Teaching Foundational Reading Skills

Teaching Foundational Reading
Skills
Renee Behring
March 25, 2022

5 Min Read
Teaching foundational reading skills continues to be one of the most significant goals of early
grade teachers and reading intervention teachers. Reading proficiently is essential for all
students, as reading well allows students to access content across the subject areas and learn
about subject matters outside of their environment.
The modalities through which we read today extend beyond the printed page, as do the
instructional approaches used in today’s English Language Arts (ELA) classrooms. The future of
foundational reading and writing skill instruction is greatly expanded in a digital-first
environment—an environment where teachers are central to student learning, and instruction is
strongly rooted in the science of reading.
What Are Key Foundational Reading Skills?

By the time children experience reading instruction, they have spent countless hours listening
and speaking, which they will use as they learn key foundational reading skills. Achieve the Core
defines foundational reading skills as:
 Print concepts: includes letter recognition, features and organization of print, and one-
to-one correspondence of words
 Phonological awareness: is entirely oral, focuses on the sounds of the spoken language,
and includes phonemic awareness
 Phonics and word recognition: refers to learning sound and spelling patterns needed to
recognize, decode (read), and encode (spell) words
 Fluency: in reading is the ability to read accurately, at an appropriate rate, and with
expression
What Are Other Foundational Literacy Skills?

In addition to the four key foundational reading skills listed above, students need numerous other
foundational literacy skills to become proficient. For example, a strong ELA program will
include instruction that supports language comprehension, background knowledge, vocabulary,
reading comprehension, writing, and speaking.
The sophistication of these skills will evolve as the students progress through school. For
example, before students can effectively write a response to reading prompts, they need to have
experience with print concepts, like letter recognition, handwriting, such as letter formation, and
encoding (spelling). Students will also need to practice many other skills, such as listening to
stories read aloud and telling stories.
Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding
Teachers and families can support students as they travel through the many stages of literacy
development. After an extensive review of rigorous research, the Institute of Education Sciences
(IES) and the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) produced the IES Practice
Guide: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd
Grade. While the skills are similar to the key foundational reading skills above, there is some
variation in their focus. Given the strong research base of this IES Practice Guide, we would be
remiss not to highlight their instructional recommendations:
 Recommendation 1: Teach students academic language skills, including the use of

inferential and narrative language and vocabulary knowledge.
 Recommendation 2: Develop awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how
they link to letters.
 Recommendation 3: Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and
recognize words.
 Recommendation 4: Ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support
reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.
Families are essential to supporting students’ knowledge acquisition, including ELA skills.
Drawing upon the four recommendations of the IES Practice Guide, WWC created a companion
document, “Tips for Supporting Reading at Home,” which offers guidance to families (and
applies to classrooms as well), including:
 Have conversations before, during, and after reading together.

 Help children learn how to break sentences into words and words into syllables.
 Help children sound out words smoothly.
 Model reading fluently by practicing reading aloud with your child.
Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills

Teaching foundational literacy skills requires systematic, explicit, and diagnostic instruction.
Concepts need to be taught with an evidence-based scope and sequence covering topics from the
most basic to more complex, which are introduced through teacher modeling, adequate practice,
and personalized feedback. Students’ understanding and skills are assessed continuously so that
whole-group classwork can focus on curricular elements benefiting all students. Small-group
work can provide targeted, differentiated reading instruction that accommodates the needs of
students reading at various levels.
Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills with

Digital Tools
The use of digital tools to support early literacy instruction has skyrocketed over the past couple
of decades, particularly with the pandemic accelerating the usage of technology for all students.
During whole-group instruction, many teachers can display literacy lessons on digital Smart
Boards or access relevant multimedia that develop students’ vocabulary and content knowledge
on a given text. Students can be broken up into literacy centers or small groups, where some
students practice a given phonics or comprehension skill with personalized instruction at
computer stations while others may be reading independently using audiobooks or eBooks at
their reading level.
Digital library applications allow students to answer comprehension questions after reading a
book and motivate them with incentives after successful completion of the
books. Asynchronous online assignments can also be completed at home to further reinforce
topics covered in school and improve students’ fluency through repeated reading. Adaptive
online assessments and AI-driven software can serve as teachers’ assistants to free up their
time so teachers can focus more closely on the instructional needs of all students. The future of
teaching foundational literacy skills will be a masterful combination of in-person instruction with
technology seamlessly interwoven to reinforce, personalize, and enhance the learning
experience.
The foundational skills discussed above form the bedrock or the foundation to lifelong literacy.
No matter where the learning takes place (in person or online), effective foundational literacy
instruction requires evidence-based instructional strategies that have demonstrated positive
outcomes. More than ever, it is paramount to accelerate learning and fill instructional gaps that
resulted from interrupted schooling due to the pandemic years so all children can reach their
goals and full potential without anything holding them back.

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Teaching Foundational Reading

March 25, 2022

What Are Key Foundational Reading Skills?

What Are Other Foundational Literacy Skills?

Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding

 Recommendation 1: Teach students academic language skills, including the use of

 Have conversations before, during, and after reading together.

Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills

Teaching Foundational Literacy Skills with

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