Teaching Strategies for Reading Components By Diana Hiraman

Concepts of Print Use “ big books” (Texas Education Agency, 2002) Teacher should utilize these books to emphasize print concepts such as text directionality. This will help students understand that print is read from left to right and from top of the page to the bottom of the page. Teacher can also point out what a capital letter looks like, what a word is, and punctuation such as the period. Reinforce forms and functions of print (Texas Education Agency, 2002) Teacher should explicitly draw attention to print around the classroom such as the calendar and environmental labels around the classroom.

Phonological Awareness Use picture card word sorts that have students match pictures to headers of those that rhyme Incorporate read-aloud books that include rhyming such as those by Dr. Seuss or poetry with rhyming such as those by Shel Silverstein Have students clap out words in a sentence. For example, “The girl can run fast” would have 5 claps, one per word. Have students clap syllables in a word.

Phonemic Awareness Use sound boxes on paper to have students practice identifying phonemes in spoken words. Students can slide a counter into each box as they hear each phoneme. Use boxes taped out on the floor to have students jump into each box as they hear each phoneme in a word. Give student three sounds and have student blend the phonemes into words (Vacca et al., 2015). For example, the teacher says, “/b/…./a/…./t/” and the student would blend those sounds together to say “bat.”

Phonics Teacher introduces word sorts with a specific phonics pattern. After working on the word sort for a few days, student should try to come up with other words that would fit the phonics pattern. Teacher says a word out loud, and students will slide a clothespin on a card to show which short vowel sound they hear in the word. Teacher uses word chains so student has to write words and change one sound in the word as dictated by the teacher. For example, student writes, “bat,” and the teacher says, “Now change the /b/ sound to a /c/ sound. What word do you have now?”

References Texas Education Agency. (2002). Print awareness: Guidelines for instruction. Retrieved from http://www.readingrockets.org/article/print- awareness-guidelines-instruction Vacca, J. A. L., Vacca, R. T., Gove, M. K., Burkey, L. C., Lenhart, L.A., McKeon, C.A. (2015). Reading and learning to read (9th ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.