Alphabetics is the concept of associating sounds with letters. This skill can be taught through pronunciation exercises such as modeling the sound for learners and practicing strategies for pronouncing difficult sounds. Teachers can ask students questions to develop phonological awareness, such as, "If you took away the 'b' sound from boat, what would be left over?" and "With what sound does the word 'face' begin?"
Fluency is the ease, speed and accuracy with which readers read. Teachers can build fluency by modeling fluent reading, then breaking down passages into phrase boundaries, calling attention to vocal intonation, pitch, speed and sense. Other practices include having groups read together aloud (choral reading,) reading dialogue with partners and one-on-one instructional feedback.
Teachers can help young readers expand their vocabularies by providing instructional reading. This consists of the teacher reading aloud, pausing frequently to explain the meanings of words and ask the students questions about how they understand the passage. Before reading the selection, teachers should explain that the purpose is to learn the meanings of unfamiliar words as a way of gathering information and provide a list of key words of which students should be aware.
Readers can be taught to set goals for their reading by preparing a list of questions to apply to the text (for example, having to do with the fate of a character, or steps in a process explained by the author). They can also write down unfamiliar words as they encounter them, make inferences about the author's intention, use text organization (chapters and paragraphs) to intuit meaning and use their background knowledge to develop mental pictures.