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There are five essential components of reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

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The ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words (Reading Rockets). This awareness isn’t just one skill, but is comprised of several. For example, rhyming words together and identifying the syllables in a word. Phonemic awareness focuses on sounds, or the auditory language spoken, not written letters or words.

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is the understanding that letters represent sounds. So when students see the letter “a”, they know that it makes the sound “a’ as in “ant

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Although there may not be a firm consensus on a single definition of reading fluency, most definitions include three components: accuracy, rate, and expression (Hougen, Smartt, Cardenas-Hagan, & Ebbers, 2020).

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Classroom Activity for Phonemic Awareness:

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Classroom Activity for Phonemic Awareness:

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Clap the sounds in words. Say a word aloud and ask the students to repeat the word back to you. Then they have them say one sound at a time, segmenting the word. Students can jump, skip, hop, or stand as they say each sound.

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National Center on Improving Literacy (Free Literacy Resources | National Center on Improving Literacy) has activities and resources to support literacy development in students.

Reading Rockets (Reading Rockets: Launching Young Readers) has online resources for teaching, classroom instruction, book recommendations, and provides ideas to support struggling readers.

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Phonics Hop. Line up letters and blends, have the students hop on each letter and say the letter sound aloud. Parents can join in.

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Resources:

ABC Mouse (ABCmouse: Educational Games, Books, Puzzles & Songs for Kids & Toddlers) is a valuable resource for students to utilize. It has lessons and activities for learning phonics.

Reach Out and Read (Family Resources - Reach Out and Read) has resources to help children have access to books and reading tips for families.

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Daily read-aloud helps students become fluent readers. By listening to good models of fluent reading, students learn how a reader’s voice can help written text make sense (Reading Rockets).

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International Literacy Association (Home | International Literacy Association) has resources, webinars, and continuous education for literacy professionals. Their mission is to advocate and create an inclusive experience for young learners.

Read on Arizona (Read On Arizona | Improving Early Literacy) helps students be successful in school with policies, strategies, and family engagement.

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Hougen, M., Smartt, S., Cardenas-Hagan, E., & Ebbers, S. (2020).

Fundamentals of literacy instruction & assessment, pre-k-6

(2nd ed.). Brookes Publishing.

Reading Rockets. Basics: Phonological and phonemic awareness (n.d.). https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness

Reading Rockets. Fluency: in practice | Reading Rockets. (n.d.). https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-101-learning-modules/course-modules/fluency/practice

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Understanding that words have meaning in a text and being able to use the words in oral vocabulary.

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Twinkl Parents (Twinkl Parents - Twinkl) is a great resource to develop young learners' vocabulary at home. It has interactive games and tailored resources for students with special educational needs.

Amplify has a Science of Reading Podcast. It explains research on early reading and talks about different approaches. (Science of Reading: The Podcast - Early Literacy Resources | Amplify).

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Pre-Teach Vocabulary

Before doing an activity, teaching content, or reading a story in class, pre-teaching vocabulary is always helpful, especially for ELLs (Reading Rockets).

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The ability to understand, remember, and make meaning of what has been read – this is the purpose of reading (Edmentum, 2025).

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Before reading a book, ask students to make predictions. Have them write their predictions on their whiteboard. Pick two or three students to share their predictions and what information they used to make those predictions.

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Understood.org  (Understood - For learning and thinking differences) is a nonprofit organization that provides online resources to support parents, educators, and caregivers understand students who think differently or have exceptionalities.

The Balanced Literacy Diet has online literacy resources that are research-based. There are many resources students can utilize to build comprehension and become fluent readers.

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NCELA, National Clearinghouse for English Language Acquisition. (Family Toolkit | NCELA - English Language Acquisition & Language Instruction Educational Programs) This resource is particularly helpful for English Learners. NCELA provides resources for families and promotes inclusive classrooms for multilingual students.

The Arizona Department of Education has a resource page for families, specifically those who have students who need Special Education Services (Special Education Resources for Parents and Families | Arizona Department of Education).

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library (Dolly Parton's Imagination Library | USA, UK, IE, CA, AU) inspires a love of reading by providing free books for students ages birth to 5. Parents sign up for free, and books are mailed monthly. This exposure to different books at a young age is a wonderful way to build early literacy skills.

The Arizona Department of Education has a helpful poster that breaks down he 5 Pillars of Early Literacy. ( 5 pillars infographic Poster).

Reading Rockets has an article that provides research-based information on effective reading interventions for learners with learning disabilities (Effective Reading Interventions for Kids with Learning Disabilities | Reading Rockets)

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Students With and Without Exceptionalites

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Students With and Without Exceptionalites

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The five reading components are foundational for becoming a fluent reader. We know that students have varying needs, and there is a plethora of diversity in the classroom. The educator's goal is to meet each student where they are and give them the support and instruction needed.  Children with exceptionalities and children without exceptionalities all have equal potential to grow and learn. Scaffolding, differentiation, and a more individualized approach can support students with exceptionalities. Educators can use multiple means of representation and expression to ensure equitable opportunities.

Building on a student's strengths and interests is an effective way to teach students without exceptionalities. This engages the students and builds a love for reading and learning. Effective reading instructions may include interventions and different methods, and strategies. Educators can use grouping, explicit instruction, and collaborative strategies to teach reading components to students with and without exceptionalities. Finally, educators need to implement reading instruction that is research-based and uses best practices.