Competency 1: Foundations of Reading Instruction

This course examines the development of oral language and its connection to phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and written expression. Participants will explore evidence-based and multisensory practices for teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, spelling, morphology, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, with attention to English Learners, home-language influences, dialects, and students with reading difficulties, including dyslexia. The course emphasizes differentiated instruction, purposeful reading and discussion, corrective feedback, and strategies that build accuracy, rate, prosody, reading endurance, and comprehension. Participants will also learn to use informal and formal assessments, document student progress, and apply assessment data to address individual strengths and needs. Evidence-based practices for selecting appropriate print and digital texts and engaging families in language and literacy development will also be addressed.