Five Components of an Effective Reading Program
There are several factors that should be considered when researching reading programs for schools. The first consideration should be whether a program addresses the five key components of an effective reading program as identified by the National Reading Panel. This includes phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Choosing the right reading programs for schools can be difficult, but by ensuring the inclusion of these five components, you will be off to a great start!
This is the ability to recognize the sounds that letters make. The right reading intervention program will teach students how to sound out words based on the letters in them. Phonemic awareness is the most basic building block for literacy. Without understanding that letters make different sounds; it is impossible for a student to learn to read.
There is a strong correlation between phonics and phonemic awareness. The main distinction is that phonemic awareness focuses on auditory sound recognition whereas phonics is the transfer of this knowledge into decoding printed words. In addition to being able to recognize the sounds that letters make, phonics is the understanding that words are made by stringing these sounds together. It is the ability to sound out or decode words based on their individual letter sounds. When it comes to reading programs for schools, phonics and phonemic awareness are essential components.