Excellent reading instructions are the best intervention to the prevention of reading difficulties. The critical importance of the teacher in the prevention of reading difficulties must be recognized, and efforts should be made to provide all teachers with adequate knowledge about reading and the knowledge and skill to teach reading or its developmental precursors. It is imperative that teachers at all grade levels understand the course of literacy development and the role of instruction in optimizing literacy development.
* Beginning readers need explicit instruction & practice that
lead to an appreciation that spoken words are made up of
smaller units of sounds, familiarity with spelling-sound
correspondences & common spelling conventions & their use in
identifying printed words, “sight” recognition of frequent
words, & independent reading, including reading aloud.
Fluency should be promoted through practice with a wide
variety of well-written & engaging texts at the child’s own
comfortable reading level.
* Children who have started to read independently, typically
2nd graders & above, should be encouraged to sound out &
confirm the identities of visually unfamiliar words they
encounter in the course of reading meaningful texts,
recognizing words primarily through attention to their
letter-sound relationships. Although context & pictures can
be used as a tool to monitor word recognition, children
should not be taught to use them to substitute for
information provided by the letters in the word.
* Because the ability to obtain meaning from print depends so
strongly on the development of word recognition accuracy &
reading fluency, both of the latter should be regularly
assessed in the classroom, permitting timely & effective
instructional response when difficulty or delay is apparent.
* Beginning in the earliest grades, instruction should promote
comprehension by actively building linguistic & conceptual
knowledge in a rich variety of domains, as well as through
direct instruction about comprehension strategies such as
summarizing the main idea, predicting events & outcomes of
upcoming text, drawing inferences, & monitoring for
coherence & misunderstandings. This instruction can take
place while adults read to students or when students read
themselves.
* Once children learn some letters, they should be encouraged
to write them, use them to begin writing words or parts of
words, & use words to begin writing sentences. Instruction
should be designed with the understanding that the use of
invented spelling is not in conflict with teaching correct
spelling. Beginning writing with invented spelling can be
helpful for developing understanding of the identity &
segmentation of speech sounds & sound-spelling
relationships. Conventionally correct spelling should be
developed through focused instruction & practice. Primary
grade children should be expected to spell previously
studied words & spelling patterns correctly in their final
writing products. Writing should take place regularly &
frequently to encourage children to become more comfortable
& familiar with it.
* Throughout the early grades, time, materials, & resources
should be provided with 2 goals: (a) to support daily
independent reading of texts selected to be of particular
interest for the individual student, & beneath the
individual student’s frustration level, in order to
consolidate the student’s capacity for independent reading
and (b) to support daily assisted or supported reading &
rereading of texts that are slightly more difficult in
wording or in linguistic, rhetorical, or conceptual
structure in order to promote advances in the student’s
capabilities.
* Throughout the early grades, schools should promote
independent reading outside school by such means as daily
at-home reading assignments & expectations, summer reading
lists, encouraging parent involvement, and by working with
community groups, including public librarians, who share
this goal.
By: ELENITA A. QUEZON (ORION, BATAAN)
