Major components of reading (phonemic awareness, word identification and phonics, vocabulary and background knowledge, fluency, comprehension, and motivation) and how they are integrated in effective and efficient reading.
Proficient readers read effectively and efficiently using their knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness to decode and identify words, an adequate vocabulary, background knowledge, and motivation. All of these factors working simultaneously allow these readers to read fluently and comprehend the material. Although instruction of individual components is necessary, it is more important for educators to find ways to integrate all of these components into instruction and provide opportunities for students to make connections between them in practice.
The first artifact is an article by Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl entitled Applying New Visions of Reading Development in Today's Classrooms (2011). Stahl states the importance of teaching skills within phonics and phonemic awareness, and fluency. She also notes a co-dependence between mastering skills, fluency and comprehension. She cautions educators not to let skills instruction dominate the curriculum, but to teach them systematically while spending the majority of time on comprehension instruction. The second artifact is a reflective essay I wrote in my Reading Comprehension course. In the essay, I discuss striking a balance of various methods of reading instruction. These artifacts represent my understanding of the importance of blending the major components of reading together to develop a holistic reader.
Proficient readers read effectively and efficiently using their knowledge of phonics and phonemic awareness to decode and identify words, an adequate vocabulary, background knowledge, and motivation. All of these factors working simultaneously allow these readers to read fluently and comprehend the material. Although instruction of individual components is necessary, it is more important for educators to find ways to integrate all of these components into instruction and provide opportunities for students to make connections between them in practice.
The first artifact is an article by Katherine A. Dougherty Stahl entitled Applying New Visions of Reading Development in Today's Classrooms (2011). Stahl states the importance of teaching skills within phonics and phonemic awareness, and fluency. She also notes a co-dependence between mastering skills, fluency and comprehension. She cautions educators not to let skills instruction dominate the curriculum, but to teach them systematically while spending the majority of time on comprehension instruction. The second artifact is a reflective essay I wrote in my Reading Comprehension course. In the essay, I discuss striking a balance of various methods of reading instruction. These artifacts represent my understanding of the importance of blending the major components of reading together to develop a holistic reader.