Application: Children with acute and appropriate phonological awareness show much higher reading ability than their peers. Teaching phonological awareness to children promotes their reading ability across all disciplines, and is particularly important within the English classroom.

Equity: Persons who do not speak English as their native language have difficulty identifying the particular phonemes in a language, which can severely inhibit their ability to understand English language texts. Understanding this when interacting with students who may have an auditory processing disorder or who are entering the English classroom as ELL's is important to create a fair and equitable classroom.

Source: Reading Rockets. (2023). Basics: Phonological and Phonemic Awareness | Reading Rockets. Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness

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Application: It has been proven that, in young children up to the age of 13, listening comprehension outpaces reading comprehension.

Equity: In the case of ESL students who may be entering the English classroom for the first time, understanding that their ability to understand spoken English may outpace their performance on written exams and their reading comprehension can be helpful in being able to promote these students learning to create an equitable and inclusive classroom environment.

Source: Fisher, D., & Frey, N. (2014). Speaking and Listening in Content Area Learning. Reading Rockets. https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/comprehension/articles/speaking-and-listening-content-area-learning

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Application: Children need to be able to understand and draw information from a written text in order to participate in larger society. By explicitly teaching various reading comprehension strategies that go beyond the mechanics of phonologically recognizing words on a page and their associated meaning, children learn how to truly comprehend the information in a text instead of just memorizing it.

Equity: Students with cognitive disabilities may have more difficulty comprehending texts than their able-minded peers. Keeping in mind that every student progresses differently through the classroom and that reading comprehension is a critical skill for every child to gain mastery of, understanding that teaching reading comprehension strategies may vary drastically from student to student is important when creating a fair and equitable classroom environment.

Source: Reading Rockets. (2024). Basics: Reading Comprehension | Reading Rockets. Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/reading-comprehension

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Application: A broad vocabulary is critical for children to be able to comprehend academic material and move through larger society. Through a mixture of both explicit and implicit instruction, children will acquire a deeper understanding of content-specific vocabulary.

Equity: For ELL students, vocabulary acquisition is particularly important. Educators can promote an equitable classroom environment by ensuring that learners struggling with vocabulary acquisition have a broad range of resources to help them explicitly learn and remember vocabulary terms.

Source: Reading Rockets. (2024). Basics: Vocabulary. Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/vocabulary

Application: Writing is critical for students to understand in an increasingly text-dense society in which information is disseminated through written works. Being capable of producing their own works enables students to communicate and move through the world.

Equity: Some students may be unable to write using their hands for a variety of reasons. By teaching students to use multiple tools in order to produce written text, educators promote and equitable classroom learning environment.

Source: Basics: Writing | Reading Rockets. (n.d.). Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/writing

Application: Phonics instruction teaches students that there exists a predictable relationship between sounds and letters, allowing students to parse both familiar and unfamiliar words. It is a crucial step to students gaining overall fluency in reading.

Equity: Students who have a diagnosed reading disability like dyslexia have a particularly acute need for phonics instruction. Providing phonics instruction to all students in the classroom increases and promotes a fair and equitable learning environment in which all students benefit from specialized instructional techniques/strategies.

Source: Reading Rockets. (2023). Basics: Phonics and decoding | Reading Rockets. Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/phonics-and-decoding

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Application: Fluent readers can focus on the meaning of the text, rather than spending time trying to parse the particular meanings of specific words and/or phrases.

Equity: ELL students who may have oral language fluency in English may struggle in the classroom environment because they do not have the same level of reading fluency and are therefore struggling to comprehend academic texts at the same rate as their native speaker peers. Promoting an equitable, fiar classroom environment means teaching fluency in reading.

Source: Reading Rockets. (2023). Basics: Fluency. Www.readingrockets.org. https://www.readingrockets.org/reading-101/reading-and-writing-basics/fluency

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