The Big 5: Key Concepts for Learning to Read

In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) of the National Institute of Child Health and
Development (NICHD) issued a report that identified five key areas that were critical for
effective reading instruction.

Concept Description Finding

Phonemic Means knowing that spoken words are made The panel found that students who
Awareness up of smaller parts called phonemes. learned to read through specific
instruction in phonemic awareness
Teaching phonemic awareness gives improved their reading skills more
students a basic foundation that helps them than those who learned without
learn to read and spell. attention to phonemic awareness.

Phonics Phonics teaches students about the The panel found that students show
Instruction relationship between phonemes and printed marked benefits from explicit phonics
through letters and explains how to use this instruction, from kindergarten
Alphabetic knowledge to read and spell. through 6th grade.
Principle

Fluency Fluency means being able to read quickly, The panel found that reading fluently
knowing what the words are and what they improved the students' abilities to
mean, and properly expressing certain words recognize new words; read with
- putting the right feeling, emotion, or greater speed, accuracy, and
emphasis on the right word or phrase. expression; and better understand
what they read.
Teaching fluency includes guided oral
reading, in which students read out loud to
someone who corrects their mistakes and
provides them with feedback, and
independent silent reading where students
read silently to themselves.

Vocabulary Teaches students how to recognize words The panel found that vocabulary
and understand them. instruction and repeated contact with
vocabulary words is important.

Comprehension Teaches specific strategies students can use The panel identified seven ways of
to help them understand what they are teaching text comprehension that
reading. helped improve reading strategies in
students who didn't have learning
disabilities.

The Arizona Department of Education recognizes explicit instruction in each of these

areas as a best practice in the teaching of reading to elementary students. Reading
Coaches should include strategies and activities that address these five key concepts,
with emphasis being placed on one or more depending on each student’s needs and
strengths.

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 Phonemic/Phonological Awareness
Reading Coaches Should Know: Reading Coaches Should Be Able To:

1. Definition of phonemic awareness (PA). 1. Produce speech sounds accurately.

2. The relationship between phonemic 2. Use the developmental continuum to
awareness and early reading skills. select activities to build PA when
necessary.
3. The developmental continuum of
phonemic awareness skills. 3. Model PA skills and deliver PA activities.
4. Features of phonemes and which are 4. Link phonemic awareness to reading and
more difficult for beginning readers. spelling during Read Alouds.
5. Key terms (phoneme, PA, continuous
sound, onset-rime, segmentation).

Definition
Phonemic Awareness is the ability to hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words.
It is also the understanding that spoken words are made up of one or more sounds.

Why is Phonemic Awareness important?

 Kids need to be able to hear the differences in spoken sounds before they can
recognize letter sounds in written words.
 Reading words and spelling are much easier when kids understand how sounds
work together.
 It is essential to learning to read in an alphabetic writing system, because written
letters represent sounds or phonemes.
 It helps readers understand the alphabetic principle (that the letters in words are
systematically represented by sounds).
 It gives readers a way to approach sounding out and reading new words.

Without Phonemic Awareness skills a student cannot:

 Group words with similar and dissimilar sounds (mat, mug, sun)
 Blend and split syllables (ug _ ly)
 Blend sounds into words (m_a_n)
 Segment a word as a sequence of sounds (e.g. fish is made up of three
phonemes /f/ /i/ /sh/)
 Detect and manipulate sounds within words (change r in run to s to make sun).

What makes it tricky for beginning readers?

 Although there are 26 letters in the English language, there are approximately 40
phonemes, or sound units, in the English language.
 Sounds are represented in 250 different spellings (e.g., /f/ as in ph, f, gh, ff).

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Basic to Advanced Phonemic Skills and Examples

Phonemic Description & Examples

Skill

Hear Rhyme I once saw a cat, sitting next to a dog.

Rhymes & I once saw a bat, sitting next to a frog.
Alliteration
Alliteration Six snakes sell sodas and snacks.

Oddity Identify words that don’t rhyme or fit with the other words.
Tasks
Example:
Which word does not rhyme: cat, sat, pig?
Which two words begin with the same sound: man, sat, sick?

Orally Blend Hear parts of words and combine to make a whole word.
Words
Syllables: Say the word as a whole. ta . . . ble. - What’s the word? (table)

Onset & Rime: Listen to these word parts. Say the word as a whole. /p/ .
. . an What’s the word? (pan) See page 44 for more about onset & rime.

Phoneme by Phoneme: Listen to these word parts. Say the word as a

whole. /s/ /a/ /t/ What’s the word? (sat)

Orally Take a whole word and break it down into parts.

Segment
Words Listen to the sounds in this word: log. What is the first sound? The middle
sound? The last sound?
Produce a Tell me a word that rhymes with star. (car)
Rhyme
Phonemic Change words by changing or eliminating the first, last or middle
Manipulation sounds.

Replace the first sound in mat with /s/. (sat)

Replace the last sound in mat with /p/. (map)
Replace the middle sound in map with /o/. (mop)
Say baker without the ba. (ker)
Say step without the /s/. (tep)
Say frog without the /r/. (fog)
Say best without the /t/. (bes)
Say hit without the /t/. (hi)
Say sun without the /s/. (un)

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Sounds of Speech
The following charts can guide you in working with students to learn the correct sounds
associated with specific letters and letter combinations (e.g. “ch”).

Consonant Phonemes with Spellings

Phoneme Spelling Spelling Examples

(Initial Position) (Final Position)
/p/ p p pick, hop
/b/ b b bid, knob
/t/ t t, bt, ed tap, doubt, flipped
/d/ d d deck, bad
/k/ c, k, ch k, ck can't, kick, crook, lock
/g/ g, gu, gh gue, gg give, bag, guitar, plague,
ghost, egg
/m/ m m, mb, mn map, jam, limb, hymn
/n/ n, kn, gn n, gn neck, pen, knick, sign, gnat
/ng/ -- ng sing
/f/ f, ph f, ff, ph, gh fate, leaf, photo, off, graph,
enough
/v/ v ve vote, give
/th/ th the thank, math
/TH/ th the this, bathe
/s/ s, c, ps ce, se, ss, s sick, mice, center, base,
psychology, bliss, bus
/z/ z se, ze, zz, s, z zap, please, sneeze, buzz,
has, whiz
/sh/ sh, s sh shoe, rash, sure
/zh/ si, s, z -- vision, treasure, azure
/ch/ ch ch chick, batch
/j/ j, g ge, dge juice, gauge, giant, dodge
/y/ y -- yell
/hw/ wh -- what
/w/ w -- warm

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/h/ h, wh -- house, who
/l/ l ll look, fell
/r/ r, wr r rake, far, wrong

Vowel Phonemes and Spellings

Phoneme Spelling Examples
/a-/ a_e, ai, ay, ea, ei, late, bait, say, steak, veil, they,
ey, eigh sleigh
/e-/ e, ee, ea, y, ie, me, feet, bead, many, field,
e_e, ey, i_e, ei these, key, machine, receive
/i-/ i_e, y, i, ie, igh, ye time, try, mild, pie, high, lye
/o-/ o, o_e, oa, ow, oe, so, hope, coat, low, toe, soul,
ou, ew sew
/a/ a, a_e sat, have
/e/ e, ea, ai, a pet, head, said, many
/i/ i, y, e, i_e, ee, ui six, gym, pretty, give, been, build
/o/ o, a log, watch
/u/ u, o, o_e, ou but, ton, love, young
/?/ a, e, i, o, u alone, system, easily, gallop,
circus
/ûr/ ur, ir, er, or turn, girl, her, work
/är/ ar car
/ôr/ or, our, ar or, four, war
/aw/ aw, au, a[l], a[ll], ou saw, cause, walk, ball, cough
/oi/, /oy/ oi, oy boil, toy
/ou/, /ow/ ou, ow cloud, now
/o-o-/, (yo- oo, u, ue, ew, u_e, hoot, ruby (cute), blue (fuel),
o-) o, ou new, tube, do, soup
/o(o(/ oo, u, o, ou book, put, wolf, would

Adapted from: Moats, L., CORE Sourcebook

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 Alphabetic Principle
Reading Coaches Should Know: Reading Coaches Should Be Able To:

1. The definition of the alphabetic 1. Explain sound-symbol

principle. correspondences to enhance word
recognition.
2. The relationship between phonemic
awareness and decoding. 2. Select examples according to
complexity of word type and letter
3. The critical stages in learning to sounds.
decode words.
3. Demonstrate letter sounds, blending,
4. Features that influence the difficulty sight words, and connected text
of word recognition. reading.
5. Critical differences between regular 4. Review known sounds and introduce
and irregular words. new sounds slowly.

Definition
Alphabetic principle is the knowledge that words are made up of spoken sounds that are
represented by letters in the alphabet which are combined to form written words.

Why is the Alphabetic Principle important?

 The English language is alphabetic.
 Recognizing sound-symbol relationships (decoding) is an essential and primary
means of recognizing words.
 There are too many words in English to rely on memorization as a word
identification strategy.
 It prepares students to read text fluently so they can construct meaning as they
read.

Without knowledge of the Alphabetic Principle a student cannot:

 Understand that words are composed of letters and associate letters with its
corresponding sound
 Blend and manipulate written letters to make words (“sad” is made up of three
letters and sounds /s/ /a/ /d/)
 Recognize words
 Spell new words, or student will have to memorize words instead of breaking it
down by sound and letters
 Focus on the meaning of the text

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Alphabetic Skills and Examples

Skills Description & Examples

Alphabetic Knowing that the left-to-right spelling of printed words

Understanding represents their phonemes from first to last.

Decoding Using systematic relationships between letters and

phonemes (letter-sound correspondence) to retrieve the
pronunciation of an unknown printed string or
to spell words.
Alphabet Sounds The ability to state the sound of a letter when asked.

Point to a letter, explicitly say the sound it makes “/sss/.”

What is the sound of this letter? /sss/

Blending The ability to say the sound for each letter and blend
sounds into a word.

Blend the sounds of these letters /m/a/p/ to make a

word. /mmmmmaaaaaappp/

Segmenting What sounds do you hear in this word? “Rat” /r/a/t/

Manipulating What word would you have if you change the /n/ in /nap/
letter-sound to /l/?
correspondences

Reading The ability to use decoding skills to read made up words

“Pseudowords” (e.g., vom, mip, nez). What is this word, mip?

Word The ability to read a word.

Identification

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Sound to Letter Instruction
 The easiest letters for students to learn are words that begin with continuous
sounds (letters that can be stretched).

Continuous Sounds Stopped Sounds

a apple ācorn b bat
c* circus c* car
e leg ēar d duck
f fish g* gum
i ink līght g giraffe
l lion h hen
m milk j jet
n nest k key
o mop rōse p pen
r red qu queen
s sun t tiger
u umbrella cūbe x fox
w water
y yellow babȳ
z zebra

Regular Word Reading

A regular word can be decoded with knowledge of sound-letter relationships.

To build regular word decoding skills:

 Read from left to right, simple, unfamiliar regular words
 Generate the sounds for all letters including short vowels and long vowels
 Blend sounds into recognizable words
 Decode CVC (consonant-vowel-consonant) Words (e.g. map, cat, dog) and VC
Words (vowel-consonant) words (e.g. it, at, on, in)
 Practice distinguishing between words with the short and long sounds (e.g. pin v.
pine).
o Students examine words with more than one vowel and determine
whether the vowel is short or long.
o Adding a “silent –e” to the end of the word (CVCe) makes the vowel say a
long sound (e.g. not becomes note).
o -ck follows a short vowel sound and –ke follows a long vowel sound (e.g.
tack v. take).
 When students can easily and accurately decode simple CVC, VC, and CVCe
words, practice common letter combinations and words.

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Common Letter Combinations

Consonant Digraphs Consonant Blends Vowel Digraphs

(aka Word Chunks) (each letter can be (aka Vowel Teams)
(two letters that make heard) (two vowels that make
one sound) one sound)
ch chair bl pr ai rain
ph phone br qu aw claw
sh shop cl sc ay day
th the cr sl ea eat
th thumb dr sk ee deer
wh whale fl sm ew few
ck sock fr sn ey they
gl st oa boat
gr sw oi oil
-nk tr ue blue
pl tw ou mouse
oy boy
oo book
oo broom
ow bow
ow bow

Advanced Letter Combinations

-ough -ough -ough -ough -ought -ould

tough through dough bough thought should

enough though plough bought could

cough thorough doughty fought would

Irregular Word Reading

An irregular word cannot be decoded because either (a) the sounds of the letters are
unique to that word or a few words, or (b) the student has not yet learned the letter-
sound correspondences in the word
 Do not introduce irregular words until students can reliably decode words at a
rate of one letter-sound per second.
 Initially, introduce one word every several lessons, then one each second or third
lesson.
 Practice, practice, practice. Introduce the word at the beginning, point it out in the
middle, and have them write it down. Review it the next lesson.

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Most Common Rimes (aka Word Families)

-ack back/sack/stack/black -ide side/ride/wide/slide

-an an/can/man/ran/plan/than -ight right/light/night/bright

-aw saw/paw/draw/straw -ill fill/hill/bill/will/still

-ain main/rain/train/plain/strain -in in/pin/fin/bin

-ake make/take/bake/cake -ine fine/line/mine/nine/pine

-ale pale/tale/scale -ing sing/king/ring/bring/thing

-all all/ball/fall/wall/small -ink sink/rink/think

-ame name/same/came/game -ip dip/lip/sip/ship/trip/strip

-ank tank/bank/rank/plank -ir fir/stir

-ap map/tap/cap/clap/snap -it it/sit/hit/fit

-ash cash/bash/dash/trash -ob job/cob/sob/knob

-at at/bat/sat/hat/rat/that -ock rock/sock/knock

-ate date/late/gate/state -oke woke/poke/joke/broke

-ay day/way/say/stay/play -op cop/hop/chop/stop/shop

-eat eat/beat/heat/meat -ore more/store/shore

-ell well/tell/spell -uck duck/luck/truck

-est rest/test/west/pest -ug bug/hug/rug/drug

-ice ice/nice/rice/mice -ump jump/bump/dump/stump

-ick pick/kick/sick/stick -unk punk/chunk/trunk

Source: From Essential Reading Strategies for the Struggling Reader: Activities for an Accelerated Reading Program–Expanded
Edition by the University of Texas Center for Reading and Language Arts, 2001, Austin, TX: Texas Education Agency.

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 Fluency
Reading Coaches Should Know: Reading Coaches Should Be Able To:

1. The definition of reading fluency. 1. Use a variety of strategies to help

improve their students’ reading
2. The relationship between fluency fluency.
and comprehension.
2. Differentiate between independent
3. What fluency sounds like for level books, instructional level
kindergarteners, first graders, books and frustration level books.
second and third graders.

Definition
Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression and
phrasing.

Why is Fluency important?

 Fluent readers are able to focus on processing the meaning of the words being
read because they are not spending all their energy decoding.
 Fluent readers are more likely to want to read because the process is easier and
they are connecting with the text.

Without Fluency students cannot:

 Read smoothly, with natural phrasing and expression
 Comprehend the text fully
 Focus their attention on making connections among the ideas in a text and
between these ideas and their background knowledge

Student fluency will vary depending on:

 The level of difficulty of the text
 The familiarity the reader has with the words, content, and genre of the text
 The amount of practice with the text; rereading at least four times is
recommended to build fluency

Students develop fluency

by having fluent readers
read to them and by
repeatedly practicing
reading out loud.

45
 Fluency Skills and Examples

Skills Description & Examples

Accuracy  The ability to decode words correctly

 Sound to letter to word recognition
 Can be built by practicing “sight” words
Automaticity  Moving beyond deliberate and/or incorrect decoding into automatic
and correct decoding
 When words are recognized instantly by sight
 Measured by percent of words read accurately in a given passage
Prosody  The ability to read with proper expression, timing, phrasing and
intonation
 Automaticity is necessary in reading before prosody improves
 Natural reading that sounds like spoken language, with attention to
phrasing and variation in tone and expression
Comprehension  With adequate fluency, focus is on the meaning of the text and not
the individual words.
 Fluent readers know when something doesn’t make sense and take
the time to reread the word, sentence, or passage.

Fluency Practice:
 Should take place if your student reads without expression, pauses or intonation
 Should take place if your student did not understand what s/he just read out loud
 Should be with a text that a student can read at their independent level. It is at this
level where students are able to practice on speed and expression rather than
decoding. The chart below describes each reading level:

Independent Relatively easy for the student to read (95% word

Level accuracy).

Instructional Challenging but manageable for the reader (90% word

Level accuracy).

Difficult for the student to read (less than 90% word

Frustration Level
accuracy).

Try to use a variety of short reading material to practice fluency, include stories,
nonfiction and poetry. Poems are a good source of fluency practice material because
they are short, rhythmic, and fun!

46
 Vocabulary
Reading Coaches Should Know: Reading Coaches Should Be Able To:

1. The role vocabulary development 1. Expose students to reading material

plays in comprehension. that will expand their vocabulary.
2. How to select which vocabulary 2. Work with students on understanding
words should be taught before, how word meanings apply to different
during and after reading. contexts through exposure to a
variety of texts.
3. The difference between direct and
contextual methods of vocabulary 3. Demonstrate how to use context to
instruction. understand word meanings.
4. How to provide students multiple 4. Use a variety of strategies to help
opportunities to use the new students understand and use new
vocabulary words. words.

Definition
All of the words known and used in a particular language.

Why is vocabulary development important?

 Comprehension: if students don’t understand the words they are reading, they
won’t understand the story.
 The more words students know and understand, the more they read and learn
new words.
 Academic achievement
 Reading is a more enjoyable experience when you understand what you are
reading.

Without developing their vocabulary students cannot:

 Access background knowledge
 Express or understand complex ideas
 Learn about new concepts
 Read books at their grade level

Reading Coaches should highlight and discuss:

 High Frequency Words, such as the “Dolch” Sight Words on page 50.
 Words which are central to comprehending the text. Without knowing these
words, the story (its theme, main idea, or plot) won’t make sense.
 Higher level words not generally used in conversation but found in literature and
across subjects- dapper, excursion, fiasco, improvise, incognito, triumph

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How Students Learn Vocabulary

 Daily Oral Language Experiences

o Students develop their vocabulary through conversations and interactions
with adults. When they hear adults use interesting and different language
repetitively, they are inclined to start using that language.

 Read Alouds
o Students learn new vocabulary as adults read stories out loud and take
the time to define unfamiliar words and engage them in a discussion about
the book.

 Reading On Their Own

o Students who read books on their own are exposed to a wide variety of
new words. Once a students has sufficient technical skills (with decoding
and fluency), self-selected reading is one of the best ways to learn new
words.

 Specific Word Instruction

o Explicitly introduce a new vocabulary word. Successful instruction will:
o Connect new vocabulary to prior knowledge
o Repeat and use the word/concept many times
o Provide opportunities to use new words in reading, writing and discussion

Strategies for Introducing New Vocabulary

Choose 2 to 5 words a student may encounter in
the book that they may not be familiar with and
discuss those words before, during, and after your
Read Aloud. The least effective way
of teaching vocabulary
Strategy #1: Questioning
Seeing a porcupine riding a bike is amusing and a is having a child look up
bit zany.
 Which word goes with zany? Boring or silly? the definition in a
 Why does silly go with zany? dictionary and writing
 What else can be zany? (Think of other
examples.) the definition.
Strategy #2: Student Friendly Definition Source: National Reading Panel. Put Reading
First. National Institute for Literacy, 2001
The movie star looks very glamorous.
 Provide a short definition or synonym.
(Glamourous means stylish and beautiful.)

Strategy #3: Use Movement or Visuals

The serpent slithered away toward the tall grass.
 Point to the picture or draw a picture of what the words describe.
 Act out what is happening with your body. Have your student do the same.

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49
 Comprehension
Reading Coaches Should Know: Reading Coaches Should Be Able To:

1. The definition of comprehension. 1. Activate background knowledge.

2. Strategies that are most effective in 2. Encourage students to generate their
helping students comprehend. own questions and monitor their own
comprehension.
3. Understand the role of background
knowledge in text comprehension. 3. Discuss text with students to encourage
critical thinking and analysis of text.
4. Factors that inhibit comprehension.
4. Use graphic organizers to help students
5. Strategies to help students organize their thinking.
comprehend text.

Definition
Comprehension is defined as “intentional thinking during which meaning is constructed
through interactions between text and reader” (Harris & Hodges, 1995). Readers derive
meaning from text when they engage in intentional, problem solving thinking processes
(National Reading Panel, 2000).

What does comprehension look like?

 Understanding the basic meaning of words and sentences
 Visualization of what is happening in the story
 Retention of what has already happened in the text
 Connecting text to background knowledge
 Asking questions and making inferences from available information
 Predicting what could happen next
 Determining what is important
 Synthesizing new information with background knowledge to form new ideas or
perspectives

Factors that inhibit comprehension:

 Inability to decode new words
 Lack of fluency
 Lack of vocabulary knowledge
 Lack of background knowledge
 Disinterest or distractibility
 Poor working memory capabilities
 Not enough reading experience and/or exposure to language

50
Comprehension and “Working Memory”
 Working memory is the ability to keep information in mind in order to perform a
set of tasks or remember the information for later use. It is the space we use in
order to focus and understand what is taking place.
 Struggling readers and young readers have to work hard at decoding the letters,
forming a word, moving on to the next word and absorbing it all. Their working
memory discards the early information in order to work on the next task.
 Struggling readers need practice filtering, prioritizing, connecting and
categorizing the information.
 Working memory capacity is something that can be developed by:
o Breaking information into manageable chunks.
o Making connections between what they already know and what they are
currently learning. Explicitly point it out, don’t be afraid of going over
something they already know.
o Work on vocabulary. If you want your student to remember a vocabulary
word, say it a couple of times, have them repeat it a couple of times, have
them write it down.
o Use post it notes with your readers to help them remember key points in
the book.
o Ask lots of questions.
o Have your student explain what’s happening in the text when s/he is
comfortable.

Before Reading Strategies for Comprehension

Activate Background Knowledge

 Assess what your student knows about a certain topic, ask questions to gauge
what s/he knows
 Talk about the book you will be reading together and ask your student if they
have ever experienced anything similar
 Introduce difficult vocabulary and go over it a few times
 Bring in pictures or props that have to do with the topic and help your student
build the background knowledge necessary to understand the book

Predicting
 Talk about what your student knows about the book based on the cover, the title,
the author
 Take a picture walk through the book by having your student look at the pictures
before reading the story
 Have your student predict what the book will be about
 Determine beforehand the purpose of the books you have chosen and discuss
the purpose with your student so s/he knows what to pay attention to:
o Enjoyment
o Obtain information
o Vocabulary development
o Fluency

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During Reading Strategies for Comprehension

Make Connections with the Text

 Text-to-Self Connection: How the reader relates to a book based on the reader’s
personal experience.
o This reminded me of…
o When I saw _____________, it made me think of….
o When I read this, I felt….

 Text-to-Text Connection: How the book the reader is currently reading relates to
another book previously read.
o Choose books with the same author or with similar themes or illustrations
 How is this book similar to other books we’ve read?

 Text-to-World Connections: When something in the book reminds a reader of

something happening or that has happened in the world.
o Did you see something about this topic on TV?
o Does this remind you of something that has happened in the past?
o Did you study this in class?

Inferring and Visualizing

 A student infers when s/he merges background knowledge with clues from the
text to reach conclusions that are not explicitly stated.
o For example: The dog growled at the man in the black mask.
 What can a student infer about the man and the dog? Why do dogs
growl? What types of people wear black masks?

 In order to make an inference, a student needs to be able to create mental

images that connect to what they already know. Work with your student on
creating “mental movies” about events and actions, settings and situations,
characters and their features, feelings, clothing, etc.
o Share wordless picture books with your student and have your student tell
the story.
o Read a descriptive passage without showing your student the illustrations,
stop to describe the pictures in your mind using all five senses, read
another passage and have your student draw a picture of what you read.

Questioning and Predicting

 Encourage your student to generate questions about the text while reading so
your student monitors his/her own comprehension to make the text meaningful.
 Model questioning for your student as you read and have your student ask
questions when s/he read:
o Why did the author say that?
o How are these characters the same/different?
o Do I agree with the character?
o What would happen if…?
o How would I solve this problem?
o What will happen next?

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Prediction Chart Example

Book Title______________________________________________

What I think will happen My clues What actually happens

Comprehension Monitoring

When I don’t understand a passage: When I don’t understand a word:

I stop and go back I think of words that would fit
I identify what is confusing I look for parts of the word I know
I think about what I do know about the I think about the topic and what
topic/story word would make sense
I reread I reread
I read on to see if confusion clears up I read on to see if I can guess
I ask someone I look it up or ask someone

READ out loud and THINK out loud to model what good readers do.

After Reading Strategies for Comprehension

Summarize
 Summarizing helps students remember and understand a text in order to take
away the key ideas and main points
 Talk about the difference between important and interesting
 Students can summarize when they know the basic structure of a text and how it
is organized.
 Difference between a narrative texts and nonfiction texts.
o Narrative: students should identify who, what, when, where, plot
o Nonfiction: students should identify the main idea and the key facts
 Talk about the difference between important and interesting

Synthesize
 Summarizing tells you what is important, while synthesizing is a response to the
text. It is a merging of the reader’s background knowledge, connections made
with the text, and personal insight about the text.
 Synthesizing takes place throughout the reading process
 Examples of language to use:
o The big idea in this text is ______________ because ______________
o The author wants me to think about ______in this text because
_________
o This text seems to really be about _______because _____________
o The one thing I am taking away from this text is________because
_______

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