The Importance of

Literacy
Kristin Hensley

ELM-305: Foundational Literacy Skills and Phonics

3/6/2022

Kelli Moore
 Reading Education and its History in the U.S.
• In colonial times, reading
consisted primarily of the bible
and patriotic essays
• Significant changes began
around the mid-19th century.
• The McGuffey Readers (1836)
• Blue-Backed Speller
• 1890-1910 publishing
companies published books
using simple language to retell
classic stories
• Reading whole words by sight and
focused on comprehension (1930-
1940’s)
• Whole Language philosophy was
introduced in the 1970’s and
became the primary method of
instruction in the 1980’s and
1990’s.
(K12 Academics)
Literacy and its Importance in Early
Education
• Fundamental component of a child’s overall
development
• Higher graduation rate
• Reading creates and builds empathy
• Pairs with Academic Achievement
• Allows for early intervention when detected
(Port Discovery Children’s Museum, 2018)
The Big 5
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Fluency
Vocabulary
Comprehension
(Read Charlotte, 2021)
 The Big 5 – Phonemic Awareness
What is it?
• Auditory, Deals with spoken words
and not written or printed language.
• The ability to hear and manipulate
sounds in spoken words
• Allows words to be broken apart
into individual sounds
• Blending individual sounds to create
words
(University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning)
Why is it important?
• It shows readers what sounds
represent letters when they’re
being read, which prepares
them for when they are
reading printed words.
• Approaches sounding out and
reading new words.
• Helps readers understand the
alphabetic principle.
The Big 5 – Phonics
What is it?
• Matching sounds to
individual letters, letter
blends, groups, or words.
• “sounding out words”
• Referred to as “Cracking
the Code”
(National Literacy Trust)
Why is it important?
• One of the foundational
methods of decoding or
breaking down words so
beginning readers can
start to understand
written text.
The Big 5 – Fluency
What is it?
• The ability to read with
speed, accuracy, and
proper expression.
• Fluent readers can read
aloud effortlessly with
expression that helps
them with comprehension
(Reading Rockets)
Why is it important?
• For beginning readers, in
order to fully understand
what they read, they must be
able to do so fluently
whether they are reading
aloud or to themselves.
• Connects word recognition
and comprehension
The Big 5 – Vocabulary
What is it? Why is it important?
• The number of words a • Vocabulary plays a crucial
child knows role in reading
comprehension.
• The words of a language
• The more words that a
• The structure, the use, the
child knows, the stronger
meaning, and the links
reader they are.
that they share

Read Charlotte, 2021)

The Big 5 – Comprehension
What is it? Why is it important?
• Understanding •The goal of
what you’ve
read or heard reading

(Read Charlotte, 2021)

 The Big 5, The Brain, and how it all works together
for cognitive processing and reading instruction.
• The Temporal Lobe
• Phonological awareness and
decoding/discriminating stounds

• The Frontal Lobe

• Speech Production, fluency, grammatical
usage, comprehension, and the
understanding of simple and complex
grammar

• The Angular and Supramarginal

Gyrus
• “reading Integrator” – links the different
parts of the brain together to execute the
action of reading

(Burns, 2020)
 Intervention Strategy # 1
Phonemic Awareness : Blending and Segmenting
• Visual cards with pictures and letters and
cards with just letters placed on them.
• Blending
• Model moving cards closer and closer together to
form a word
• Segmenting
• Model moving cards further away from one
another to show and pronounce individual sounds
 Intervention Strategy # 2
Vocabulary: Reframing Sentences
• When creating vocabulary words for students allow
them to use words into sentences as a class, go over
them as a whole group and positively acknowledge
any mistakes and repeat it the correct way.
• Incorrect sentence:
• Is it appropriately to wear shorts tomorrow?
• Correct Feedback:
• Yes, It’s appropriate for you to wear shorts
tomorrow.
 Burns, M., PhD. (2020, October 7). The Reading Brain: How Your Brain Helps You Read, and Why
it Matters. Scientific Learning. https://www.scilearn.com/the-reading-brain/
References K12 Academics. (n.d.). History of Reading Education in the U.S. | K12 Academics.
https://www.k12academics.com/reading-education-united-states/history-reading-education-us
Thank you! National Literacy Trust. (n.d.). What is phonics? https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-
literacy/what-phonics/#:%7E:text=Phonics%20involves%20matching%20the%20sounds,words
%20by%20sounding%20them%20out.
Port Discovery Children’s Museum. (2018, October 29). 3 Reasons Early Literacy Skills are
Important for your Child | Port Discovery Children’s Museum.
https://www.portdiscovery.org/news-room/3-reasons-early-literacy-skills-are-important-your-child
Read Charlotte. (2021, February 15). The Big Five.
https://www.readcharlotte.org/research/the-big-five/
Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Fluency. https://www.readingrockets.org/teaching/reading-basics/fluency
University of Oregon Center on Teaching and Learning. (n.d.). Phonemic Awareness: Concepts and
Research.
http://reading.uoregon.edu/big_ideas/pa/pa_what.php#:%7E:text=Phonemic%20Awareness%20is
%20important%20. . .,are%20systematically%20represented%20by%20sounds).