Are you a new teacher? Are you trying to remember all those things you learned in college about teaching your students to read? This site was designed for you! Incorporating literacy into your classroom is going to be a big part of your career as a teacher and it's important to know the facts and have resources at your fingertips. Click through each component of the Big 5, activity suggestions, outside resources, assessment types, and review important vocabulary to remind yourself of the main ideas to keep in mind as you begin to put together your teaching plan. Enjoy - reading is fun!

Welcome!

Knowing how to read serves a greater purpose than simply satisfying teachers and completing school assignments. Literacy plays a role in every aspect of life, from a child's ability to write his or her name, a student following directions, a driver deciding which exit to take, a parent reading a medication dosage, a chef taking orders, and a thousand other manifestations of text in our world. The earlier children are exposed to rich oral language, introduced to various printed material, and introduced to the importance and enjoyment of literacy, the more likely they are to have success in reading and writing in the future. As educators, however, we may not have early access to our students' exposure to literacy. While we can encourage parents to include their children in daily literacy activities, it is our job to work with each and every student to the best of our ability in an attempt to give them the skills they need to be successful, independent and confident readers. It is our job to prepare these children with the foundations of their futures.

 

 The Big 5 is a set of skills that have been researched and identified as the most important building blocks of able readers. Starting with the smallest and most basic parts of language through phonemic awareness, the Big 5 builds gradually as students identify words, read passages with ease, develop a varied vocabulary and finally, understand the meaning and ideas within a story. Using the information on this page and following the guidelines set out for educators by teachers and researchers, you can give your students learning experiences and capabilities that they will use for the rest of their lives. 

You know all about teaching the Big 5, but when your students are ready to move on or seem to be struggling, how will you know? Read here about a few common methods of assessing student learning.

After spending some time getting to know the ideas behind the Big 5 of reading and you're ready to start implementing some lessons in the classroom, spend some time here to see example lessons and links to useful websites.

** The information included on these pages comes primarily from PowerPoints and handouts used in ED201: Foundations of Reading at Endicott College, Reading and Learning to Read 8th ed. by Vacca et. al, and Put Reading First, a publication by the National Reading Panel.

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This website was created by Emma L. Soules, December 14, 2012