Young readers transition from beginning into competent readers.
As young readers start to transition from beginning reading into competent reading, they become more fluent and more conventional in their communication. They have a sense of whom they are writing for when they write and they begin to proofread their own work. In reading, they spend less energy figuring out words, so they can read for enjoyment or research.
Six year old Ethan is in the transitional reading stage.
- Ethan comprehends most of what he is reading. Sometimes he needs to talk about the book out loud to get the big picture. With a new series (like the Magic Tree House books), he will work at understanding the first book, and then be able to read the remainder of the books much more easily.
- Ethan works on reading fluently. We read sections of books several times to help him with his smoothness, accuracy and expression. By doing this, he has greatly improved over the last few months.
- Ethan’s vocabulary is improving every day. He will ask what a word or phrase in his book means quite frequently. I try to use the same word or phrase several times after that to reinforce the meaning.
- Ethan’s writing has improved quite a bit recently. He is supposed to write his spelling words in sentences every week. He has gone from writing, “I like green.” To writing, “When I go to the store with my mom, I like to pick out all of the green vegetables.”
In this stage, students need to be able to read and write at a level that does not harm their comprehension. Likewise, their comprehension needs to be at a high enough level that they can understand and benefit from the educational opportunities around them. The transition for young readers from emergent reading to competent reading is a very important one.
By this point, young readers have learned the basics of phonics. They know how to read pretty well. What they need to do is build fluency. Fluency comes down to four things:
- Expression
- Accuracy
- Rate
- Smoothness
The process of figuring out what it says on a page must be very easy. If decoding (sounding out words) is automatic, even for big words, and reading pace is quick enough so that young readers can understand the meaning easy, the focus can be on higher level comprehension of what is read. This is an important shift. There are several key comprehension strategies that students can learn at this level (Sporer, Brunstein, Kieschke, 2009; Keene and Zimmerman, 1997). They are listed in the transitional reading comprehension link below. These strategies help students understand new ideas through reading and use what they have learned in other areas.
In writing, the same principles apply. By this time, students should have the basics of writing down. They should be able to spell fairly conventionally, use correct punctuation and capitalization most of the time, and say what they are intending to say with little difficulty. Then the focus can shift to expressing themselves more clearly and with more style. There are six traits that good writers use (Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory). These are detailed in the transitional writing traits link below.
From early on, young readers can learn to incorporate these reading comprehension strategies and effective writing traits into their own reading and writing. Click on the links below for ways that teachers, parents, and caregivers can support young readers in this.
There are four skill areas that are important for transitional literacy development in the reading process.
Note: A child may be at one stage of development for one skill and another stage for another skill. It is natural for children to learn different things at different paces. Pay attention to what the child can do and what the child seems ready to learn. This gives the best indication of which level the child is on.
Reading Fluency
Reading Comprehension
Oral Language
Writing Traits
For all of the stages of emergent literacy, click on the links below.
Awareness and Exploration
Experimental Reading and Writing
Early Reading and Writing
Competent Reading and Writing
