Toad-ally Exceptional Learners: Stages of Reading Development Plus a freebie

Being mid-year, I find that I'm explaining why I'm selecting the text that I am. I walked into out book room and someone asked what I was looking for and I said no more than 2 words on a page with strong (if not in your face) picture support. I have a student that I've been working with on not adding to the text (she loves adding extra words to the story). The teacher in the book room pointed my to the a shelf on Level As. Knowing what text looks like at each level helps me find the right text for each group. I hope this helps you out or something you can share with parents.

Early Emergent Readers (Levels aa-C)

Readers are just beginning to grasp the basic concepts of book and print. They are acquiring a command of the alphabet with the ability to recognize and name upper- and lowercase letters. They are also developing many phonological awareness skills, such as recognizing phonemes, syllables, and rhyme.

Early Emergent readers are beginning to learn sound/symbol relationships--starting with consonants and short vowels--and are able to read CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) words, as well as a number of high-frequency words.

Books at this level have:

• strong picture support
• carefully controlled text
• repetitive patterns
• controlled, repeated vocabulary
• natural language
• large print
• wide letter spacing
• familiar concepts
• limited text on a page
• is acquiring book handling skills and concepts of print
• is acquiring knowledge of letter names
• uses pictures to create meaning
• beginning to understand sounds of the language (rhyming, same/different, etc.)
• beginning to understand letter-sound relationships
• typically can read some environmental print (example: “stop”)
• uses one to one matching (connects spoken and written words)
• uses left to right progression
• recognizes some known words and uses picture clues and print to recognize new words
• understands the difference between letters and words
• has control of most consonant sounds
• typical titles at this level have very simple text, less than five words per page, are predictable,
• have strong picture cues

Emergent Readers (Levels D-J)

Readers at this stage have developed an understanding of the alphabet, phonological awareness, and early phonics. They have command of a significant number of high-frequency words.

Emergent readers are developing a much better grasp of comprehension strategies and word-attack skills. They can recognize different types of text, particularly fiction and nonfiction, and recognize that reading has a variety of purposes.

Books at this stage have:

·         increasingly more lines of print per page
·         more complex sentence structure
·         less dependency on repetitive pattern and pictures
·         familiar topics but greater depth
·         beginning to use knowledge of letter sounds to solve unknown words
·         uses language, memory, pictures, and print as major cues to read and understand text
·         is able to predict what comes next

Early Fluent Readers (Levels K-P)

At this stage, reading is more automatic, with more energy devoted to comprehension than word attack. Readers are approaching independence in comprehending text.

These readers are experiencing a greater variety of text and are able to recognize different styles and genres. Independence often varies with the type of text being read.

Books at this stage have:

·         More pages
·         Longer sentences
·         More text per page
·         Richer vocabulary
·         Greater variation in sentence pattern
·         Less reliance on pictures
·         More formal and descriptive language
·         Analyzes new words and checks them against what makes sense and sounds right
·         Uses meaning to begin to self-correct
·         Uses known words and word parts to figure out unknown words
·         Begins to retell the major points of the text
·         Decreases the use of finger pointing as fluency and phrasing increase
·         Uses prior knowledge and own experience to make meaning

Fluent Readers (Levels Q-Z)

Readers have successfully moved from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Their reading is automatic and is done with expression and proper pauses. Their energy is devoted to understanding, and they have good command and use of the various comprehension strategies.

These readers read a wide range of text types and do so independently. They will continue to refine and develop their reading skills as they encounter more difficult reading materials. But for the most part, they are capable of improving their reading skills and selection of materials independently through increased practice.

Books at this stage have:

·         More text
·         Less familiar, more varied topics
·         Challenging vocabulary
·         More complex sentences
·         Varied writing styles
·         More description
·         Reads silently; reads fluently when reading aloud
·         Initiates topics for discussion about books
·         Begins to use comprehension strategies (retelling, monitoring for meaning, making connections, making mental images, making/revising/confirming predictions, questioning, determining importance, inferring, summarizing, synthesizing, critically evaluating) across genre and subjects
·         Consistently develops new strategies and new knowledge of texts as he/she encounters greater
variety of texts
·         Is in a continuous process of building background knowledge and realizes that he/she needs to
bring his/her knowledge to his/her reading
·         Sustains interest and understanding over long texts and reads over extended periods of time
·         Notices and comments on aspects of the writer’s craft

I hope everyone has a great week going into Christmas Break. Have a great holiday break and enjoy the Sight Word freebie below.