The five components of comprehensive literacy instruction:

• Phonemic awareness– the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) within words.
• Phonics– the study and use of sound/ letter correspondences and syllable patterns to help students identify written words.
• Fluency– reading a text with sufficient rate (words per minute), accuracy (number of words correctly identified), and prosody (expression) to support comprehension.
• Vocabulary– the body of words and their meanings that students must understand in order to read text with fluency and comprehend.
• Comprehension– the ability to make meaning requiring specific skills and strategies, vocabulary, background knowledge and verbal reasoning skills.

If you would like more information, please visit the National Reading Panel.