Get all children reading…
Give them the five keys to
unlock literacy
WHAT’S NEW?
recent publications
on the five from five blog
Teaching speech-to-print vs print-to-speech
Everything you ever wanted to know about the Year 1 Phonics Check.
New Nomanis!
If you want free, easy to read, evidence informed articles on teaching using the Science of Reading, look no further.
Nomanis Issue 10 has articles by Tim Shanahan, Tom Bennett, Stephanie Le Lievre, Emina McLean, Beth Budden, Nicola Bell, James Chapman and more…
Visit the Nomanis website for the back catalogue.
New teacher section:
Fluency
Reading fluency is the ability to read accurately, at an appropriate pace, and with expression. When a student is reading fluently they are more likely to be reading with comprehension.
Visit the new fluency section for information on evidence-based instruction, assessment, and intervention for developing reading fluency in the classroom.
Watch the video presentation on fluency instruction from the Sharing Successful Practice conference on 9 October 2020
Five from Five, AUSPELD, and Learning Difficulties Australia have collaborated on an evidence-based framework for schools to dramatically reduce the number of children who finish primary school unable to read proficiently.
Primary schools can use the Primary Reading Pledge today to ensure all children can read.
WHAT IS THE PROBLEM?
WHAT IS THE SOLUTION?
Children need explicit instruction in the five essential components
of reading in every classroom, every day.
This should begin in the foundation year of school when most children turn five years old.
Thousands of studies of the teaching of reading, and how children learn to read, have been published in scientific and academic journals. This extensive body of research shows that there are five essential skills for reading and that a high quality literacy program should include all five components.
| Phonemic Awareness | The ability to identify and manipulate the distinct individual sounds in spoken words |
| Phonics | The ability to decode words using knowledge of letter-sound relationships |
| Fluency | Reading with speed and accuracy |
| Vocabulary | Knowing the meaning of a wide variety of words and the structure of written language |
| Comprehension | Understanding the meaning and intent of the text |
The links below provide information about the evidence-base for the five keys to reading, as well as useful documents and videos.
HOW TO TEACH READING
Major reviews of reading not only agree on the key components of reading programs – the five ‘keys’ to reading – but also the most effective way of teaching them. They find that explicit or ‘direct’ instruction is the most effective teaching method, especially for the fundamental code-based components ― phonemic awareness and phonics.
According to Professor Keith Stanovich, “That direct instruction in alphabetic coding facilitates early reading acquisition is one of the most well established conclusions in all of behavioural science.”
Explicit instruction is a teaching model, rather than a specific teaching program. The links provide information about the evidence base for explicit instruction in general and for phonics in particular, as well as useful documents and videos.
It is …crucial to teach phonic work systematically, regularly and explicitly, there is ample evidence to support the recommendation of the interim report that, for most children, it is highly worthwhile and appropriate to begin a systematic programme of phonic work by the age of five, if not before for some children, the way having been paved by related activities designed, for example, to build phonological awareness.
Because these are both foundational and essential skills for the development of competence in reading, writing and spelling, they must be taught explicitly, systematically, early and well.
