Growth of a Proficient Reader

The process of understanding to read materializes using a systematic and linear strategy. Competencies is steadily layered on through years of education and learning to make a proficient reader. Even though each child learns in a different way, the stages of reading generally follow each other a similar way for all students, as cognitive improvement plays a part in the development of reading competencies as well. Moving through each phase of reading development is based on mastering the previous stage. Some young children may take more time to grasp each skill level, while others breeze right through. You may see some students get “stuck” in one stage and need additional education to move on to more abstract skills. Some continuums of reading development describe the intensity of skills according to age or grade levels. Other reading curriculums stay away from leveling children by age or grade and devise a unique method of leveling literature. This can be helpful for people who teach using a homeschool curriculum. Pre-emergent Reading Parents can get started working on pre-emergent reading competencies with their children at birth. Is a newborn really going to attach meaning to the pictures? Probably not. However, this is the ideal time to get started developing a reading routine as a family through use of books and educational toys. Make sure kids have access to a variety of books. Educate your little one how to gently turn pages working from left to right. Beginning around age 2, your young preschooler will begin to connect pictures to the words in the story. You may hear him reciting a story that you frequently read together or making a small prediction about what will happen next. These are all perfect examples of children developing pre-literacy skills. Early Emergent Children in the Early Emergent stage of literacy can recognize upper and lower case letters. They are starting to recognize corresponding sounds that go with each letter. Present your little one with books where pictures are an essential component of the story. Teachers may incorporate their classroom decorations to display letters, letter blends, and examples of items that appropriately use each letter. The text will be repetitive, predictable, and will likely focus on specific letter combinations. This is the stage where kids begin understanding to blend letter sounds with each other to make words. Emergent Readers The Emergent Reader has gained more confidence with letters and their corresponding sounds. They are working to utilize simple phonics rules to decode words in their reading. At this point, essential comprehension capabilities are starting to be introduced. Pictures still perform a vital part in literature that is relevant for this level. Early Fluent Stage Children begin reading independently in the Early Fluent stage of reading. The vocabulary in the literature becomes more varied and descriptive. The goal of reading shifts to concentrate more on comprehension rather than decoding words and confidence starts to develop. Students start to realize their own mistakes in reading and may self-correct if a sentence does not make sense. They also begin to use their own knowledge to relate to the text. Fluent Readers Students in the Fluent stage of reading continue developing their vocabulary to provide meaning to more complex sentence structures. In terms of grade level, children are working around grade four at this point. Additional details are integrated in literature and children start to recall additional facts from the reading. They become more comfortable reading non-fiction and making use of reading for the goal of learning. Their expression while reading becomes more distinct instead of using a monotone voice when reading aloud. Students have furthermore gained the ability to make use of context clues to understand unfamiliar vocabulary. Transitional Reading Transitional readers have began reading longer pieces of literature for meaning. They are able to connect new concepts from previous readings to the text they are currently reading. This skill plays an important part of subject specific comprehension when reading information in science and history textbooks. These students will stop to ascertain unfamiliar words in their reading without losing meaning of the information. They are also increasingly able to exhibit comprehension by means of writing. Proficient and Critical Reading Of course, the ultimate intent is to cultivate proficient readers who read for knowledge. This reader can determine literature from an pertinent genre for their reading level and will have fluent word flow while reading silent and aloud. They can extend and analyze new knowledge from the reading, beyond their own previous knowledge. The main idea is easily discovered with details to support the content. The student understands cause and effect, is able to sequence story events accurately, and compare and contrast the events or characters. Critical reading is built from skills such as reading from higher level textbooks with the ability to take appropriate notes from the text. The reader can demonstrate comprehension through detailed writing and is able to speak about the reading with others. While most children will eventually become proficient readers, not all will perform critical reading skills. Critical reading should be worked on well into the high school years to prepare students for post-secondary education and future careers.

Help your students become great readers! Educational toys are a great way to enhance your child's reading proficiency. Suzanne Cope is an contributing educational writer at the Learning Hive. Read more of her writings at http://www.schoolsuppliesforless.com/learning-hive.