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Reading Skills Pyramid

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The Reading Skills Pyramid is a blueprint for the reading skills that build upon each other when a child learns to read. Mastering the foundational reading skills is essential because they allow children to decode words automatically, which then paves the way toward building more complex reading skills. For instance, a strong reader will have mastered sounding out words before reading fluently and then understanding a text. It is crucial to understand that these skills are dependent upon one another. As a reader masters each skill, they become significantly intertwined (*see Science of Reading information below).
 

  • Print Concepts: understands that print has meaning; reads text from left to right & top to bottom; handles a book correctly.
     

  • Phonological Awareness: recognizes & plays with sounds & words in spoken language; 
    recognizes & creates rhymes; recognizes & counts syllables; identifies individual words.

 

  • Phonemic Awareness: isolates, blends, segments, & manipulates individual sounds
    (phonemes) within words (e.g. /c/ /a/ /t/ makes cat).

 

  • Phonics & Decoding: names & sounds out ALL letters of the alphabet; connects letters/ letter combinations to sounds when reading (i.e. blending), & connects sounds to written letters/ letter combinations when writing (i.e. segmenting).

 

  • Fluency: reads words automatically & quickly, including (known) high frequency or tricky
    words.

 

  • Vocabulary: understands & uses new words in speech; builds on background knowledge; creates longer sentences when talking or writing.

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  • Language Comprehension: understands & processes meaning from spoken language; relies heavily on background knowledge, vocabulary, & verbal reasoning; understands sentence structure.

 

  • Reading Comprehension: applies language comprehension skills to written text; answers open-ended questions, such as who, what, why; makes predictions & inferences; draws conclusions; summarizes; describes story elements.

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Science of Reading
The Science of Reading (SoR) represents the extensive research that explains the science behind how the human brain learns to read. This research substantiates why the skills, or pillars, on the Reading Skills Pyramid are critical, and how they should be taught systematically and interdependently. SoR embraces the concept that all of these skills are equally important when learning to read! Structured Literacy curriculums and lessons are the vehicles for carrying out the SoR by weaving together all of these components.  

The Simple View of Reading (Philip Gough and William Tunmer, 1986) maintains that both word recognition and language comprehension are necessary to build strong reading comprehension, and lack of understanding in one concept strongly impacts ability.

WR x LC = RC

Scarborough's Reading Rope (Dr. Hollis Scarborough, 1990s) is a visual model that further demonstrates and organizes these complex reading skills into distinct interconnected components, or strands.

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Oxford Learning

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My TPT Kindergarten Literacy Printables & Resources
Includes: photo picture cards that can be used in a variety of ways for helping students master foundational reading skills. Use them for interactive whole group activities, center activities, or small group instruction!
*Simply click on a resource image below, and you will be directed to the specific TPT  page! 

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