Teacher Talk: Exploring Key Reading Skills

Phonics is a method used to teach children how to read and pronounce words by linking sounds to letters or groups of letters. It helps children understand the relationship between letters and their corresponding sounds, enabling them to decode written words more easily. By mastering phonics, young students can become more confident readers and improve their overall literacy skills.

In the classroom, phonics instruction typically involves a systematic approach to teaching the sounds of letters and letter combinations. Teachers may use various activities, such as interactive games, flashcards, and word-building exercises, to engage students in learning phonics. Through guided practice and repetition, students learn to recognize and decode words, enabling them to become more proficient readers over time.

 

Fluency is the ability to read accurately with appropriate speed and expression while also understanding the text. When students read fluently, they automatically recognize or decode words rather than sounding out each word. Therefore, fluency allows readers to focus on the meaning of the words rather than the actual words themselves. 

 There are many ways we develop fluency in Grade 2 classrooms. Repetition and modeling are key factors in creating fluent readers. Teachers model fluent reading daily, allowing students to hear how a reader’s voice can help text make sense. In addition to independent and partner reading, students often engage in choral reading, reading along with a teacher who reinforces how fluent reading sounds. In readers’ theater, students rehearse and “perform” a play, reading from scripts that are rich in dialogue. Readers’ theater gives a fun and valid reason to reread text and, therefore, practice fluency.

 So, reading aloud to your child, as well as encouraging them to reread favorite books, not only promotes a love of reading but also helps develop fluency.

 

Third graders start the year reviewing foundational comprehension skills, such as story structure and drawing conclusions, through whole-class read-alouds and book studies. The students then transition into small group novels that guide them through more advanced strategies, like inferring, predicting, determining important information, and synthesizing. Comprehension lessons then dive deeper into the character’s journey. Using Newbery award-winning books, readers create annotations to develop a deeper understanding of the theories behind their characters’ motivations and follow their life lessons.
In our social studies curriculum, third graders read a variety of primary and secondary sources to develop their own understanding of the world. They practice determining the main ideas and supporting details to summarize their learning about historical people and events. They connect texts to their lived personal experiences and existing knowledge about the world; this helps them draw conclusions and notice patterns across cultures and time. Comprehension skills are thus woven across the curriculum.

Vocabulary development plays a critical role in students’ growth as readers and serves as a foundation to build their comprehension, critical thinking, and communication skills. Building a students’ functional vocabulary goes well beyond memorizing word lists and definitions, as research shows that the three basic ways the brain constructs meaning from new vocabulary are via relevance, emotion, and pattern recognition.

In Grade 4, students tackle new vocabulary when reading a variety of texts and must determine the meaning through context clues. In this setting vocabulary is learned based on its relevance to the story and the emotional attachment students may have to the word used in context. Take for example, fourth graders who note the “imperious gaze” of a Nazi soldier in Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars. Students also learn vocabulary through more direct phonics instruction across the Lower School, using their knowledge of patterns to decode new words based on prefixes, suffixes, and roots.