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7 early literacy teaching

strategies for developing
successful young readers

March 6, 2018

By Pati Montgomery, Founder and President, Schools Cubed

Table of contents

1. What is the key to developing “on level” young readers?

2. What are the strategies for developing early literacy?
3. The 7 pillars of early literacy instruction
4. Why repetition is crucial to the success of the 7 pillars of early literacy instruction

What is the key to developing “on level” young readers?

It’s time to re-think our expectations for early literacy. Research shows that with the right type of instruction, 95% of all
 (800) 338-4204 International Contact Us Chat with us Login help Support

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7 early literacy teaching

strategies for developing
successful young readers

March 6, 2018

By Pati Montgomery, Founder and President, Schools Cubed

Table of contents

1. What is the key to developing “on level” young readers?

2. What are the strategies for developing early literacy?
3. The 7 pillars of early literacy instruction
4. Why repetition is crucial to the success of the 7 pillars of early literacy instruction

What is the key to developing “on level” young readers?

It’s time to re-think our expectations for early literacy. Research shows that with the right type of instruction, 95% of all
students should be “on level” by the end of the third grade. But I say we can do even better. Let’s up that goal and strive to
have 95% of our students reading at grade level by the end of first grade.

What’s the key to this tremendously high expectation?

Focusing on the 7 pillars of early literacy instruction and understanding how to teach early literacy so that children will learn.
In this blog, I’ll take a look at each of the 7 pillars of early literacy instruction and provide early literacy teaching strategies
for incorporating these pillars into your classroom.

What are the strategies for developing early literacy?

The strategies for developing early literacy are known as the 7 pillars of early literacy instruction and include:

1. Alphabetic principle
2. Phonological awareness
3. Phonemic awareness
4. Phonics
5. Word recognition
6. Vocabulary
7. Structural analysis

When students are taught these early literacy pillars in the correct order, they will have the foundation they need for early
success in reading.

The 7 pillars of early literacy instruction

#1: Alphabetic principle
The alphabetic principle is the concept that letters and their patterns represent the sounds of spoken language.

Children’s reading development is completely dependent upon their understanding of this critical principle. They must
grasp that there are predictable relationships between sounds and letters— relationships they will later learn to apply to
both familiar and unfamiliar words—to enable them to begin to read with fluency.

Early literacy teaching strategies for helping students master the alphabetic principle include activities such as:

Reading ABC books

Pointing out letters in their environment
 Playing alphabet games
Singing ABC songs and chants
Providing the opportunity for students to play with letter shapes, like magnetic letters
Identifying and naming both uppercase and lowercase letters
Introducing writing activities early on, to give students plenty of practice writing the letters they’ve learned

Note that the sequence of instruction has a significant impact on learning. For the alphabetic principle, instruction must
follow a sensible sequence that introduces letters in a way that’s easy for students to learn. For example, do not introduce
“b” and “d” at the same time, and be sure to teach “p” and “q” several weeks apart.

#2: Phonological awareness

Phonological awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate the different parts of oral language, such as words and
syllables. It is important to note that phonological awareness is an auditory concept that does not involve the printed word.

The five levels of phonological awareness are:

1. Rhyming and alliteration

2. Sentence segmentation
3. Syllables
4. Onsets and rimes
5. Phonemic awareness

Early literacy strategies for teaching phonological awareness include:

Having students divide sentences into words

Reading rhyming books and having children find the rhyming words
Clapping out words into syllables
Practicing alliteration
Segmenting and blending onsets and rimes
Singing songs, chants, and nursery rhymes

As with the alphabetic principle, the order of instruction is key.

#3: Phonemic awareness

Phonemic awareness is a subset of phonological awareness that focuses on the individual sounds that make up words.
Teach phonemic awareness only after the larger phonological awareness concepts have been mastered.

Just like with phonological awareness, the skills that are involved in phonemic awareness are 100% auditory.

Instructional strategies for literacy in the pillar of phonemic awareness can include:

1. Using clapping, tiles, chips, felt squares, and Elkonin boxes to help children identify and match initial, middle, and final
sounds in words.
2. Verbally practicing blending sounds into words.
3. Manipulating phonemes by removing, adding, or substituting the sounds in words. For example, help the child turn “cat”
into “at” (removal), “cats” (addition), and “bat” (substitution).

#4: Phonics
The concept of phonics builds on phonemic awareness, which involves connecting the sounds of oral language with the
letters of written language.

Once again, the instructional sequence of phonics is of the utmost importance and should be done in the following order:

1. Start with the high-utility letters: A, E, I, O, U, L, N, S, T, and R (Hint: These are your 1-point Scrabble letters).
2. Teach the consonants before you introduce the consonant blends.
3. Introduce long vowels only after the student has mastered all short vowels and consonant blends.

And remember, students don’t have to know every phonetic sound to begin reading and writing. For instance, a child who
only knows the letters “a” and “m” is ready to practice the words “am,” “ma,” and “mama.”

Also, focus on using decodable texts that align with the phonetic elements being taught. This way, students build the habit
of decoding words, rather than constantly guessing or relying on picture clues.

#5: Word recognition

Irregularly spelled words, also known as sight words, cannot be decoded and must be memorized. For these words,
teachers must explicitly teach each word’s:

Spelling
Pronunciation
Meaning
Teachers should also have students practice reading and writing sight words alongside phonetically decodable words.

Be sure to only introduce a very limited set of sight words in the early grades. I recommend no more than four per week.

Some early literacy teaching strategies for helping students master the pillar of word recognition include:

Having them read (and reread) books containing their sights words
Helping them to focus on the structure of irregularly spelled words
Teaching them to use context clues

#6: Vocabulary
The instruction of phonics, word recognition, and vocabulary should be constantly intertwined. As students learn to read
and spell words, it is important to make sure they also understand the meanings of those words.

Some early literacy teaching strategies for helping to grow students’ vocabularies include:

1. Creating word-conscious classrooms that celebrate students when they use new vocabulary words.
2. Not being afraid of using more complex words. Beef up the vocabulary you use with your students instead of “dumbing it
down.”
3. Providing plenty of explicit instruction around the meaning of individual words.
4. Teaching word-learning strategies, such as structural analysis.

#7: Structural analysis

Structural analysis is a decoding strategy that introduces students to the parts of words, including:

Prefixes
Suffixes
Root words

By breaking a word into its component parts, your students gain valuable insights about the word’s spelling and
pronunciation—and can then anticipate similar multisyllabic words they will encounter in the future.

Structural analysis strengthens students’ skills in these areas:

Decoding
 Word recognition
Vocabulary

It is also a fantastic way to teach literacy in a cross-disciplinary manner.

You can incorporate early literacy strategies for the pillar of structural analysis by:

Engaging your students in active reading

Teaching them how to utilize context clues when they meet an unfamiliar word

You can also use structural analysis to bring science and social studies terms into the language arts classroom, as well as to
leverage literacy skills in the content areas.

Why repetition is crucial to the success of the 7 pillars of

early literacy instruction
For each of the 7 pillars of early literacy, it’s important to remember that students will learn different skills at different rates.
Some students may master a new skill after four repetitions, while other students will need 100.

Repetition is the key to success, so make sure students have as many practice opportunities as they need in order to learn
each pillar. With enough repetition and the right instructional sequence, you’ll see your young readers soar!

Discover Lalilo from Renaissance, which provides K–2 learners with fun, differentiated practice on phonemic awareness, phonics, word
recognition, vocabulary, and more.

Meet Lalilo

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