This is a reader that employs methods and has the reading ability that is right for their grade or age. Have you ever used a grade calculator? Proficient readers can decode sound-letter arrangements, put sounds into words, and comprehend word meanings and how words merge to generate meaning. Even in countries with acclaimed and successful education systems, a significant percent of the population don’t know how to read proficiently. Learning to read proficiently relies on the brain completely integrating what an individual knows about spoken language with what the person learns about written language.
In 2000, a literature review conducted by the National Reading Panel identified the skillsets that influence reading development. Can you use a high school GPA calculator? These skills include:
Phonemic awareness: It refers to understanding the sounds in words and being able to hear and recognize the individual sounds that form a word. It’s primarily an auditory skill of recognizing and distinguishing a language’s sound structure. Identifying the individual sounds in a word is difficult due to the seamless nature of spoken language. According to research, kids with poor phonemic awareness struggle with spelling and reading. People who don’t distinguish sounds within spoken words have difficulty identifying the link between print and sound important to proficient reading.
Knowledge of the phonetic code: Students need to understand the complete phonetic code. Knowing the basic alphabet isn’t sufficient. They need to know vowel sounds, vowel combinations, r-controlled vowels, consonant digraphs, and other complexities that comprise most printed words.
Fluency: Fluent readers can read accurately and quickly without effort. Fluency is critical to comprehension and skilled reading. Students who cannot use correct phonological processing don’t develop fluency. First, teachers should establish correct phonological processing of print. Then they should provide guided practice, so students repeatedly sound out individual words, allowing them to read more words effortlessly and quickly.
Vocabulary: Expanding students’ vocabulary is important to comprehension and reading development. The greater their vocabulary, the easier it’s to understand and make sense of the text.
Comprehension: Comprehension refers to deriving meaning from the text and is extremely important to developing skilled reading. To achieve comprehension, students need to build fluency and develop correct phonological decoding skills. While students acquire some comprehension strategies informally, formal or explicit instruction related to comprehension strategies has been proved to be highly useful in enhancing understanding.
Concluding Thoughts
Proficiency reading seems like something everyone should be able to do, but unfortunately, this is not the case. Proficiency reading requires comprehension of the relevant text, a multisensory process. First, the reader should recognize the sounds that form the words and apply the relevant phonemic code. The alphabet is important in this case, but it is incomplete. Vowels, consonants, rolled words, and other complex complexities need to be understood. The reader also needs to be fluent in their reading, and finally, comprehend what the words, when put together, mean. To improve proficiency, the reader needs to keep expanding their vocabulary, making reading and comprehension easier for the reader.