About the course
Beginning Reading Instruction focuses on how children learn to read and the best ways to teach reading from kindergarten to the end of the primary grades. Because the course contains considerable information on how students develop basic decoding skills, it is also useful for teachers and support staff working with older students who are having difficulty with decoding and fluency. The course presents a synthesis of the research consensus for beginning reading instruction, and it provides the most effective instructional strategies—aligned to that research—to help students develop print awareness, phonemic awareness, knowledge of the alphabetical system, phonics/decoding skills, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension.
Course Objectives:
• Develop a deeper understanding of the many components of the reading process.
• Examine the requirements of literacy content standards: regular practice with complex texts; using evidence from text when reading, writing and speaking; attending to academic vocabulary; and building knowledge through content-rich nonfiction.
• Make connections between the research presented and effective instructional strategies in reading.
• Learn and practice research-based instructional strategies for each of the components of beginning reading.
• Reflect on existing reading curricula and practices, to better understand when to revise or supplement.