Stage of reading development is a continuum that explains how students progress as readers. These stages are based on the students' experience and not their age or grade level. Knowing these stages is helpful when developing materials for specific types of readers. The stage of reading development, proposed by Chall(Dr. Jeanne Sternlicht Chall, 1983), provides a clear Early Emergent readers need enriching and enjoyable experiences with books, especially picture books. Students can become comfortable with books even before they can read independently recognizing letters and words and even language patterns. They are able to work with concepts of print and are at the beginning stages of developing the ability to focus attention on letter-sound relationships. Sharing books over and over, extending stories, relating experiences to both print and pictures, and guiding students to read, helps children begin to make predictions about what they are reading. Emergent readers are able to use several strategies to predict a word, often using pictures to confirm predictions. They can discuss the background of the story to better understand the actions in the story and the message the story carries. It is this time in the reader's development that the cueing systems are called upon significantly, so they must pay close attention to the visual cues and language patterns, and read for meaning. It is a time when reading habits of risk-taking, and of predicting and confirming words while Intermediate(Transitional) readers often like to read books in a series as a comprehension strategy; the shared characters, settings, and events support their reading development. They read at a good pace; reading rate is one sign of a child's over-all comprehension. At this stage, children generally have strategies to figure out most words but continue to need help with understanding increasingly more difficult text.

1. Early Emergent Stage The most notable change during this stage is the child's growing control over language. During this stage, students also develop some knowledge of print, such as recognizing a few letters, words, and environmental print signs. Many students are able to write their names. It is common to see these students "pretend read" a book that has been repeatedly read to them. At this stage, students "bring more to the printed page than they take out." 1-1. Print Concept ⚫ understand print carries a message ⚫ display directional movement left to right top to bottom return sweep ⚫ match voice to print with one-to-one word matching by finger pointing ⚫ read one word at a time-choppy ⚫ use oral language/story structure to make a connection to print ⚫ know names of letters ⚫ recognize difference between a letter and a word ⚫ begin to realize that words are made up of sound ⚫ begin to realize that some words have the same beginning and ending sounds ⚫ begin to use pattern and repetition of text to read 1-2. Building Comprehension ⚫ use picture clues ⚫ use configuration as clue to identify words ⚫ recall details 1-3. Reading Behavior ⚫ read by rote ⚫ read favorite books over and over ⚫ silent sustained reading takes 5-10 minutes ⚫ may invent text ⚫ pretend read a book ⚫ have the desire to be a fluent reader ⚫ enjoy retelling stories 1-4. Standard of Text at the Early Emergent Level 1) Early in the Early Emergent Stage: ⚫ consistent placement of print on each page ⚫ illustrations provide high support ⚫ natural language structure ⚫ familiar experience ⚫ some known high-frequency words ⚫ one/two lines of print ⚫ predictable, repetitive sentence pattern with one/two word changes 2) Later in the Early Emergent Stage: ⚫ some punctuation conventions ⚫ illustrations provide high support ⚫ part in various positions on page ⚫ varied sentence patterns ⚫ multiple lines of print ⚫ familiar objects and experiences ⚫ simple story line

2. Emergent Stage During this stage, students develop an understanding of alphabetic principle and begin to use their knowledge of sound-spelling relationships to decode words. At this stage ends, students have developed fluency; that is, they can recognize many words quickly and accurately by sight and are skilled at sounding out words they don't recognize by sight. They are also skilled at using context clues. 2-1. Print Concept ⚫ have good control early reading strategies (directionality, one-to-one word matching, location known words and unknown words) ⚫ search the print, check, and self-correct more frequently (both with and without teacher prompting) ⚫ check and confirm, sometimes using beginning, middle, and ending letters/sounds ⚫ being aware of medial vowel sounds ⚫ start to attend to some punctuation while reading ⚫ pause and use appropriate inflection for punctuation ⚫ read phrase ⚫ identify high frequency words ⚫ begin to build a core of high frequency words known automatically 2-2. Building Comprehension ⚫ use context clues ⚫ often cross-check one source of information (meaning, language structure, visual/grapho-phonic with another source) ⚫ sequence event in the story ⚫ tell main idea ⚫ identify characters ⚫ identify setting ⚫ begin to differentiate fact and fiction ⚫ begin to engage in discussions about what is read 2-3. Reading Behavior ⚫ select variety of books ⚫ silent sustained reading takes 10-15 minutes ⚫ begin to feel confident when reading silently or orally 2-4. Standard of Text at the Emergent Level 1) Early in the Emergent Stage: ⚫ varied placement of print on page ⚫ natural language structure ⚫ variety of simple sentences ⚫ multiple lines of print ⚫ more punctuation conventions ⚫ illustration provide moderate to high support 2) Later in the Emergent Level ⚫ variety of sentence patterns and lengths ⚫ variety of punctuation and fonts ⚫ use of direct speech ⚫ long story(beginning-middle-end) ⚫ illustrations provide moderate support