Resources

One of the most important roles of a teacher is helping his or her students become independent readers — children who make choices about what they would like to read and are able to read on their own.

This paper, written by Pamela Spycher of Leading with Learning at WestEd, discusses the instruction and development of foundational reading skills in the early grades.

The paper:

• Emphasizes helping students learn to decode, or pronounce, words through small-group decodable reading lessons
• Discusses how to implement the California Common Core State Standards for Foundational Reading Skills and the English Language Development (ELD) Standards
• Provides an excerpt from the California English Language Arts/ELD Framework designed to explain the components and sequencing of foundational reading skills instruction
• Explores the importance of tailoring and differentiating foundational reading instruction in order to effectively support all learners, particularly English learner students, in developing these skills as quickly as possible
• Features an in-depth classroom vignette that shows how one kindergarten teacher designed teaching and learning tasks to keep his students on track to achieve reading independence