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Reading Foundational Skills

Foundational literacy skills are the fundamental building blocks of reading and writing. They provide the groundwork for students to become proficient readers and writers.

  • ​​Print Concepts refer to the ability to recognize and understand how written language is organized and used.

  • Phonemic Awareness is the ability to recognize and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken language. Phonemic awareness helps students understand the sound structure of words, which is essential for decoding and spelling.

  • Phonics Skills are skills that allow students to understand the relationship between letters (graphemes) and their corresponding sounds. Phonics enables students to decode words accurately. 

  • Reading Fluency allows learners to reading smoothly, with expression, appropriate pace, and comprehension. Fluent readers understand text better, enjoy reading, and are motivated to read more. Fluency bridges the gap between word recognition and comprehension.

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Kindergarten

Kindergarten

Print Concept

Summary of Key skills:

  • Understanding that print represents spoken language.

  • Recognizing letters and words in books.

  • Knowing how books work (e.g., turning pages, front and back covers).

  • Grasping basic print conventions (left-to-right, top-to-bottom).

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Lack of letter recognition.

  • Inability to track print (following left-to-right and top-to-bottom).

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-a)

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide exposure to a variety of print materials.

  • Use anchor charts and mini-lessons to teach print concepts.

  • Incorporate centers and interactive worksheets.

Phonological Awareness

Summary of Key skills:

  • Identifying words that rhyme.

  • Counting syllables in a name.

  • Recognizing alliteration (words with the same beginning sound).

  • Breaking a sentence into words.

  • Identifying syllables in a word.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty recognizing rhyming words.

  • Inability to count syllables or identify alliteration.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Engage in rhyming games and activities.

  • Practice clapping out syllables in words.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-b)

Phonics and Word Recognition

Summary of Key skills:

  • Recognizing letters and their sounds.

  • Associating sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for vowels and consonants.

  • Reading common high-frequency words by sight.

  • Distinguishing between similarly spelled words.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty recognizing letter-sound correspondences.

  • Difficulties to remember the letter names and remembering their sound

  • Challenges with blending sounds to read words.

  • Difficulty remembering high frequency sight words learned.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide explicit phonics instruction.

  • Use multisensory activities (e.g., letter tiles, songs).

  • Encourage reading high-frequency words.

(Institute of Education Sciences, 2019)

Fluency

Summary of Key skills:

  • Reading with accuracy and expression.

  • Developing a natural pace while reading.

  • Focusing on comprehension rather than decoding.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Slow, laborious reading.

  • Inefficient decoding of unfamiliar words

  • Poor comprehension even at a literal level.

(Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2020).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Choice of books at an appropriate level (easier than their accurate level).

  • Daily reading.

  • Encouraging rereading of favorite books.

  • Choral reading.

  • Student-adult, partner or recording assisted reading

  • Pyramid reading.

(Texas Education Agency, 2002).

Grade 1

Print Concepts

Summary of Key skills:

  • Understanding organization and basic features of print.

  • Recognizing title pages, table of contents, and author /illustrator.

  • Knowing that print represents spoken language.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty recognizing and naming letters.

  • Lack of understanding of letter-sound correspondence.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-a)

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Assess concepts of print regularly during the year.

  • Use partner activities and interactive worksheets.

  • Model story reading techniques.

  • Use explicit instruction,

Phonological Awareness

Summary of Key skills:

  • Distinguishing long from short vowel sounds.

  • Blending individual sounds to make words.

  • Isolating and pronouncing initial, medial, and final sounds in single-syllable words.

  • Segmenting spoken words into individual sounds.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty blending sounds or segmenting words.

  • Challenges with isolating specific sounds.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Use blending and segmenting activities.

  • Practice identifying initial, medial, and final sounds.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-b)

Grade 1

Phonics and Word Recognition

Summary of Key skills:

  • Knowing consonant digraphs (e.g., “sh,” “th”).

  • Decoding one-syllable words.

  • Understanding final -e and common vowel team conventions.

  • Identifying syllables in words.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Labored decoding.

  • Difficulty with vowel patterns.

  • Confusion in letters that look similar (e.g. b/p/d/q) or sound similar (e.g. v/f)

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide explicit phonics instruction.

  • Use multisensory activities

  • Teach vowel patterns explicitly.

  • Practice decoding multisyllabic words.

(Institute of Education Sciences, 2019)

Fluency

Summary of Key skills:

  • Reading with accuracy and expression.

  • Increasing reading speed.

  • Using punctuation cues for phrasing.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Choppy, slow or hesitant reading.

  • Difficulty adjusting pace for different texts.

  • Frequent stumbling or word-by-word reading.

  • Frequent stops at unknown words,

  • Inefficient decoding of unfamiliar words

  • Poor comprehension even at a literal level.

(Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2020).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Practice reading aloud.

  • Model fluent reading.

  • Choice of books at an appropriate level (easier than their accurate level).

  • Daily reading.

  • Encouraging rereading of favorite books.

  • Student-adult, partner or recording assisted reading.

  • Choral reading.

  • Pyramid reading.

(Texas Education Agency, 2002).

Grade 2

Grade 2

Print Concepts

Summary of Key skills:

  • Using text features (captions, bold print, subheadings) to locate information.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty using text features effectively.

  • Inability to efficiently locate key facts.

  • Difficulty using punctuation.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-a)

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Teach students to navigate various text features.

  • Teach punctuation explicitly

  • Provide practice with all sorts of texts.

Phonological Awareness

Summary of Key skills:

  • Continuing to master basic skills (rhyming, syllables, alliteration).

  • Developing phonemic awareness (individual sound manipulation).

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty blending phonemes or substituting sounds.

  • Lack of interest in language play or word games.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Engage in word sound games (e.g., syllable shopping, word families).

  • Provide explicit instructions in blending and segmenting.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-c)

Phonics and Word Recognition

Summary of Key skills:

  • Distinguishing long and short vowels.

  • Recognizing additional common vowel teams.

  • Decoding two-syllable words with long vowels.

  • Identifying words with inconsistent spelling-sound correspondences.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Challenges with vowel patterns.

  • Difficulty decoding multisyllabic words.

  • Difficulty in applying spelling rules

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide explicit phonics instruction.

  • Use multisensory activities

  • Practice decoding multisyllabic words.

  • Provide ample practice with vowel teams.

  • Use word sorts and word families.

(Institute of Education Sciences, 2019)

Fluency

Summary of Key skills:

  • Reading smoothly and with expression.

  • Adjusting pace for different genres.

  • Recognizing punctuation cues.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Inconsistent expression, choppy, slow or hesitant reading.

  • Difficulty maintaining a steady pace.

  • Frequent stumbling or word-by-word reading.

  • Frequent stops at unknown words.

  • Inefficient decoding of unfamiliar words.

  • Poor comprehension even at a literal level.

(Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2020).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Practice reading aloud.

  • Model fluent reading.

  • Choice of books at an appropriate level (easier than their accurate level).

  • Daily reading.

  • Encouraging rereading of favorite books.

  • Student-adult, partner or recording assisted reading.

  • Choral reading.

  • Pyramid reading.

  • Use timed reading exercises.

(Texas Education Agency, 2002).

Grade 3

Grade 3

Print Concepts

Summary of Key skills:

  • Recalling information from experiences

  • Gathering information from print and digital sources.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty recalling information from texts.

  • Struggles with note-taking and evidence sorting.

  • Difficulty to use punctuation.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-a)

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Teach effective note-taking strategies.

  • Teach punctuation explicitly

  • Paired reading

Phonics and Word Recognition

Summary of Key skills:

  • Distinguishing long and short vowels.

  • Reading multisyllabic words.

  • Decoding words with common prefixes and suffixes.

  • Recognizing irregularly spelled words.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Difficulty with complex prefixes/suffixes.

  • Struggles with irregular spelling.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide explicit phonics instruction.

  • Use multisensory activities

  • Teach and practice prefixes/suffixes.

  • Encourage reading widely for exposure.

  • Practice decoding multisyllabic words.

(Institute of Education Sciences, 2019)

Phonological Awareness

Summary of Key skills:

  • Focusing on phoneme blending and segmentation.

  • Developing advanced phonemic awareness (manipulating phonemes).

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Challenges with blending or segmenting sounds.

  • Difficulty manipulating phonemes.

(Understood Team, n.d.-a).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Provide explicit instructions in blending and segmenting.

  • Encourage word play and sound exploration.

(Reading Rockets, n.d.-d)

Fluency

Summary of Key skills:

  • Reading with accuracy, expression, and appropriate pace.

  • Using prosody (intonation, rhythm) to convey meaning.

  • Applying phrasing and pausing appropriately.

(CCSSO, 2022)

Signs of Struggle to Master Key Skills:

  • Lack of prosody or expression.

  • Struggles with complex sentence structures.

  • Frequent stumbling or word-by-word reading.

  • Frequent stops at unknown words.

  • Inefficient decoding of unfamiliar words

  • Poor comprehension even at a literal level.

(Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2020).

Action Steps to Support Mastery of Key Skills:

  • Practice reading aloud and fluently.

  • Discuss prosody and expression.

  • Explore different genres and text types.

  • Choice of books at an appropriate level (easier than their accurate level).

  • Encouraging rereading of favorite books.

  • Student-adult, partner or recording assisted reading.

  • Choral reading.

  • Pyramid reading.

  • Use of timed reading exercises.

(Texas Education Agency, 2002).

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