Phonemic awareness is really a pre-reading skill which involves being able to hear and identify different sounds. Being able to hear three separate sounds in the word "t-o-p" is an example of phonemic awareness. It is the basis for phonics.
Rhyming is an important Phonemic Awareness skill.
Phonics: If we think of phonemic awareness as the ability to hear different sounds, than phonics is being able to write a letter or letters that represent these different sounds.
Word Families is one major part of the phonics program in my class.
Phonics plays an important part in learning to read, but sometimes it is over emphasized by well meaning parents. The English language has many words that simply do not follow phonetic rules. Asking a child to sound out "go, no, so" is fine but what happens when they encounter "do!" We can not always just say... Sound it out! These kind of words are taught to be recognized immediately and are called
sight words. Other examples of sight words are . . . "they, are, come".
Vocabulary: There have been many studies done to find the most common words in the English language. These are the words that children will encounter the most when reading. Our class will start with the most common words, which are . . . "a, the, I "
The children work on a particular list until learned and then move on to the next list. Some words are also placed due to the stories that your child will encounter. Each new list will include all previously introduced words for review.
All new words will be bolded. Click here for a complete list of the
vocabulary words.
I apologize in advance for the poor appearance of the linked vocabulary window. Would love suggestions or help in cleaning up this problem.
Comprehension: Is understanding and remembering what we read.
Fluency: Is the ability to read smoothly.
SECOND GRADEReading will remain pretty much the same as last year. We will continue to work with the "Big Five" components of reading.
However, we will be shifting some of our emphasis. We no longer will be doing as much with phonemic awareness. Phonics and vocabulary building will continue to be stressed. But, we now will also put much more emphasis on comprehension and fluency.
Helpful Hints for Parents
Vocabulary Words from List 1 (3 words) to List 13 (180 words)
Vocabulary Words- List 14 (200 words) Will add more lists soon.
Word Families