car to squeeze in extra modeling
time when you’re on the go, says Sawyer.

2. Teach your child how to track words.

If you’ve ever learned a new language, you know how difficult it can be to
decipher where one-word ends and the next begins when listening to a
conversation. Your little learner might feel the same way when they try to follow
along during story time. That’s where tracking — or running your finger under
words as you read them — comes in handy. You can track while you’re reading
to your child, or ask them to track when they're reading out loud.

“When kids are first learning to read, it’s really important for them to touch each
word to understand the correspondence between the spoken and written
language,” says Maniates. “It’s a stepping-stone strategy. Eventually, they’ll be
able to tackle larger phrases without reading word by word.” To make tracking
words more fun for your child, equip them with plastic Martian or witch fingers!

3. Try choral reading together.

Not to worry: No singing skills required! Choral reading simply means you read a
story out loud, and ask your child to read along with you at the same pace. This
helps them understand what fluent reading feels like, and gives them the chance
to practice it themselves at your pace, says Sawyer. It’s OK if you’re a tiny bit
ahead of them — just be sure to pick a book that they can already read
themselves. That way, they're working on pacing and accuracy rather than
decoding new words.

4. Focus on sight words.

You may notice that your child struggles with certain words like “walk” or “house,”
also known as sight words. “These are words that are not decodable by sounding
them out phonetically,” says Maniates. “They often overlap with high-frequency
words, which are those that appear very often in children’s texts.” When your
child memorizes what these words look like and can instantly recognize them,
they won’t have to spend valuable reading time (and brainpower!) trying to sound
them out.

Turn teaching sight words into a game: Spell the words out with magnetic letters;
write them on a large piece of paper and ask your child to splat the correct word
with a fly swatter when you say it; or use activity packs to help them easily learn
them anywhere.

5. Recruit a friendly audience.

Just like us grown-ups, kids are more likely to fumble over their words when they
feel nervous or uncomfortable. Set up an inviting stage for them to practice
reading stories out loud by creating an audience out of their favorite stuffed
animals or recruiting your family pet to listen along. “Some kids really don’t like to
 read in front of other people, either because they feel shy or feel pressure around
it,” says Sawyer. “Start by reading a story together, and then for extra practice,
set up a pretend audience that they can read out loud for.”

Eventually, this might also help your child read with more expression. “Reading
out loud is almost like a performance, because you’re thinking about your voice,
the volume, the pitch, the tone, and you might even be making facial expressions
or gestures,” says Maniates. “We want kids to do this when they’re young
because that’s how they’ll internalize stories when they read silently to
themselves later on.”

6. Record, evaluate, and repeat!

Every so often, when your child is reading out loud, record a passage and then
listen to it together. You might celebrate that they read on pace, then record it a
second time while aiming for more expression. “Set a specific goal for the
session, and decide together what you want to do a little better,” says Sawyer.
Just be sure to make it a relaxed setting (this is something you can do in jammies
and on the sofa!) and focus on the positive strides your child is making.

It's also a good time to incorporate texts that are easy for your child to read.
“Parents are often concerned with getting their kids ahead in reading, but when
they’re struggling, going back to easier texts can be really helpful,” says
Maniates. “It builds confidence and consolidates their skills so they can expand
upon them.”

Reading vocabulary refers to the words that a student can read and understand.
When students know more words, they are more able to understand what they read.
There is a strong connection between understanding the meaning of words and
understanding a story, textbook, or other reading materials.

WHY IS VOCABULARY IMPORTANT IN READING?

Reading vocabulary refers to the words we need to know to understand what we

read. Writing vocabulary consists of the words we use in writing. Vocabulary plays a
fundamental role in the reading process, and contributes greatly to a reader's
comprehension.

Vocabulary is key to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they

are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to
read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part
of their oral vocabulary.

Vocabulary is central to English language teaching because students cannot

understand others or express their ideas without sufficient vocabulary. Wilkins (1972)
wrote that “. . . while without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary
nothing can be conveyed” (pp. 111–112).

HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY READING VOCABULARY?

Here are some tips to help you start learning new vocabulary words:
1. Develop a reading habit. ...
2. Use the dictionary and thesaurus. ...
3. Play word games. ...
4. Use flashcards. ...
5. Subscribe to “word of the day” feeds. ...
6. Use mnemonics. ...
7. Practice using new words in conversation.
 WHY IS VOCABULARY SO IMPORTANT FOR STUDENT LEARNING?
Vocabulary helps students express themselves more precisely and sharpens communication
skills it also requires students to have cognitive academic language proficiency. When students
learn more of 90-95% of the vocabulary words helps students to understand what other people
are saying and what she/he is reading
WHAT ARE EFFECTIVE VOCABULARY STRATEGIES?
Effective vocabulary teaching has five key principles.
 Focus on rich meanings, not just dictionary definitions. ...
 Emphasize the connections among words. ...
 Promote usage of the words. ...
 Review is important. ...
 Involve students in identifying some of the words to be studied.

Comprehension strategies are conscious plans — sets of steps that good readers use to
make sense of the text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become
purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading comprehension.

There are six types of strategies to improve reading comprehension:

 Making connections.
 Asking questions.
 Visualizing events.
 Determining text importance.
 Making inferences.
 Synthesizing information to make new thoughts.