Word Knowledge

Teaches children to recognize and understand words.

Concentrates on various aspects of words:

The way they look

The way they sound

Their spelling

Their structure

What they mean

Emphasizes commonly used words.

Example: The teacher first presents a vocabulary word in a sentence and ensures that everyone understands it. She then isolates the word, drawing the students’ attention to the word itself, both its meaning and spelling. Each student keeps track of a list of words, and students practice isolated words every day.

Fluency

Teaches children:

To read at a good pace.

To group words correctly.

To express punctuation, for example pausing at commas and periods.

Example: Students pair up and take turns reading a passage. If the reader does not correct his own mistakes, his partner corrects them after a pause.

Comprehension

Teaches students to understand what they read by connecting new information in the text with what they already know.

Students learn to use headings, subheadings and graphics to help them better understand information.

Example: Students create their own questions about what they have read and look for answers in the text.

Writing

Teaches children to change their writing style depending on their purpose for writing and who will read it.

Students practice reading skills by writing and reading their own texts.

Students take notes and use graphic organizers to digest newly read information.

Example: Teacher and students read a piece of informational text, develop a graphic that shows how the writing is organized, then write their own text based on the graphic organizer and compare it to the original passage.

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