Literacy instruction is a multifaceted endeavour that involves a diverse range of roles, each contributing to the success of early learning and primary education. 

From Pre-K to Grade 3, educators, specialists, and support staff collaborate to build strong foundations in early reading and writing.

Sprig has previously written on the need to create the right team of literacy professionals in schools, whose contributions are invaluable to the ultimate reading success of every child in the classroom. 

This article in particular, focuses on the literacy aspect of early learning, and how all the different roles work together to increase the likelihood of children reading proficiently by Grade 3, regardless of their circumstances.

Some previously mentioned roles are recapped below, with a few new roles that are particularly relevant to early reading. Concise explanations of their job descriptions are provided, emphasizing their direct relevance to early literacy instruction. 

By understanding the collective responsibilities of these roles, it’s possible to foster a comprehensive and coordinated approach to early literacy development.

The Various Positions That are Responsible for Teaching Literacy

Classroom Teachers

Classroom teachers play a central role in early literacy instruction. They design and implement comprehensive literacy lessons, incorporating skill sets such as phonics, vocabulary development, reading fluency, etc. 

Teachers provide explicit instruction and tailor classroom lessons to meet the diverse needs of their students. They are expected to teach and guide early learners from emergent or even pre-emergent literacy to reading mastery, where they learn how to read and develop a passion for reading. 

Kindergarten to Grade 3 teachers, and their teaching assistants have critical responsibilities, which when accomplished, leads to desirable student outcomes.

Literacy Coaches

Literacy coaches provide ongoing support and professional development to teachers, assisting them in implementing effective early literacy practices. 

They work with educators to analyze student data, identify instructional needs, and implement evidence-based strategies. Through modeling, mentoring and collaborative planning, literacy coaches enhance teacher’s instructional approaches.

In schools, literacy coaches can be program organizers, school leaders and also support providers.

Reading Specialists

Reading specialists are experts in diagnosing and addressing reading difficulties. They provide targeted interventions and individualized instruction to children who struggle with early literacy skills. 

These specialists assess students’ reading abilities, develop intervention plans, and work closely with teachers and families to support student progress. 

Reading specialists follow key principles by which they are able to deliver on the student’s reading potential.

Speech Language Pathologists

Speech-language Pathologists (SLPs) assess and address oral language difficulties, phonological awareness, and speech sound disorders that can impact early reading. 

School Librarians

School librarians curate a diverse collection of books, providing access to a range of genres, topics and reading levels. 

Librarians collaborate with teachers to integrate early literacy skills into various subjects. By creating a welcoming and engaging library environment, they inspire early learners to read. 

Educational Technologists

Educational technologists contribute to literacy instruction by leveraging digital tools and resources. It can include positions such as Director of Technology and Chief Technology Officer.

They assist in integrating technology into literacy lessons, supporting interactive and engaging learning experiences. 

Education technologists collaborate with teachers to identify and implement appropriate educational apps, digital reading programs, and online resources that enhance students’ reading and writing skills.

They also build robust cybersecurity systems for schools that protect the privacy and security of student information.

Early Childhood Educators

Early childhood educators, including preschool teachers and childcare providers, lay the foundation for early literacy development in Pre-K settings. They create language-rich environments, implement play-based literacy activities, and foster early language and communication skills. 

Early childhood educators focus on oral language development, phonological awareness, and pre-literacy skills, ensuring a strong start to the reading journey.

Instructional Coordinators

Instructional coordinators develop and implement curricula and maintain educational teaching standards. They collaborate with teachers to develop and align curriculum, identify effective instructional strategies, and implement evidence-based practices. 

Instructional coordinators provide professional development opportunities for reading instruction, offer feedback and support to teachers, and ensure the coherence and effectiveness of early literacy programs.

Examples of Collaboration in Literacy Instruction

To create successful Pre-K to 3 readers, effective collaboration among the various roles in literacy instruction is crucial. 

The first section of this article introduced each role and highlighted a few collaborative aspects in the descriptions. In this section, we ask…

What Are Some Examples of These Importation Roles Working Together? 

Classroom Teacher/ Literacy Coach/Reading Specialist

Classroom teachers can share student data and instructional needs with literacy coaches and reading specialists, who can then use the information to provide targeted interventions and support for individual students 

Through regular data meetings, they can exchange such information to identify specific areas of improvement. 

Classroom Teacher/ School Librarian

School Librarians can provide classroom teachers with book recommendations and other resources that align with the standards and curriculum, promoting a cross-disciplinary approach to literacy. 

They can also co-organize engaging literacy events such as author visits and book fairs.

Classroom Teacher/ Educational Technologist

Classroom teachers and educational technologists can collaborate to integrate digital tools into literacy lessons. For example, they can jointly explore interactive reading resources that help assess, monitor, and track early reading skills. 

Classroom Teacher/ Early Childhood Educators/Speech-Language Pathologists

Classroom teachers, early childhood educators, and speech-language pathologists can collaborate to support oral language and early literacy development. 

They can engage in joint planning to align classroom activities with oral language goals and phonological awareness instruction. 

Instructional Coordinators/ All roles

Instructional coordinators can facilitate professional development opportunities that bring everyone together. The professional development sessions can share best practices, but also align instructional strategies with the collective goal to ensure a cohesive early literacy program. 

Working Together for The Betterment of Early Literacy

Sprig hopes this article will inspire and motivate school-wide planning to better organize early literacy programs from pre-kindergarten and through the primary grades. 

Every school year is so crucial in the early years, and thus commensurate actions are also required in this stage of early learning, of which collaborative planning is hugely important!

The collaborative efforts mentioned in this article promote a comprehensive approach to early literacy instruction, leveraging the strengths and expertise of each role to support the development of strong readers in the early years.

Everyone has to play their part, but the classroom teacher is often at the center of any kind of collaboration, since they are the ones who spend the most time with the students and provide the direct instruction , assessment and monitoring of early literacy throughout the year.

As such, it definitely helps to have the ability to share information across the early literacy team, whereby everyone can access relevant notes about student progress and regularly monitor and intervene as needed.  

Such visibility of information allows for better collaboration, where both class-level and individual-level decisions can be taken that optimizes student success.. With such resources in place, the entire early literacy team can work together efficiently, ensuring all students are  on the path to reading mastery. 

The journey from emergent literacy to reading mastery is a crucial phase in a child’s development. Emergent literacy is the beginning. Reading mastery is the desired result.

Educators play a vital role in guiding students through this transformative process. 

By understanding the milestones and implementing effective strategies, more students can become confident and proficient readers. 

In this blog, we will delve into the path of emergent literacy to reading mastery, exploring key stages and evidence-based approaches that will take an early learner beginning to show signs of literacy to a proficient reader.

Stages of Literacy Development

There are many versions of literacy development stages, varying in complexity and the number of stages.

Every child is unique. Some learn certain skills quicker than others. Some require more rigorous practice at  certain skills than others. 

 To account for a diverse classroom,  it is helpful to have a roadmap of learning progressions across 

To keep it very simple, we can envision the reading progress of every child to evolve from an emergent reader, to an early reader, to a proficient reader. 

There can be many more progressions described in between these three stages, but in general, the expectation should be for every child to progress through these stages where they are able to demonstrate certain reading skills.

The mentioned stages and their corresponding age levels are as follows:

Emergent Reading

The emergent reader is completely new to reading. They are learning their alphabet and understanding the relationships between letters and sounds. They are also being exposed to concepts of print.

Early Reading

The early reader is able to read simple sentences and has a good understanding of phonological awareness. They would have mastered the alphabet by now. They are familiarizing themselves with a growing bank of high frequency words. 

Proficient Reading

The proficient reader is able to read fluently using all reading skills learned prior with minimal effort. They are also able to comprehend everything they are reading with their growing vocabulary, knowledge of print concepts and oral language skills.

Emergent Literacy: The Foundation of Reading

Emergent literacy lays the groundwork for future reading success. It encompasses developing alphabet knowledge, phonics, phonological skills, print awareness and vocabulary.

Let’s take a closer look at each to see what can be done in the classroom to provide the type of strong foundation every child needs for reading success.

Alphabet Knowledge, Phonics & Phonological Skills

Alphabet knowledge, phonics and phonological skills are essential to emergent readers, as they are the key building blocks for reading success.

It is important to incorporate phonological awareness instruction by introducing letter-sound correspondence and teaching basic phonetic patterns. 

Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. It is a crucial component of emergent literacy and must be taught well in order for the student to develop strong decoding skills.

Teachers can utilize interactive activities such as sound segmentation exercises, and word blending exercises to strengthen phonemic awareness skills. 

Effective phonics and phonological skills instruction enhances students’ decoding abilities and paves the way for reading fluency.

Print Awareness

Print awareness, that is, understanding how print works, is crucial for emergent readers. 

It involves recognizing letters, words, and sentences, and can be fostered through activities like shared reading and exposure to print in the classroom environment.

Indeed, building a literacy rich environment is featured as one of the four golden rules of early literacy development. 

Read-alouds, where the teacher reads to the class, is a fun classroom activity that can be both engaging and enriching to the early learning experience for the child. 

Students familiarizing themselves with text through group, shared or individual reading sessions, are great opportunities to practice some of the taught reading skills.

Vocabulary Development

Building a strong vocabulary is vital for reading comprehension. Students with an extensive vocabulary have greater comprehension abilities. It’s important for teachers to incorporate vocabulary-building exercises and word games into lessons. 

Teachers can enhance vocabulary development by providing exposure to diverse texts and explicitly teaching new words. It’s important to offer a comprehensive approach in vocabulary that includes high frequency word instruction and advanced word study.

Building Fluency and Comprehension

Fluency, the ability to read with accuracy, speed, and proper expression, is a crucial aspect of reading mastery. But it is also needed for the emergent reader.

Teachers can support fluency development by incorporating repeated reading, modeled reading, and opportunities for oral reading practice 

Additionally, developing comprehension skills through explicit instruction in strategies like predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing enhances students’ ability to understand and analyze texts.

Early Reading: Building on The Foundation

Once a solid reading foundation has been acquired, it’s important to continue building on that foundation so children can read at-grade level with every promotion. 

Vocabulary Development and comprehension especially, has a big impact at this stage. So while these skills are n covered in the emergent reading stage, vocabulary development and comprehension will further grow in the early reading stage, where the early learner is able to combine their decoding skills and reading fluency with a larger vocabulary and language skills to result in greater reading comprehension. 

It’s interesting to note how every single foundational reading skill is used by themselves and with each other to result in becoming a stronger reader. 

Thus, it’s very important to assess all skills individually to identify  the best way to support each child in their reading. In fact, pinpointing problem areas in the early literacy journey is featured as one of the five hidden gems for teaching reading in schools.

Individualized Instruction and Assessment.

Each student progresses at their own pace. Thus, educators have to individualize instruction and tailor activities to meet their unique needs. 

Student progress should be assessed regularly using formative and summative assessments to identify areas of growth and areas that require additional support. 

This personalized approach ensures that students receive the guidance and attention necessary for their development as confident readers.

Reading Mastery: Capitalizing on The Foundation

An early reader, when taught well in line with evidence-based instruction, will graduate to a proficient reader, barring any medical or unforeseen circumstances.  

They now understand basic decoding concepts, have developed a substantial base vocabulary, and familiarized themselves with print and language concepts to come to a point where they can read and understand text at their grade level!

The journey from emergent literacy to reading mastery is a transformative process that requires intentional and evidence-based instruction. 

By focusing on emergent literacy and building a strong foundation which you can build on, teachers can nurture their students’ reading abilities and guide them towards reading mastery. 

Remember, the journey from emergent literacy to reading mastery requires patience, dedication, and a commitment to not only explicit reading instruction, but fostering a love for reading in every student. 

If you are curious about the connection between phonics and phonological awareness, or fluency and comprehension, there is an amazing event at the end of August that will precisely answer such questions. 

Learn how these foundational skills intertwine, enabling you to create a cohesive and engaging learning journey for each student. Uncover strategies for designing joyful learning experiences that seamlessly guide students through these skills. 

The event will also showcase sessions on creating dynamic practice centers, facilitating skill mastery, and invisibly integrating these approaches into the classroom. Register now to secure your spot.

Reading is an essential skill for success for all learners. 

Not all students develop reading skills at the same pace, however. Therefore, teachers need to be equipped with the right tools and resources that support all students to receive the right instruction, at the right time, and at the right level.  

The science of teaching reading involves effective reading assessments, explicit reading instruction, and targeted reading interventions. In this blog post, we will explore each of these elements and how they can enhance student reading skills.

Effective Reading Assessment

A critical step to understanding your students’ learning needs, strengths and interests is to enable an ongoing assessment of their reading skills. 

There are hundreds of foundational skills students need to master to become a strong reader.  Without an effective assessment of these skills for every student, teachers lack the information and understanding required to support their students to improve their reading skills. 

There are several types of reading assessments, including screeners, diagnostics, progress trackers and outcome evaluators. All are important for student success. It’s necessary that a teacher is equipped with the right tool (or tools) for these types of assessments. 

For example, a teacher may require an assessment tool for screening particular reading skills or challenges that the student is suspected of, for example, dyslexia. 

Subsequently, they may need a tool that diagnoses reading ability at various checkpoints throughout the school year. 

Teachers can also benefit from assessment tools that monitor student progress in a number of reading skills throughout the course of the school year to track improvements and identify skills that require additional support and nurturing. 

Lastly, a school system may wish to assess  reading skills using standardized tests or other measures to support professional development and curriculum development.  

There are some specialized assessment tools, which cover one of these purposes (i.e. screeners), but there are also many tools that support multiple purposes and classroom practices.

Ultimately, schools and educators should choose assessments that best fit their students’ needs. By using effective reading assessment, teachers can identify a student’s strengths and needs in reading, which is essential for designing effective reading instruction.

It’s important to note that assessments should be used as a tool for identifying areas where students need additional support and not as a means to label or diagnose.

Every student is unique. When teachers are able to get a comprehensive and holistic understanding of their learning strengths, needs, interests, background and opportunities as early as possible, they are able to provide students with an early learning experience that is most conducive to reading achievement. 

Age-appropriate Assessment

When it comes to assessing early literacy skills in Pre-K to 3 students, it’s important to use age-appropriate assessment tools. According to the National Early Literacy Panel, the best predictors of later reading success are: measures of phonological awareness, alphabet knowledge, and rapid automatized naming (RAN).

Assessment tools used in early childhood classrooms to assess foundational skills, like the ones mentioned above, are extremely beneficial for teachers.

How often do you measure foundational reading skills?

It’s also important to note that assessment tools which are administered two to three times a cannot truly be classified as a formative assessment tool, which should look to measure weekly progress of the foundational skills, if not daily!

Explicit Reading Instruction

As teacher’s gain insights from daily and weekly assessments of  reading skills, they must translate that information into the delivery of explicit reading instruction. 

This means providing instruction that is clear, direct, and focused. 

Explicit reading instruction should be systematic and scaffolded to ensure that students can learn and apply new skills and strategies.

One effective approach to explicit reading instruction is the gradual release of the responsibility model. This model involves the teacher modeling a skill or strategy, followed by guided practice, and then independent practice. This approach allows students to learn new skills and strategies while receiving the necessary support and feedback from the teacher. 

This process is critical as it sets the stage for assessment, instruction, and assessment again to gauge progress. By assessing students’ learning after instruction, teachers can make informed decisions about how to adjust instruction to best support each student’s reading development.

Choosing The Right Learning Content and Resources

Explicit reading instruction in Pre-K to 3 classrooms should focus on developing the foundational literacy skills such as phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

It’s important to use engaging and developmentally appropriate materials to keep students motivated and interested in reading. 

Overall, when it comes to teaching early literacy skills in Pre-K to 3 classrooms, it’s important to use a comprehensive approach that incorporates both explicit instruction and playful learning experiences. 

It is very helpful when it is mentioned how certain concepts can be instructed explicitly in the classroom by using certain learning strategies, many of which are quite playful!

Appropriate Reading Intervention

Even with proper reading assessment and explicit reading instruction, some students may still struggle with reading. In these cases, it is essential to provide the right reading intervention. 

Reading intervention should be evidence-based, meaning that it is based on research that has proven to be effective.

One evidence-based reading intervention is the Orton-Gillingham approach, which is a multisensory approach to reading instruction. This approach involves using multiple senses to teach phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Whatever the intervention approach is, it should be timely, and assessment should be formative. Early literacy gaps must be closed quickly. There should t be a plan for how quickly the students will be reassessed!

In-class Intervention or Program?

In Pre-K to 3 classrooms, reading intervention should be evidence-based and focus on the specific areas where students need support. It’s important to note that early intervention is key to preventing reading difficulties from becoming more severe and persistent later on.

It is often best to have these interventions as a part of the teaching process in tier 1 and tier 2 instruction.

Such intervention approaches built into classroom instruction (both core instruction and small-group differentiated instruction) will always be more efficient and cost effective than intensive programs which work with too few students, and usually at a time when it is too late for help.

Putting It All Into Action

The science of teaching reading may seem complex and multifaceted on the surface. But by breaking it down into its essential components, an action plan can be developed by any educator to make an immediate impact on their students’ learning! 

By using proper reading assessment, explicit reading instruction, and appropriate reading intervention, teachers can enhance their students’ reading skills and set them up for success in school and beyond.

Indeed the role of reading assessment, teaching strategy and appropriate interventions may be more nuanced depending on the exact foundational skill set or sub skill that the explicit instruction is delivered on.

For that, there are experts who have invested decades in researching the most effective ways to improve reading skills for all types of learners. 

 Luckily, there’s a fantastic opportunity to dive deeper into this topic and learn from some of the top experts in the field. 

The upcoming virtual Summit, “The Science of Teaching Reading: Promising 90% Early Literacy Success (JK to 3) ” will offer short keynotes and workshops that address key classroom-based questions. 

You’ll hear from the likes of  Dr. Anne Cunningham, Dr. Tim Rasinski, Dr. Maria Walther and who will cover topics like phonics and phonological awareness, fluency and comprehension, and playful practice centers. 

Learn from some of the best in the field and improve your students’ reading abilities. Register now for the August 30, 2023, Zoom Summit, and enhance your understanding of the science of teaching reading. 

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