Teaching Children to Read
Educators routinely use research to guide decisions about reading instruction. Reading Rockets has gathered some of the most important research and reports in one place.
Teaching reading is a hugely complicated task. So much so that researcher Louisa Moats ended up entitling her influential article: Reading IS Rocket Science.
An Interview with Marilyn J Adams
Dr. Adams focuses on the need for children to develop automatic word recognition and the system to achieve this. Dr. Adams believes that training in phonemic awareness is the foundation for learning to recognize words. Such training is necessary because most children enter kindergarten without the conscious awareness that words are made up of distinct sounds; rather they hear words as complete units.
The factors that contribute directly to reading ability are:
- letter knowledge
- linguistic awareness of words, syllables, and phonemes
- knowledge about print
Sounds and Symbols
Best Practices
To enable children to become skilled readers, all successful early reading programs must:
Best Practices
- base instruction on accurate diagnostic information
- develop print concepts
- develop knowledge of letter names and shapes
- convey the understanding that spoken words are composed of sounds (phonemic awareness) and that letters correspond to these sounds
- provide systematic and explicit instruction in sound/ symbol relationships (phonics)
- connect that instruction to practice in highly decodable text that contains the sounds and symbols taught
- make use of rich and varied literature and read to children regularly
