What is the Fab 5? The Fab 5 refers to the 5 main components of literacy development and instruction. 1. Phonemic Awareness Phonemic Awareness is the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words. Before children become aware of how the sounds in words work. The must understand that words are made up of speech sounds, or phonemes. 2. Phonics Phonics instruction teaches children the relationships between the letters (graphemes) and the individual sounds (phonemes) of spoken language. It teaches children to use these relationships to read and write words. 3. Fluency Fluency is the ability to read a text accurately and quickly. When fluent readers read silently, the recognize words automatically. They groups words quickly to help them gain meaning from what they read. Fluent readers read aloud effortlessly and with expression. Their reading sounds natural, as if they are speaking. 4. Vocabulary Vocabulary refers to the words we must know to communicate effectively. In general, vocabulary can be described as oral vocabulary or reading vocabulary. Oral vocabulary refers to words that we use in speaking or recognizine in listening. Reading vocabulary refers to words we recognize or use in print. 5. Comprehension Comprehension is the reason for reading. If readers can read the words but do not understand what they are reading, they are not really reading. As they read, good readers are both purposeful and active.