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The Simple View of Reading

Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

Assessment

The process of measuring students' progress and providing information to help guide instruction

Screener

Diagnostic

Formative

Word Recognition

The ability to see a word and know how to pronounce it without consciously thinking about it

Phonological Awareness

A group of skills that enable you to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words

Articulation

The accurate production of a word or word part and how that word or word part sounds when spoken

Articulation Skill Explainer

Syllables

Onset-Rime

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

A method for teaching children the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters so they can learn to decode and encode

Sound-Letter Correspondence

Phonics Patterns

Common letter combinations found in words.

Short Vowels Skill Explainer
Closed Syllables Skill Explainer
Glued Sounds Skill Explainer
Open Syllables Skill Explainer
Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer
Consonant Digraphs Skill Explainer
Blends Skill Explainer
‘-ck’ Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
FLoSS(Z) Pattern Skill Explainer
‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer

Coming soon.

    Magic 'e' Skill Explainer
    Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer

    Coming soon.

      R-Controlled Vowels Skill Explainer

      Coming soon.

        Vowel Teams and Dipthongs Skill Explainer

        Coming soon.

          Trigraphs '-tch' Skill Explainer
          Trigraphs '-dge' Skill Explainer

          Coming soon.

            Consonant '-le' Skill Explainer

            Coming soon.

              Schwa Skill Explainer

              Coming soon.

                Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

                High-frequency words that have a part of their spelling that has to be memorized

                Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

                Multisyllable Words

                Words that have more than one word part

                Prefixes

                How to add meaningful beginnings to words

                Suffixes

                How to add meaningful endings to words

                Language Comprehension

                The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words

                Background Knowledge

                All the information you acquire over time that is needed to understand language

                Oral Language Structures

                The elements of speech needed to understand and communicate effectively

                Vocabulary

                The body of words whose meanings you understand, so you can comprehend and express ideas

                Building Word Knowledge Skill Explainer

                Morphology

                An understanding of how words can be broken down into the smallest units of meaning

                Prefixes and Suffixes Skill Explainer

                Reasoning

                A critical-thinking skill in which you draw conclusions by analyzing language

                Inferencing Skill Explainer

                Literacy Knowledge

                The recognition that texts have unique elements, organization, structure, and purpose

                Reading Comprehension

                The ability to understand the meaning of printed text

                Text Considerations

                Characteristics of a text that impact the ease or difficulty of comprehension.

                Strategies and Activities

                How a reader approaches a specific text, depending on their purpose for reading

                Reader’s Skill and Knowledge

                The skills and knowledge a reader brings to the reading task that are necessary for comprehension

                Sociocultural Context

                Elements in a classroom that affect how well a child learns to read

                (active)
                Fluency

                The ability to read accurately with automaticity and expression

                Fluency: Accuracy, then Automaticity

                Reading or decoding words correctly (accuracy) and reading at an appropriate rate (automaticity)

                Fluency: Expressive Text Reading

                Reading characterized by accuracy with automaticity and expression

                Writing

                Features of Structured Literacy

                A systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading based on research

                • Fluency

                Decodable — One Big Bath

                Use this decodable text to give students practice in reading closed-syllable words with the digraph 'th'. For example, in the word bath, the two letters 't' and 'h' form one grapheme that represents the /th/ sound. To skillfully read this text, students should already know how to read closed-syllable words with all vowel sounds.

                See our guide on How to Use Decodable Texts.

                Visit the full list of all free texts organized by phonics skill.

                Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.