Comprehensive Phonics Program

Description

What are the 5 pillars of the Science of Reading:

Phonics – Phonics is about recognizing letters and letter blends and the sounds they make. Think of a student sounding out letters individually or practicing sounds like “ch” or “st.”

Phonemic Awareness – Phonemic awareness is recognizing that letter sounds and blends put together make up words. When you speak the word “cat,” you don’t say “cuh-a-tuh.” But if you need to figure out how a word is spelled or pronounced, you slow down and sound out each letter or letter blend. That’s phonemic awareness.

Vocabulary – While phonics and phonemic awareness are about being able to say or spell a word, vocabulary is about knowing what a word means. It’s one part of language comprehension. The bigger our vocabularies, the easier and more fluent our reading becomes.

Comprehension – Overall comprehension means understanding words individually, as well as sentences, paragraphs, and texts as a whole. Being able to sound out words is one thing, but without comprehension, reading is meaningless. The science of reading reminds us that comprehension is actually one of the earliest skills kids learn. They practice this skill even when someone else is reading aloud to them!

Fluency – Fluency is putting it all together at the same time. Fluent readers sound out words effortlessly and focus on comprehension and meaning as second nature. They can read with expression and explain what they read without parroting the text.