Build your understanding of reading foundational skills through this seven-part professional learning mini-course. Delve into the components of foundational skills: (print concepts, phonological awareness, phonics and word recognition, and fluency) and identify concrete moves to support student learning and practice.

Certificates verifying professional learning credit hours are available for those who access the “on-demand” version of each module.

Module 1: Foundational Nuts and Bolts

• Identify the components of foundational skills.
• Distinguish key areas of focus by grade level.
• Understand the structure and content of the Foundational Skills Mini-Course.

Module 2: Phonological Awareness:

• Define and explain phonological and phonemic awareness.
• Identify and explain the purpose of tasks and games meant to build phonemic awareness.
• Identify the relationship between phonemic awareness and reading proficiency.

Module 3: Phonics Part 1

• Identify how phonemic awareness connects to phonics instruction.
• Distinguish how and why phonics patterns must be addressed sequentially.

Module 4: Phonics Part 2

• Identify concrete instructional moves to support phonics instruction in the classroom.
• Connect phonics instruction to students’ writing and spelling.

Module 5: Early Reading

• Identify how decodable readers support phonics skills acquisition.
• Identify instructional recommendations for use, including the protocol for use of decodable readers.

Module 6: Practice, Practice, Practice

• Explain why and how practice is essential to student skill development.
• Distinguish between strong and weak practice opportunities for students.
• Identify ways to support fluency instruction from K-2 and beyond.

Module 7: Assessment

• Explain why assessment is critical to then teaching of foundational skills.
• Identify ways to assess daily and weekly that are swift and easy to implement in the classroom.

Build your understanding of how to support students with unfinished learning in math. Gain insight about key actions you can take to accelerate unfinished learning at the year-long, unit, and lesson levels. Identify concrete actions and leverage existing resources to increase access to grade-level content while strengthening critical prerequisite skills and conceptual understanding.

Module 1: Making Space to Address Unfinished Learning in Math

• Connect the instructional shift of focus to planning and pacing across the entire school year.
• Understand a key belief that’s necessary to “make space” to address unfinished learning.
• Identify who is responsible for adjusting the scope and sequence at your school or district.
• Consider how you will communicate information and invest key stakeholders. 

Module 2: How To Balance Grade-Level Content & Prerequisite Skills

• Understand why it’s necessary to start the school year teaching grade-level content.
• Distinguish prerequisites that prevent access to grade-level content from those that do not.
• Empower teachers to make decisions about planning and pacing at the unit level.
• Consider how you will communicate information and invest key stakeholders. 

Module 3: Shifting the Cognitive Lift to Students (even if they have unfinished learning)

• Understand the role math identity plays in supporting students’ with unfinished learning.
• Introduce differentiation strategies that can be used to meet students where they are while engaging in grade-level content.
• Consider how you will provide professional development and coaching to help teachers adopt equitable teaching practices. 

Join the Council of the Great City Schools and Student Achievement Partners for a 3-part Webinar Series on the Early Reading Accelerators.

About the Webinar Series: There is a need for support, guidance, and sharing of best practices in order to meet the needs of all readers when it comes to early reading instruction, and these needs have been exacerbated by school closures and distance or hybrid learning over the past six months. In this 3-part series, hosted by the Council of the Great City Schools and Students Achievement Partners, experts and urban school district practitioners will present and discuss (1) the latest findings about teaching foundational skills and making use of complex text as part of a comprehensive literacy approach and (2) the pedagogy related to teaching foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, to monolingual students and English Learners (ELs).

Part 1: Key Content Considerations for Monolingual Students and English Learners

During the first session of this series, guest presenters, Lily Wong Fillmore and Meredith Liben, discuss key considerations, research, and pedagogy that address the following guiding questions:

• What is the role of phonemic awareness for young English proficient students and ELs?
• When and how are children ready to associate symbols (letters) to the sounds they know?
• What do educators need to know to support learning to read complex text? How can complex read aloud play a role in building knowledge and vocabulary for young English proficient students and ELs?
• How can districts, school leaders, and teachers prioritize key areas of instruction to accelerate student reading and respond to unfinished learning?

Part 2: Sharing District Perspectives on Equitable Reading Instruction

During the second session of this series, guest presenters from the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District and San Antonio Independent School District will address the following guiding questions:

• How are districts complementing, amplifying, modifying their instructional frameworks, curriculum, and approach to attend to best practices in early reading?
• How are districts specifically supporting English Learners in these practices?
• What do teachers need to know about English and ELs’ home language in order to teach foundational skills in meaningful ways?
• How are districts attending to equitable instructional practice and the student experience?

Part 3: Considerations for Equitable Instruction from Educator Voices

During the third session of this series, guest presenters from the various Member Districts share their experience from the educator perspective. Viewers will hear from teachers about their experience teaching with a focus on the Early Reading Accelerators, and how teachers focused on teaching with complex, knowledge-rich texts and teaching the skills of early reading in both monolingual and dual language early childhood classrooms. Next, teacher presenters journey up the grades to get a sense of strategies and content addressed in upper elementary and middle school classrooms, with an emphasis on how educators used the 3Ls (Language, Literacy, and Learning) to address vocabulary and language work in the classroom while exploring compelling issues in grade-level content. All presenters address the following guiding questions:

• What are examples of innovative practice that teachers are using in hybrid, remote, and face to face early literacy instruction?
• What benefits are educators seeing on the students they work with?
• Are there students where this work has had more or less impact, and can educators trace why?
• What things have educators learned that haven't worked for the students in their class?

There is a need for support, guidance, and sharing of best practices in order to meet the needs of all readers when it comes to early reading instruction, and these needs have been exacerbated by school closures and distance or hybrid learning over the past six months. In this 3-part series, experts and urban school district practitioners will present and discuss (1) the latest findings about teaching foundational skills and making use of complex text as part of a comprehensive literacy approach and (2) the pedagogy related to teaching foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, to monolingual students and English Learners (ELs).

During the third session of this series, guest presenters from the various Member Districts share their experience from the educator perspective. Viewers will hear from teachers about their experience teaching with a focus on the Early Reading Accelerators, and how teachers focused on teaching with complex, knowledge-rich texts and teaching the skills of early reading in both monolingual and dual language early childhood classrooms. Next, teacher presenters journey up the grades to get a sense of strategies and content addressed in upper elementary and middle school classrooms, with an emphasis on how educators used the 3Ls (Language, Literacy, and Learning) to address vocabulary and language work in the classroom while exploring compelling issues in grade-level content. All presenters address the following guiding questions:

• What are examples of innovative practice that teachers are using in hybrid, remote, and face to face early literacy instruction?
• What benefits are educators seeing on the students they work with?
• Are there students where this work has had more or less impact, and can educators trace why?
• What things have educators learned that haven't worked for the students in their class?

If you’re accessing this page on a mobile device, the recording and resources from the webinar are available under “files.”

There is a need for support, guidance, and sharing of best practices in order to meet the needs of all readers when it comes to early reading instruction, and these needs have been exacerbated by school closures and distance or hybrid learning over the past six months. In this 3-part series, hosted by the Council of the Great City Schools and Students Achievement Partners, experts and urban school district practitioners will present and discuss (1) the latest findings about teaching foundational skills and making use of complex text as part of a comprehensive literacy approach and (2) the pedagogy related to teaching foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, to monolingual students and English Learners (ELs).

During the second session of this series, guest presenters from the Charlotte Mecklenburg School District and San Antonio Independent School District will address the following guiding questions:

• How are districts complementing, amplifying, modifying their instructional frameworks, curriculum, and approach to attend to best practices in early reading?
• How are districts specifically supporting English Learners in these practices?
• What do teachers need to know about English and ELs’ home language in order to teach foundational skills in meaningful ways?
• How are districts attending to equitable instructional practice and the student experience?

About the Districts: 

• Charlotte Mecklenburg School District (CMS) serves 148,299 students from 183 countries, speaking 197 languages and dialects across 175 schools. What Matters Most in CMS is the focus on the instructional core- including, students, teachers, and content. The district has been on an early literacy journey the past two years focusing specifically on the student experience and access to foundational skills through a standards-aligned curriculum. The collaboration between the Equity department and Learning and Teaching department has allowed for aligned messaging to school leaders and streamlined professional development for instructional staff. CMS is committed to constant action to ensure excellent educational opportunities for every child at every school.
• San Antonio Independent School District (SAISD) sits in the heart of the city of San Antonio, Texas. Currently serving close to 50,000 students with a 90% Hispanic community of which 20% are English Learners. We have tremendous pride in the cultural and linguistic assets that our community has to offer. We began a pilot two years ago with new district leadership to explore our early literacy practices and policies. In a deeply collaborative approach, we engaged in the creation of Spanish Read Alouds and adjusted to meet the needs of our 42 Elementary and Academy Dual Language programs. We have reflected on the "why" behind our instructional decisions and have brought in stakeholders to co-construct how we define literacy in SAISD.

If you’re accessing this page on a mobile device, the recording and resources from the webinar are available under “files.”

There is a need for support, guidance, and sharing of best practices in order to meet the needs of all readers when it comes to early reading instruction, and these needs have been exacerbated by school closures and distance or hybrid learning over the past six months. In this 3-part series, hosted by the Council of the Great City Schools and Students Achievement Partners, experts and urban school district practitioners will present and discuss (1) the latest findings about teaching foundational skills and making use of complex text as part of a comprehensive literacy approach and (2) the pedagogy related to teaching foundational skills, including phonemic awareness, to monolingual students and English Learners (ELs).

During the first session of this series, guest presenters, Lily Wong Fillmore and Meredith Liben, discuss key considerations, research, and pedagogy that address the following guiding questions:

• What is the role of phonemic awareness for young English proficient students and ELs?
• When and how are children ready to associate symbols (letters) to the sounds they know?
• What do educators need to know to support learning to read complex text? How can complex read aloud play a role in building knowledge and vocabulary for young English proficient students and ELs?
• How can districts, school leaders, and teachers prioritize key areas of instruction to accelerate student reading and respond to unfinished learning?

If you’re accessing this page on a mobile device, the recording and resources from the webinar are available under “files.”