Foundational Reading Skills Online Modules
Program Description:
Foundational reading skills are crucial to students’ academic success. Reading success is linked to all aspects of children’s likelihood to thrive academically. Educators need a deep knowledge of research supporting oral language development, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension (the ‘Big 6’). They also need to ground classroom practices in culturally responsive pedagogies that affirm student identities and create communities of care. When educators understand these intersecting literacy needs, they can devise comprehensive, responsive instruction, and curricular adaptations, to move all students to reading proficiency.
To support educators’ understanding of the Science of Reading and foundational reading skills, Teachers College Advancing Literacy offers these modules, which will offer:
- Examination of elements of foundational literacy, especially informed by Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001) and Duke and Cartwright’s Active View of Reading (2021)
- Exploration of research in oral language development, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
- Research-informed, culturally responsive practices and pedagogies
These six modules address the ‘Big 6’ skills and competencies of effective reading and writing, as well as culturally sustaining and responsive pedagogy. Teachers who complete these modules will understand key and current reading research, the relationship between reading and writing, and implications for classroom instruction. These modules will consist of recorded self-paced modules as well as interactive elements with a cohort of participants and feedback from Advancing Literacy instructors.