This guide outlines the essential instructional components to teach early reading skills. It helps teachers build their own knowledge of the components of foundational skills: print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and fluency. It also provides helpful rules of thumb, suggested activities, and grade-specific best practices to support the explicit teaching of foundational skills.

Included are:

• Content: The Components of Foundational Skills
• Instructional Moves: The “How” of Foundational Skills
• Grade-Level-Specific Guidance for Kindergarten
• Grade-Level-Specific Guidance for 1st Grade
• Grade-Level-Specific Guidance for 2nd Grade
• Pitfalls or Challenges FAQs
• Foundational Skills Weekly Planning Template
• Effective Enhancements
• Decodable Readers Protocol
• Foundational Skills Assessment Protocol
• Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: Simplified Scope and Sequence
• Formative Assessments for Phonological Awareness
• Phonological Awareness Diagnostic Tracker