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Reading Instruction Strategies: Tips for Getting Started

By: Emily Castelli 10/22/2024
Discover essential reading instruction strategies to effectively teach children and foster lifelong literacy skills.
Older students are enjoying their time in a relaxed space, reading independently.

In her renowned blog, Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science, Louisa Moats emphasized that reading is the most researched aspect of human cognition. With decades of research from various fields, we now have the potential to teach most students how to read effectively, especially when we start early. Whether you're a parent, teacher, or administrator, understanding and applying evidence-based reading practices can revolutionize reading instruction in your school, in the classroom, and at home. 

Here are five tips to help you get started!

Understand the Five Pillars of Reading from the National Reading Panel

In 2000, the National Reading Panel, established by the United States Congress, brought experts together to determine what research says about teaching children to read. The panel identified five key concepts at the core of every effective reading instruction program. Understanding these pillars empowers you to implement strategies that effectively address each area, making you more confident and capable in your role.

  1. Phonemic Awareness: Hear and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.
  2. Phonics: Identify the relationships between the letters of written and spoken language to understand the alphabetic principle.
  3. Fluency: Read text accurately and quickly. 
  4. Vocabulary: Understand the knowledge of words, including their morphology, use, meanings, and semantic relationships.
  5. Comprehension: Make meaning from text—the ultimate goal of reading.

By familiarizing yourself with these components, you'll be better equipped to help your students become proficient in all aspects of reading. 

Emphasize Blending and Segmenting Phonemes

Two of the most critical phonological awareness skills are blending and segmenting individual phonemes. Blending involves combining individual phonemes (i.e., sounds) to form a word. For example, blending the sounds /k/, /a/, and /t/ to read the word cat. This skill is essential for decoding: reading unfamiliar words by sounding them out. Segmenting is breaking down a word into its phonemes, such as the word dog into /d/, /o/, and /g/. This skill is essential to ensure students hear each sound in a word for correct spelling. Mastery of these skills enables emerging readers to recognize and write words more efficiently, enhancing reading fluency and comprehension. In addition, blending and segmenting support spelling, and writing helps children understand how sounds map to letters. These skills are fundamental for developing strong reading abilities and laying the groundwork for continued literacy growth.

Incorporate Systematic and Explicit Phonics Instruction

Instead of a haphazard or incidental introduction to phonics, systematic instruction ensures students learn sounds and letter patterns logically. Effective programs with systematic phonics instruction have a clearly defined scope and sequence with plenty of review and practice opportunities in decodable text. It lays a strong foundation for literacy development by teaching children the relationship between letters and sounds so they can recognize and read words more fluently, positively affecting their reading comprehension. Dr. Ray Reutzel emphasizes the need for scope and sequence within the year and from grade to grade. The National Reading Panel's findings indicate that systematic phonics instruction benefits all students, including those at risk for reading difficulties and English Learners. It is particularly effective for younger struggling readers.

Focus on Vocabulary Development

A rich vocabulary enhances reading comprehension and overall language skills. While phonics and decoding are essential, they're just one part of the reading process. Building a strong vocabulary helps children understand and engage with what they're reading. Most words children learn are discovered incidentally, so it is powerful to teach students morphemes—a word's smallest unit of meaning, like prefixes, suffixes, and Greek/Latin roots. Understanding morphemes also aids in grasping complex words and their variations, which supports overall reading comprehension. Incorporating word sums and matrixes into your vocabulary instruction is a great way to practice using morphemes. Because English is a morphophonemic language, students must have a strong foundation in phonics and morphology to make sense of unfamiliar words as they read independently!

Monitor and Use Data to Adapt Your Approach

The body of Science of Reading research emphasizes data-driven instruction. Regular assessment and student progress monitoring are crucial for understanding what works and what needs adjustment, especially in the early grades where reading intervention is most effective before students form significant skills gaps. By using formative assessments to gauge how well students grasp phonics, phonemic awareness, and other reading skills, you can proactively adjust your instruction to address any gaps or areas of difficulty. Consider both formal evaluations and informal observations to get a well-rounded view of each student's progress and take responsibility for their learning journey.

Create Lifelong Learners

Embarking on the literacy journey with your students can be incredibly rewarding. With evidence-based strategies to foster strong reading skills in students, you can significantly impact literacy development by understanding its core principles, focusing on foundational skills, and staying engaged with ongoing research. Remember, effective reading instruction is not just about teaching students to read but also empowering them to become lifelong learners and enthusiastic readers!

Want to hear more from Emily? Tune in to her episode of the Extraordinary Educators™ Podcast