Five Big Ideas
From FreeReading
The National Reading Panel (2000) identified Five Big Ideas in teaching reading:
- Phonemic awareness: the ability to focus on and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words
- Phonics: the ability to match sounds to letters and use this knowledge in reading and spelling (also know as the alphabetic principle)
- Fluency reading text: the ability to read connected text with speed, accuracy, and proper expression
- Vocabulary: the ability to understand and use words
- Comprehension: the ability to get meaning from text
It is important to note that the NRP intended to highlight these ideas as necessary but not sufficient elements of a reading program: reading programs are improved when all five elements are present, but alone they are insufficient.
At the time of writing, FreeReading's focus is for the most part on the first two ideas:
- Phonemic awareness is covered in depth in the category Phonological Awareness Activities. Note that phonological awareness is a superset that includes phonemic awareness skills, but also some earlier skills such as manipulating words, syllables, and onset-rimes. (See Phonological and phonemic awareness.)
- Phonics is covered in depth in Letter Sounds Activities, Letter Writing Activities, Sounding Out Activities, Letter Combinations Activities, and Word-Form Recognition Activities.
Two other big ideas are currently less fully covered:
- Fluency reading text is covered in Irregular Words Activities and Reading Connected Text Activities.
- Vocabulary is covered in Listening Vocabulary Activities.
Comprehension is not yet covered in FreeReading.