Developing students' reading skills is vital.  There are so many ways to begin, and still more to advance. One way staff and parents can help is to set clear goals based on the characteristics found in strong readers.

1. Phonemic Awareness: Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken language is composed of speech sounds, or phonemes. Rhyming games, oral word segmentation, and sound or syllable swapping are activities staff can use to work on this area.

2. Phonics: Phonics is the study and use of sound and spelling relationships to help students read written words. Spelling patterns, letter sound practices, syllable type identification, and the understanding of inflectional endings can lead to improved spelling—as well as reading—skills.

3. Fluency: Reading fluency describes expressive, accurate, and effortless reading at a rate that supports strong comprehension. Reading strategies, such as LitART's Echo Reading and Repeating Refrain, help students accurately and expressively read text.

4. Vocabulary: Vocabulary development is an often-overlooked area of reading instruction. Teaching students how to use context clues, to preview, or "scan," essential vocabulary before reading, as well as to memorize root words, prefixes, suffixes, and compound words, and to explore antonyms and synonyms, are all effective ways to build vocabulary.

5. Comprehension: Comprehension is the heart of any reading activity. It should be built up over the course of the entire reading. LitART supports instruction Before, During, and After the reading to insure a thorough understanding of the text.