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More than 30 years of bringing literacy to countless students with reading difficulties has taught me a great deal. From this, I’ve created ten essential components critical to forming a winning reading and language arts curriculum. Using these ten components on a consistent basis has allowed me to meet the learning needs of this valuable group of students.

The Ten Essential Components to Creating Highly Successful Readers

1. Early identification—learning “best habits” the first time around
Students with reading difficulties must be identified early. It is far easier for these students to learn reading concepts correctly the first time, than it is to erase incorrect concepts and then learn correct concepts. The longer a student fails, the more difficult it is to provide all the skills he or she needs. The emphasis needs to be on intervention and prevention of reading failure—not remediation. 

2. Daily training in auditory and oral skills
Specific phonological awareness and phonemic training must take place daily and is best conducted with real words or concepts with which the student is currently working. It is also critical that activities in the general area of phonological awareness (rhyming; discriminating sounds that are different; identifying beginning, middle, and ending sounds; and blending sounds) and in the specific area of phonemic awareness (counting, identifying, deleting, and substituting sounds in words and syllables) be done at an auditory level and that the written word is not used.

3. Teaching kinesthetic speech sounds
Teaching the kinesthetic speech sounds should always be a part of daily instruction. Careful attention should be paid to how the student produces the speech sounds. Clear, correctly articulated sounds are essential to reading and writing success; therefore, it is critical that students be taught to pronounce words correctly.

4. Explicit instruction in decoding and encoding
An explicit, phonetic approach using multi-sensory teaching techniques is important for decoding (reading) and encoding (spelling) words. The students should be taught to hear, see, and write letter sounds, words, and syllables. Practice is important in each of these areas to build upon specific knowledge. For instance, practice in spelling words can help strengthen a student’s ability to sound letters out, which—in turn—helps reading.

5. Teaching phonetic concepts in a given order
The order of phonetic-concept introduction is critical in an early intervention program. Kindergarten should begin with single-consonant sounds and short ”a.” After short vowels and vowel-consonant “e,” vowel digraphs should be introduced, beginning with “ay.” Young students with reading disabilities should not be taught multi-syllabic words until they can master reading one-syllable words of five phonemes. Also, the words used for decoding should be age-appropriate in meaning. To effectively teach phonetic concepts, it is important that real words be used at all times. This method will keep lessons relevant and memorable. Daily practice in single-word decoding should be provided.

6. Practicing with decodable text that is comprehensible
The goal of decoding is fluency and comprehension; therefore, decodable text (composed of words with phonetic concepts students have already been taught) is essential to provide the fluency practice students need. Few non-phonetic words should be used. Single-word reading in isolation is not sufficient practice with phonics. Many students can fluently decode words in isolation, but then misread the same word in actual text reading.  It is also important to give plenty of time to practice with decodable text (fifteen minutes a day of reading orally is required).

Decodable text that is meaning driven allows students to practice word knowledge through actual reading. It also allows for the teaching of comprehension skills since the student is able to concentrate on meaning because they can read the text. Reading text that is controlled for phonics, but not meaning driven, is not useful in achieving the goal of comprehension in reading.

7. Specific Handwriting Instruction
Specific handwriting training must be conducted to provide the correct visual and kinesthetic reinforcement of reading and spelling concepts. Daily practice in handwriting—be it individual letters or words—allows students to focus on what they are writing. This visual and kinesthetic practice becomes a valuable tool for strengthening concepts and aiding memory.

8. Focusing on spelling as a concept
Spelling should be concept based. Students should learn to link the speech sounds with the correct visual symbol. Spelling must be coordinated with the reading concepts and with plenty of opportunity for reinforcement through writing. Written composition should be taught along with spelling. Grammar concepts should be taught through written language.

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