Introduction:Reading First is a nationwide effort to enable all students to become successful readers at an early age. The focus is on kindergarten through third grades. Funds are available to help states and local school districts eliminate reading deficits. High-quality comprehensive reading instruction is established for these grades. Reading First focuses on five elements in reading: vocabulary, fluency, comprehension, phonics, and phonemic awareness. All materials and ideas used in the Reading First reading program must be researched based.

Vocabulary: Vocabulary is important because students use their personal vocabularies to help them understand the words they see in a text. In most cases, students sound out the letters they see in a written word and then compare those sounds to their personal vocabularies to find a match. Of course, the larger the student's personal vocabulary, the more matches he or she finds in print and the greater the word recognition (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

There are four types of vocabulary: Listening vocabulary—the words needed to understand what is heard Speaking vocabulary—the words used when speaking Reading vocabulary—the words needed to understand what is read Writing vocabulary—the words used in writing (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)

Children learn most of their vocabularies from everyday conversation, adults reading to them, and reading to themselves. On the other hand, in the classroom, students best learn vocabulary through explicit and systematic instruction from their teachers. Teachers can supply strategies that help children learn vocabulary that they would not otherwise learn outside the classroom (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

There are two primary ways to teach vocabulary. The first way is to directly instruct children in the meanings of specific words. For example, before starting a lesson, teachers can familiarize students with keywords they will encounter in their reading material. The instruction should include using the words often and in several contexts. The second way to teach vocabulary is to provide strategies for learning new words as they are encountered in texts. Such strategies include: Use of secondary materials, such as dictionaries. Using word parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words. Using context clues. (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)

Fluency: Fluency is the ability to read a text quickly and accurately, instead of stumbling word by word. When readers don't have to slow down to decode every word, they're able to concentrate more on understanding the content. Fluency is characterized by the ability to read with expression as the reader begins to recognize not just single words but grammatical units such as phrases, clauses, and punctuation that give the text its tone and cadence. Naturally, fluency varies depending on the reader's familiarity with the words in the text. Even a proficient reader may encounter texts, such as highly technical documents, with which he or she lacks fluency. Still, students should be fluent at reading any texts appropriate to their grade levels (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Teaching fluency begins with the teacher modeling fluent reading. Teachers and other adults should read texts aloud to children so that the children can hear how their voices change with the text. Components of fluency include: Expression—the mood of the text, such as sadness or happiness. Intonation—the rise and fall of the voice, usually indicated by sentence structure or punctuation. Flow—the smoothness of the voice as it quickly moves through the words of a sentence. After the text has been modeled, students should reread the text aloud, with the teacher providing guidance or feedback on the students' performance. In fact, research shows that repeated oral reading is a highly effective means of teaching fluency. Repeated oral reading means having students read aloud the same text several times, receiving feedback each time, until they are fluent with the text. Repeated oral reading does not have to mean one child reading independently to the teacher. Repeated oral reading can take several forms, and teachers should employ a variety of strategies for fluency practice. Children can read together from books as a chorus, or the teacher can provide a text in large print and point out the words as everyone says them together. Students can also be paired with the more-fluent students who provide modeling and feedback. Regardless of the method used for repeated oral reading, the key points are modeling, feedback, and repetition (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Teachers observing oral reading, using their experience, can make judgments about a student's fluency, but more formal methods should be used as well. Students can be evaluated based on reading speed, degree of expression, and level of comprehension. One common method for measuring fluency is to time students as they read samples aloud. The teacher counts the number of errors made and compares that to the number of words read. This ratio can then be compared to published norms (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Comprehension: Comprehension is the goal of reading instruction. It is the ability to create meaning from a text. However, not everyone is aware that comprehension can be taught. By using certain proven comprehension strategies, teachers can improve students' abilities to understand what they read (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Based on the findings of recent research, the best means of teaching comprehension strategies are explicit and systematic and include: Direct explanation by the teacher—The teacher describes comprehension strategies such as the ones listed in the preceding section. Modeling by the teacher—The teacher applies a comprehension strategy to a sample text. For example, the teacher might generate questions regarding the content of a book all the children have read. The questions would relate to characters and events within the book. The teacher verbalizes the thought process he or she is using to gather meaning from the text. Guided practice by the teacher—The teacher steps through the application of a selected strategy with the help of students. For example, the teacher could help students generate questions about the characters and events in a book they all have read. Application by the student with help from the teacher—The teacher assigns the students to apply a selected strategy, and the teacher moves among the students, supplying feedback appropriate to the strategy. For example, the teacher could ask students to read the first chapter of a chapter book and write down any questions they have about the characters or events. Working individually with the students, the teacher confirms that the children have asked questions that stem directly from the content. These are the major strategies that can help children develop their comprehension skills and grow as readers. Complementary strategies include: Cooperative learning—Working in small groups allows students to help each other and learn and apply comprehension strategies. Using comprehension strategies flexibly and in combination—In this type of instruction, teachers work with students to apply multiple comprehension strategies in response to different types of comprehension problems. The specific strategies used are: Asking questions. Summarizing. Clarifying words or sentences they don't understand. Predicting what might come next in the text. (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001)

Phonics: Teaching phonics means teaching children to understand the connection between the sounds of spoken language and the letters of written language. Children are then taught to use this knowledge to recognize printed words based on the sounds they contain. For instance, once children learn that that sounds /d/, /o/, and /g/ are associated with the letters d, o, and g respectively, they have clues for decoding the written word dog. While English has many spelling irregularities, learning phonics provides a firm foundation for reading most words and for learning strategies to decode the irregularities (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Phonics instruction focuses on the connections between sounds and spelling. It includes lessons in recognizing many different types of sounds, such as consonants, long and short vowels, digraphs (two successive letters that make a single sound), and diphthongs (a gliding monosyllabic speech sound, such as /oy/ in toy), and the letters and letter combinations represented by those sounds. After students recognize different types of sounds and the letters that represent them, teachers can instruct students in blending sounds together to pronounce complete words. For example, a teacher might write the word sat on the board and then help students slowly blend the individual sounds together from left to right into one word. While blending instruction usually begins with familiar words, it's a very valuable strategy for helping students recognize unfamiliar words. The key to phonics instruction is that it should be explicit and systematic. That is, the instruction should employ carefully chosen letter-sound combinations that are taught in a prescribed sequence. Reading materials supplied to children in the classroom should then reinforce the phonics skills students are learning. Many effective reading programs use decodable texts, books in which all or most of the words are easy for students to read by applying the phonics skills that reflect the sequence of sound-letter relationships that have already been taught. Blocks of time should be set aside for reading and writing so that children can practice what they've learned.

Research shows that children who are taught phonics are more proficient at reading and writing than those who are not taught phonics. They learn to spell more quickly because they concentrate on the relationship between sounds and letters—when they hear a word spoken, they are more likely to translate these sounds into letters than children who not taught phonics. They also learn word recognition more quickly because they learn keys for decoding new words. Developing skills in decoding new words accelerates reading abilities and leads to greater comprehension of texts (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness is the foundation upon which reading skills are built. It is the ability to recognize and manipulate the sounds in spoken words. When teaching phonemic awareness, teachers first help students to hear onset (the beginning) sounds, such as the /c/ in cat. Then, teachers usually focus on other parts of the word. Phonemic instruction focuses on sounds, without reference to written letters or words. As children come to learn that words are composed of sounds, they can take the next step to learn the relationships between sounds and letters, the alphabetic principle (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Phonemic awareness is sometimes confused with phonics, but they're not the same. Phonemic awareness focuses on hearing sounds and learning how sounds are put together to create spoken language. Phonics focuses on how sounds relate to letters to create written language (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn, 2001).

Teaching phonemic awareness begins by identifying sounds and then manipulating them in different ways. For example, teachers can help students identify the first sound, or onset, in one word and the same sound at the beginning of other words. Next, teachers might focus on the rime, the vowel, and any consonants that follow the onset. For example, /d/ is the onset in dog and /og/ is the rime. As students master the sounds, the teacher can ask them to combine sounds to create words they already know. The key for teachers is to be explicit in making connections between sounds and words (Armbruster, Lehr, & Osborn,

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