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MATH SCIENCE SOCIAL STUDIES

LITERACY Phonological Awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension
 * Phonemic awareness is commonly defined as the understanding that spoken words are made up of separate units of sound that are blended together when words are pronounced. However, it can also be thought of as skill at hearing and producing the separate sounds in words, dividing or segmenting words into their component sounds, blending separate sounds into words, and recognizing words that sound alike or different. It is defined by reading experts as the ability to "focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words" (NICHD, 2000). For example, hearing and saying that the word //cat //has three sounds, or phonemes /k/ /a/ /t/ is an example of phonemic awareness skill.
 * Understanding phonics and the purpose of phonics instruction involves thinking about how written language was created. Spoken language had existed for a very long time before the need for written communication brought about the invention of various alphabets. When people began inventing the letters of an alphabet to represent the sounds of their spoken language, they eventually saw the need for a set of rules to make spelling consistent from word to word. That is, they understood it would be important for the same letter or letters to be used each time a particular sound was represented. The rules they created to establish consistency in how speech sounds are represented in print are what we now call phonics rules.
 * Years ago, fluency was understood to mean rapid word recognition that freed up space in the reader’s working memory for use in comprehending the message of the text. That is, fluent readers need to put less effort into word recognition and therefore have more available for comprehension. Later studies of fluency (Rasinski, 1990; Hooks & Jones, 2002) expanded this understanding by clarifying that fluency can also involve grouping words within a sentence into phrases that make what is read easier to comprehend. Grouping words into meaningful phrases and reading with expression helps the reader understand the text by making what is being read resemble natural speech. Therefore, we now understand that fluency is recognizing the words in a text rapidly and accurately //and //using phrasing and emphasis in a way that makes what is read sound like spoken language.
 * The term //vocabulary //refers to words we need to know to communicate with others. There are four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Listening and speaking vocabularies are sometimes referred to collectively as oral vocabulary.
 * Comprehension involves constructing meaning that is reasonable and accurate by connecting what has been read to what the reader already knows and thinking about all of this information until it is understood. Comprehension is the final goal of reading instruction. While fluent decoding is an essential component of skilled reading, (Block & Pressley, 2002) it should be considered a prerequisite to strong comprehension rather than an end in itself.