What matters most here
| Rank | Practice | Grade |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Systematic phonics from kindergarten: sound-letter links, blending, decoding, dictation (principle 9) | Evidence grade: Proven in classrooms Proven; larger effect when started early (Ehri et al.(opens in a new tab)) |
| 2 | Knowledge-building read-alouds and units in science and history (principle 10) | Evidence grade: Proven in classrooms Proven (Kim et al.(opens in a new tab); Grissmer et al.(opens in a new tab)) |
| 3 | Daily reading of connected, decodable text with feedback | Moderate in the federal K–3 guide (summary(opens in a new tab)) |
| 4 | Small-group tutoring for students below benchmark (principle 12) | Evidence grade: Proven in classrooms Proven; reading tutoring strongest in early grades (NBER(opens in a new tab)) |
A lesson in this room
Sound review. New pattern taught explicitly. Blending and word reading. Dictation, checked for every student. Decodable text in pairs. Later in the day, a read-aloud from the current knowledge unit with three vocabulary words taught directly.
Leader look-fors
- A daily phonics block following one sequence
- When a child is stuck, the adult says "sound it out"
- A read-aloud tied to a unit topic, not a random book
Stop doing
Teaching children to guess words from pictures or first letters. Leveled books with patterns not yet taught.
Where the evidence runs out
The best balance of time between phonics, read-alouds, and oral language for each child; the federal guide rates its academic-language recommendation as minimal evidence.
Principles
Sources
- Ehri et al. 2001 (National Reading Panel) (opens in a new tab)
journals.sagepub.com
- Kim et al. 2023 (MORE) (opens in a new tab)
cepr.harvard.edu
- Grissmer et al. 2023 (opens in a new tab)
educationnext.org
- IES via Nebraska DOE summary (opens in a new tab)
education.ne.gov
- NBER 2020 version (opens in a new tab)
nber.org