Intro to ELA

Truly effective language arts instruction has to cover all the many dimensions of literacy.  There are almost too many to list.  There are two essential milestones for children to reach to become readers: phonological and phonemic awareness.  Having said that, it is similarly important to include whole language instruction, so that children are not only learning to decode and spell but are also learning in context and meaning.  Children need to work on fluency, have experience with serious vocabulary, and work on comprehension.  For english language instruction in elementary school to be most effective, children need to begin with emergent literacy, learning concepts about print before they even enter the school building.