1. Reading & Writing & Spelling begin with Oral Skills: Speaking & Listening including the … Ability to hear, speak, see, reason, connect & communicate effectively through the spoken word. Ability to hear all single, minute sounds (phonemes) that make up a language and associate sound with meaning. Ability to recognize that the spoken word is represented by a sequence of different sounds/ rhythms/ lilt/ cadence/ inflection Ability to recognize & identify individual letters/ letter sounds within words.

2. Non-Oral/ Aural/ Literacy Skills: Reading & Writing are inter-related with Listening & Speaking In general, language connects meaning with sound and translates sound into meaning. Experts say that between 3 and 5 thousand different languages are known to exist on earth. Each language has a complex set of rules/ sounds from among those capable of being formed by the human mouth and throat and the ability of the brain to make associations. Language is a tool for the survival of a culture and it’s people. It may even shape our behavior, the way we think, and our perception of reality.

3. Ability to recognize the symbols of specific letter sounds: ABC’s Ability to produce/ write specific letter symbols: ABC’s Ability to recognize the connection between sounds, letters, and word formation Ability to recognize, produce, and understand the meaning of individual and collective words Ability to read with fluency & comprehension. ABC’s of Standard English

4. Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate the individual sounds, or phonemes, in spoken language, in a word and to distinguish between words based on these different sounds. Five levels involved with Phonemic Awareness are: The ability to hear rhymes and alliterations The ability to do oddity tasks The ability to blend and split syllables The ability to perform phonemic segmentation The ability to perform phoneme manipulation tasks

5. According to an article from the University of Oregon, (Yopp, 1992), phonemic awareness is “the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words and the understanding that spoken words and syllables are made up of sequences of speech sounds”. Yopp. (1992). Big Ideas in Beginning Reading. University of Oregon. Retrieved January 30, 2010 from www.reading.uoregon.edu.www.reading.uoregon.edu Phonemic level: Sounds in language that have no meaning Morphological level: Sound structure of words that have meaning Syntax level: Relationship between words/grammar rules

6. Developmental Reading Begins with an understanding of communication, story telling, picture stories/ picture books and on frequent interactions with BOOKS/ PRINT and LANGUAGE ACTIVITIES. Ability to recognize the printed page conveys words Ability to recognize pictures convey words Skill of separating words on a page Skill of tracking a page of print left to right/ top to bottom Ability: to comprehend main ideas; to predict; to infer; to make connections; to visualize; to understand vocabulary; to recognize basic sight words; to hear the rhythm of language; to engage in social conversation In early reading children may ‘pretend’ read based on prior understanding of the story and/or pictures

7. Developmental Spelling When the sound/symbol identification is in place we begin to spell words as they sound to us. The order is generally very specific and is as follows: 1. Beginning consonant sounds as well as Long vowel sounds; 2. Bat = b; Beaver = b 3. Ending consonant sounds; Bat = bt; Beaver = br 4. Middle consonant sounds & long vowel sounds; Beaver = bevr 5. Middle short vowel sounds; Bat = bat 6. Early vowel and consonant rules such as silent e, r controlled words, y = e; ex: mommy = momy 7. Correct Spelling: bat; beaver; mommy, shark

8. Rules of Phonics/ Grammar The vowels are ‘a, e, i, o, and u’; sometimes ‘y’ & ‘w’. This also includes the diphthongs “oi, oy, ou, ow, au, aw, oo’ and others. The consonants are all the other letters which stop or limit the flow of air from the throat in speech: ‘b,c,d,f,g,h,j,k,l,m,n,p,qu,r,s,t,v,w,x,y,z,ch,sh,th, ph,wh,ng,& gh’. Sometimes the rules don't work. There are many exceptions in English because of the vastness of the language and the many languages from which it has borrowed. The rules do work however, in the majority of the words. Every syllable in every word must have a vowel. English is a "vocal" language; Every word must have a vowel. "C" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "s". Examples: "cyst", "central", and "city". "G" followed by "e, i or y" usually has the soft sound of "j". Example: "gem", "gym", and "gist".

9. When 2 consonants a joined together and form one new sound, they are a consonant digraph. They count as one sound and one letter and are never separated. Examples: "ch,sh,th,ph and wh". When a syllable ends in a consonant and has only one vowel, that vowel is short. Examples: "fat, bed, fish, spot, luck". When a syllable ends in a silent "e", the silent "e" is a signal that the vowel in front of it is long. Examples: "make, gene, kite, rope, and use". When a syllable has 2 vowels together, the first vowel is usually long and the second is silent. Examples: "pain, eat, boat, res/cue, say, grow". NOTE: Diphthongs don't follow this rule; In a diphthong, the vowels blend together to create a single new sound. The diphthongs are: "oi,oy,ou,ow,au,aw, oo" and many others. When a syllable ends in any vowel and is the only vowel, that vowel is usually long. Examples: "pa/per, me, I, o/pen, u/nit, and my". When a vowel is followed by an "r" in the same syllable, that vowel is "r- controlled". It is not long nor short. "R-controlled "er,ir,and ur" often sound the same (like "er"). Examples: "term, sir, fir, fur, far, for, su/gar, or/der".