"The more that you read, the more things you
will know. The more you learn, the more places you'll go." — Dr. Seuss
In the reading room, we read, read, read, and we
work on developing life-long learners and readers. Reading is a complicated process and we use
the following techniques from the National Reading Panel for instruction.
awareness—the knowledge that spoken words can be
broken apart into smaller segments of sound known as phonemes. Children
who are read to at home—especially material that rhymes—often develop the
basis of phonemic awareness. Children who are not read to will probably
need to be taught that words can be broken apart into smaller sounds.
knowledge that letters of the alphabet represent phonemes, and that these
sounds are blended together to form written words. Readers who are skilled
in phonics can sound out words they haven't seen before, without first
having to memorize them.
ability to recognize words easily, read with greater speed, accuracy, and
expression, and to better understand what is read. Children gain fluency
by practicing reading until the process becomes automatic; guided oral
repeated reading is one approach to helping children become fluent
oral reading—reading out loud while getting guidance and
feedback from skilled readers. The combination of practice and feedback
promotes reading fluency.
vocabulary words—teaching new words, either as they appear in
text, or by introducing new words separately. This type of instruction
also aids reading ability.
comprehension strategies—techniques for helping individuals to understand
what they read. Such techniques involve having students summarize what
they've read, to gain a better understanding of the material