| NRP's 5 Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction |
How The F.A.S.T. Reading System Correlates |
1. Phonemic Awareness
Introduces phonemes systematically and explicitly |
Each new daily lesson plan introduces a new phoneme or group of phonemes, building on the previous lessons and the students' level of mastery. |
| Teaches phoneme manipulations with letters |
The teacher gives the students phoneme manipulations to practice, printed with the letter(s) that represents phonemes. This method is called tracking. |
| Focuses on one or two types of phoneme manipulations |
The tracking pace is appropriate to the students' level but, over time, three types of phoneme manipulations are taught: addition, deletion, and substitution. |
| Teaches phoneme manipulations in small groups |
Phoneme manipulation is usually done in small groups, but we understand that each class of students is different and so we leave class size to the teacher's discretion. |
2. Phonics
Systematic and synthetic phonics instruction |
Synthetic phonics instruction explicitly teaches students to convert letters into sounds and to blend the sounds into words. This is particularly effective for learners with special needs. Phonics concepts are taught through direct instructions, then reinforced with phoneme awareness, spelling, writing, and reading. |
| Opportunities to apply phonics skills in daily reading |
Our phonetically controlled-text books give students instant reading practice, reinforcement, and success. Younger students also engage in daily story time, while older students participate in directed reading or reading workshops. Strong emphasis is placed on reading the best literature available. |
3. Fluency
Repeated reading and guided, repeated oral reading |
Daily lesson plans include guided, repeated oral reading during reading time and as homework, where parents are encouraged to help their children. Choral readings (adult reading with child) are also a component of F.A.S.T. Reading. |
4. Vocabulary
Direct and indirect instruction |
Vocabulary is often taught in combination with text comprehension. Instructive techniques include comprehension monitoring, cooperative learning, question answering, and question generation. Daily lesson plans use this 4-step method for introducing vocabulary, providing repeated exposure to target words, and preparing students for concepts they'll read about in a given text. |
5. Comprehension
Incorporates techniques such as questioning, self-monitoring, prediction, and cooperative learning |
Daily lessons provide a number of questions frames to improve students' comprehension, connection, and analysis of the material they're reading. Students learn to alternate between strategies according to their purpose for reading and the nature of the text. |
