Infographic

Looking at Evidence‑Based Literacy Instruction

Reading instruction centered on evidence-based practices ensures all students have opportunities to become successful, lifelong readers.

Review four components of literacy instruction and tips for teaching them in this infographic.

A Closer Look at Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction

A teacher helps a student determine which word rhymes with ball: tree, dog, or call.

Develops the ability to distinguish sounds in words
Leads to stronger decoding and encoding skills
Additional instruction benefits struggling readers, who often have deficits in these areas
Provides the foundation for successful reading development

A student uses a tablet to learn beginning sounds of the words pig, net, glass, car, sun, and key.

Connects knowledge of the sounds in words to the correlating letters and spelling patterns
Multiple spelling patterns, or graphemes, can represent each sound
Explicit, systematic instruction enables students to orthographically map phoneme-grapheme correspondences and apply learned skills
Many high-frequency words, such as see, in, how, and that, are decodable and should be taught that way
Words that follow irregular spelling patterns, such as was, there, you, and of, can be taught as sight words

A student completes a digital word map to learn the vocabulary word evaporation (defining it, drawing it, using it in a sentence).

Learning to decode words supports vocabulary acquisition
Knowing how word elements make up words helps students determine meanings
Intentional, direct instruction is essential for building a student’s word bank
Use context to provide definitions, actively engage students in deciphering word parts and meanings, and provide multiple exposures to content about the word
Making connections and deeply understanding meanings of word parts are more helpful than memorization

A student uses a graphic organizer to support the writing process (beginning, middle, end).

Writing is the application of all learned skills
Direct instruction ensures students understand how to organize, develop, and compose thoughts/ideas
Teacher modeling and graphic organizers are powerful tools
Actively monitor and provide feedback to students on their writing
Scaffold writing instruction based on students’ needs so they receive differentiated instruction and assignments on their instructional level