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Practice Guide iconPractice Guide
Released: July 2016
(Revised December 2019)
Summary document (919 KB)
Full Guide (6.2 MB)
Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills, and is a companion to the practice guide, Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade.
1
Minimal Evidence

Teach students academic language skills, including the use of inferential and narrative language, and vocabulary knowledge.

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2
Strong Evidence

Develop awareness of the segments of sounds in speech and how they link to letters.

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3
Strong Evidence

Teach students to decode words, analyze word parts, and write and recognize words.

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4
Moderate Evidence

Ensure that each student reads connected text every day to support reading accuracy, fluency, and comprehension.

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Topics: Grades:
Audience:
  • Administrators
  • Parent/Family
  • School Specialist
  • Teacher

This practice guide was prepared for the WWC by Mathematica under contract ED-IES-13-C-0010.

The following research staff contributed to the guide: Nicholas Beyler, Kelley Borradaile, Joshua Furgeson, Juliette Henke, Betsy Keating, Samina Sattar, Andrei Streke, and Sarah Wissel.

  • Barbara Foorman (Chair)
    Florida State University and Florida Center for Reading Research
  • Michael Coyne
    University of Connecticut
  • Carolyn A. Denton
    Children’s Learning Institute, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston
  • Joseph Dimino
    Instructional Research Group
  • Lynda Hayes
    P.K. Yonge Developmental Research School, University of Florida
  • Laura Justice
    Ohio State University
  • Warnick Lewis
    Bond Elementary School, Leon County, Florida
  • Richard Wagner
    Florida State University and Florida Center for Reading Research
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ePub: Foundational Skills to Support Reading for Understanding in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade
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Download the EPUB (8.5 MB) or MOBI (4.5 MB) e-book format to view the practice guide on a smartphone, tablet, Nook, or Kindle.

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