beginning reading writing teks talk image

Knowledge and Skills Statement

Developing and sustaining foundational language skills: listening, speaking, reading, writing, and thinking--beginning reading and writing. The student develops word structure knowledge through phonological awareness, print concepts, phonics, and morphology to communicate, decode, and spell.

Use a checklist during small-group or one-on-one instruction to keep track of the high-frequency words the student can identify and read.

  • Identifying high-frequency words—The teacher says a word and the student points to the word.
  • Reading high-frequency words—The teacher shows a word and the student reads the word.
High-frequency words are a group of 300–500 words that account for a large percentage of words in print that are often referred to as “sight words” because automatic recognition of these words is essential for fluent reading. Typically, a kindergartener will learn a minimum of 100 words per year (e.g., Dolch & Fry word lists).
Phonetic knowledge is the understanding of sound-symbol relationships and spelling patterns.

Research

What Works Clearinghouse. (n.d.). Foundational skills to support reading for understanding in kindergarten through 3rd grade: practice guide summary. Washington, DC: Institute of Education Science. Retrieved from https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide/21

Summary: 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.