• Oral language skills set the stage for literacy instruction, and oral language competency predicts reading comprehension across a student’s entire academic career (Catts et al., 2005; Fillmore & Snow, 2000; Foorman et al., 2015; Nation & Snowling, 2004; Storch & Whitehurst, 2002). • Oral language instruction is important because students who exhibit deficits in oral language are approximately 18 times more likely to exhibit reading comprehension deficits than children with typical language skills (Werfel & Krim, 2017). • Early literacy research across four decades, from Durkin (1966) to Bus and Pellegrini (1995) to Neuman and Celano (2006), offers convincing evidence that the interactions young children enjoy at home with their caregivers—especially conversation and hearing stories read aloud—play a significant role in academic success and beyond. Phonological Awareness • To build word recognition, children must first develop phonological awareness—the understanding that words are made of sounds, that these sounds are composed of letter combinations, and that sounds can be arranged to form new words. Children must then also learn to associate particular letters and phonemes to figure out (or decode) the pronunciation of a printed word. Finally, they need to be able to tie that pronunciation to a word in their vocabulary to derive meaning (Foorman et al., 2016). • Students’ phonological awareness develops from perceiving larger sound units (i.e., syllable/word awareness) to smaller (i.e., individual phonemes). It encompasses recognizing, matching, producing, and manipulating sounds (Adams, 1990; Purpaff, 2009). • Phonological awareness (particularly the ability to recognize rhyme and alliteration, compare and contrast sounds, and blend and segment sounds) is essential because it fosters the ability to encode and decode words (Adams, 1990; Bennett et al., 2023; Ehri, 2005; Yopp, 1992) and is causally related to word recognition, reading, and spelling performance (Gillon, 2018). • According to research, effective phonological awareness instruction should: • Be explicit (instruction clearly explains a concept, models its application, and allows for guided practice with frequent feedback) and systematic (follows a specified scope and sequence that begins with larger sound units and gives students practice identifying and manipulating phonemes) (Blevins, 2017; Duke & Mesmer, 2019; Lindsey, 2022; Mesmer & Griffith, 2005; Piasta et al., 2010; Roberts, 2021; Seidenberg, 2017). • Teach letter names and sounds at the same time (Duke & Mesmer, 2019; Piasta et al., 2010; Piasta & Hudson, 2022; Roberts, 2021; Seidenberg, 2017). • Spend more time on hard-to-learn letters (Jones et al., 2012). • Capitalize on mnemonics to teach letters (Ehri, 2022). • Use interactive word-building activities and multiple opportunities to manipulate sounds (Foorman et al., 2016; NICHD, 2000).
SCHOLASTIC LITERACY FRAMEWORK EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 4
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