Reading Skills and Components

Start with the areas of reading

The mind maps titled Five Areas of Reading offer an overview of vocabulary, phonemic awareness, comprehension, phonics and fluency. They are a useful starting point for university students and professional candidates studying reading instruction. The maps introduce details such as accuracy, rate, expression and punctuation in fluency. Another map on the same areas includes the connection between sounds and letter symbols, alongside approaches to phonics.

Begin by looking at the areas together, then focus on a term you want to understand more closely. The Phonemic Awareness mind map describes phonemes as small units of spoken language and considers the ability to focus on and manipulate them.

Compare skills and strategies

The mind map Difference between Reading Skills and Strategies separates reading skills from strategies and describes strategies in terms of intentional control and deliberate direction. Use it after the overview maps to consider how the terms are used in reading instruction.

Other reading mind maps cover text types, text structure and classroom activities. One lists articles, stories, postcards, leaflets and graded readers, as well as introductory, main and post-task activities. Another looks at reading skills, reading strategies, comprehension and stages of classroom teaching.

Use the quiz and flashcards

The quiz on reading research asks about areas identified as components of effective reading instruction. After studying the overview maps, use the quiz to check your understanding, then return to a map to look again at any area you want to study further.

A flashcard deck on teaching reading includes narrative reading, document literacy, active reading and close reading. It also covers good readers and the benefits of annotating. The cards offer another way to work through terms alongside the mind maps.

Explore the unit

Reading Skills and Components is a section of the Teaching Reading unit in Education and pedagogy. Its maps, cards and quiz give students and teachers different ways to explore the reading material listed here. Choose a resource and follow the topics that are most useful to your study or teaching.