by Robin Bartoletti

Created on: May 08, 2007

Think back to when you learned how to read. What do you remember most about learning how to read? Did the person who helped you learn to read use reading strategies? The reading process involves three phases: Before Reading, During Reading, and After Reading.
According to the experts, the major building blocks of reading success are:
Phonemic awareness instruction,

Phonics instruction,
Fluency instruction,
Vocabulary instruction
Text comprehension instruction
Motivation
For more information on this topic, see the publication: Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read., Center for Improvement pf Early Reading Achievement, 2001. Multiple copies available for free from National Institute for Literacy (NIL) at ED Pubs, POB 1398, Jessup, MD 20794-1398, phone 1-800-2288813. Download this publication from NIL website www.nifl..gov

Good Reading Programs

The general consensus of the research by reading specialists, reading scholars, reading panels, reading teachers and others about good reading programs are as follows:
Use the building blocks of reading success (above)
Read aloud to students daily
Allow independent reading
Use trade books, picture books, magazines
Give students a choice of reading material
Have adult modeling of reading skills and strategies
Require content area reading
Use higher-level questions (application, synthesis, evaluation)
Use critical and creative thinking

Some ideas for good reading programs are:
Before reading -
Set the purpose for reading the text.
Use an anticipation guide, KWHLS (What IKnow, Want to know, How I can find out, Learned, Still need to know) or other pre-reading strategy. KWHLS is a group instruction activity developed by Donna Ogle (1986) that serves as a model for active thinking during reading.
Use predictions.
Discuss the meaning of pertinent, subject-specific vocabulary.
Determine what comprehension pattern(s) to look for in the selection.
An anticipation guide is composed of 4 or 5 questions of a yes/no or true/false nature to which students predict the correct answer. These answers are confirmed or changed after reading the selection.
Text Investigation Creates Purposeful, Great Readers (T.I.C.P.G.R.) created by Shannon Cannon, Director of ROI Educational Consulting. Ms. Cannon supports understanding non-fiction texts with her T.I.C.P.G.R. Going through the process of identifying and predicting what will be in the book helps students in comprehension. They have a purpose for reading. This exercise

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