The Science of Reading is an expansive body of research that shows how reading in developed in people. It is founded on neuroscience. It encompasses these 5 pillars: Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension.
Here are some interactive activities to develop these pillars in emerging readers:
PHONEMIC AWARENESS
Puppets
Use a character puppet to help highlight a letter sounds. Have students look for things or think of things that begin with that letter sound. Be sure to SHOW the letter as they LISTEN for it.
Books
Read and make alphabet books. For each alphabet letter, color, cut and paste images that begin with that letter sound.
Names
Talk about each child’s name and things that begin with the first sound in their name. Sit in a circle and share a name. Have a child sit in the center as the class comes up with things that begin with that child’s name.
Rhyme
Practice rhyming with students. Give them a word and an example of a rhyme and have them come up with more rhymes.
PHONICS
Index Cards
Have students sort their words into categories of their choice. Then point out any spelling patterns they share.
HIghlighter
Write children’s names with a highlighter on their worksheets and have them trace over it with a pencil. Be careful to coach them the first few times so that they learn to form the letters from the top down.
Letter Tiles
Use letter tiles to: build words and change the first and last sounds in words.
White Boards
Use personal dry erase boards for: sentence dictation, spelling pretests, writing a word that rhymes, changing the first and/or last sound in a given word, writing a specific type of sentence, listing specific parts of speech, writing the answer to a question.
Elkonin Boxes
Create your own wide paper pocket with cardstock (image on the front of this BLOG). Use these in small groups to practice counting the sounds in a word and then naming each sound with a letter and then pushing the letters together as you blend the sounds to make a word.
Crayons
Rainbow write words by having students use a separate crayon for each time they trace the word. Have them trace 10 times using 10 colors.
Finger
Write a letter of the day in the air, multiple times.
Playdough
Press out a letter of the day in playdough or roll playdough into a snake shape and bend to create a letter.
Sand
Trace letter of the day in a plate of colored sand.
Glue
Trace the letter of the day in glue and then cover the glue with something that relates to that letter such as beans for the letter B, rice for R, sequence for S etc.
FLUENCY
Decodable Books
Read decodable books that have a spelling pattern the children are learning. Reread and reread!
Finger
Teach children to get out their “reading finger” and “sharpen it” in the air like a pencil and “blow off” the dust and then use it to point to the words as they read. “Get reading fingers ready!” I say.
Neighbors
Position better readers with those that don’t read as well. Have pairs read slowly together daily. This is excellent for EB (emerging bilinguals) as well as English Only students.
Choral Reading
Read aloud together as a class. Reread and reread the same story throughout the week. Decodable books are great for cementing in phonics and helping students to read fluently.
VOCABULARY
Read-Alouds
Read to children every day books that are above their own reading level. Introduce up to 10 new words a week. Point them out. List them on the board.
Word Wall
List new words with an accompanying illustration on a growing Word Wall.
Snapping
Snap when a new word you are learning is used during class discussion.
Word Map
Have students create a word map for a new vocabulary word they are learning. Write the word in the middle of a page. In the four corners: draw it, define it, use a sentence with it, write a synonmyn for it.
Picture Dictionary
Have students create a picture dictionary of the new words they are learning each week. Divide a journal or a set of 26 papers up into the letters of the alphabet. Have them write and illustrate their words in it.
Independent Reading
Because there is no way teachers can teach the 50,000 words that highschoolers need to acquire by the end of secondary school, independent reading is how students will teach themselves. Motivating students to love books is the only way this will happen.
COMPREHENSION
Visualizing
Talk aloud about what YOU visualize, as a story is read. Help children to see that they can “make a movie in their heads” when they read.
Types of Literature
Teach a different type of literature every week/month depending on the age of the children. Help them to understand that there’s different things to expect in writing depending on what you are reading such as: letters, biographies, fiction, poetry, fairytale, nonfiction etc.
Metacognition
Think aloud when you read-aloud and help students to walk through your thoughts so they realize they should do the same when they read. For example say, “I wonder why….”, “I think I know what might happen next… I know this because….” etc.
Story Map
On a paper, list the major events in one corner of the paper, the characters, setting and conflict in the other corners.
Small Group Discussion
Group your students. Have them answer questions about the story first on paper and then assign a leader to lead the group to discuss their answers.
Literary Visuals
Teach students to notice: captions, headings, maps and keys, details in illustrations etc.
Summarizing
Have partners practice speaking a summary of what they read in class, especially for the core subjects. Have them write a one sentence summary in a journal.
KWL Charts & Brainstorming Charts
Build up students knowledge of a topic BEFORE they begin to read. Discuss new ideas and vocabulary.
Connectives
Teach the meaning of CONNECTING words like: and, but, or, so, therefore, because etc.