ELL students in grades K-5 will use a variety of websites and Web 2.0 tools to help them further develop their English language skills. They will use a variety of tools or websites to help them practice alphabet awareness, phonics, comprehension, fluency, and vocabulary.  

What is Phonemic Awareness?

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify, hear, and manipulate the individual sounds in spoken words. Manipulating the sounds in words includes blending, stretching, or otherwise changing words. ( Alphabet awareness)

Phonemes are the smallest parts of sound in a spoken word that make a difference in the word’s meaning. For example, changing the first phoneme in the word hat from /h/ to /p/ changes the word from hat to pat, and so changes the meaning. (A letter between slash marks shows the phoneme, or sound, that the letter represents, and not the name of the letter. For example, the letter h represents the sound /h/.) Being aware of the alphabet sounds and letters increases a student’s phonemic awareness.

The above information was adapted from: Put Reading First: The Research Building Blocks for Teaching Children to Read.

What is Phonics?

Phonics is simply the system of relationships between letters and sounds in a language. When your kindergartener learns that the letter B has the sound of /b/ and your second-grader learns that “tion” sounds like /shun/, they are learning phonics. Learning phonics will help your children learn to read and spell. Written language can be compared to a code, so knowing the sounds of letters and letter combinations will help your child decode words as he reads. Knowing phonics will also help your child know which letters to use as he writes words. 

The above information was taken from PBSParents at PBS.org.

What is Vocabulary?

Vocabulary is the knowledge of words and word meanings. It is the study of: The meanings of words, how the words are used, root words, prefixes, suffixes, and analogies. Vocabulary also is very important to reading comprehension. Readers cannot understand what they are reading without knowing what most of the words mean. As children learn to read more advanced texts, they must learn the meaning of new words that are not part of their oral vocabulary.

What is Comprehension?

Comprehension is the understanding and interpretation of what is read. To be able to accurately understand written material, children need to be able to (1) decode what they read; (2) make connections between what they read and what they already know; and (3) think deeply about what they have read. One big part of comprehension is having a sufficient vocabulary, or knowing the meanings of enough words.

Readers who have strong comprehension are able to draw conclusions about what they read – what is important, what is a fact, what caused an event to happen, which characters are funny. Thus comprehension involves combining reading with thinking and reasoning.

What is Fluency?

Fluency is defined as the ability to read with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. In order to understand what they read, children must be able to read fluently whether they are reading aloud or silently. When reading aloud, fluent readers read in phrases and add intonation appropriately. Their reading is smooth and has expression.

The information above was taken from Reading Rockets.