The reading progression sequence reflects the simple view of reading, as described above. Although reading has been broken into several progressions, this is of course an artificial separation of competencies that are interconnected and that function together in many different ways.
Decoding, the one component that is unique to reading, is first in the sequence.
Because Vocabulary is fundamental to reading comprehension it has been placed second in the reading progression sequence.
The Language and Text Features progression has been placed between Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension. The reason for this is that vocabulary knowledge relates to single words and knowing what the words mean. Reading Comprehension relates to understanding at the sentence, paragraph and whole text level. Understanding Language and Text Features (for example, syntactic functions of words, rules of grammar) is necessary for sentence, paragraph and whole text comprehension. Therefore, the language and text features progression has been placed between the Vocabulary and Reading Comprehension progressions.
The ability to Read Critically is dependent upon decoding skill, vocabulary, an understanding of language and text features and the reader’s comprehension. If the reader is unable to decode, or does not know what most of the words mean, or is unable to comprehend, they will not be able to read critically. For this reason, the Reading Critically progression is the last in the reading progression sequence.