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All About Teaching Reading & Writing
Taxonomy

Knowledge

What is knowledge? All the information acquired over time to understand language and comprehend text

New to building knowledge? Start with this guide on 12 ways to activate background knowledge.

Looking for teaching materials? Explore all our resources for building knowledge below.

The Simple View of Reading

Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

Assessment

The process of measuring students' progress and providing information to help guide instruction

Word Recognition

The ability to see a word and know how to pronounce it without consciously thinking about it

Phonological Awareness

A group of skills that enable you to recognize and manipulate parts of spoken words

Articulation

Syllables

Onset-Rime

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

A method for teaching children the relationship between spoken sounds and written letters so they can learn to decode and encode

Sound-Letter Correspondence

Phonics Patterns

Common letter combinations found in words.

Short Vowels Skill Explainer
Closed Syllables Skill Explainer
Glued Sounds Skill Explainer
Open Syllables Skill Explainer
Spelling with 'c' vs. 'k' Skill Explainer
Consonant Digraphs Skill Explainer
Blends Skill Explainer
‘-ck’ Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
FLoSS(Z) Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
‘y’ as a Vowel Skill Explainer

Coming soon.

    Magic 'e' Skill Explainer
    Soft 'c' and Soft 'g' Skill Explainer

    Coming soon.

      R-Controlled Vowels Skill Explainer

      Coming soon.

        Vowel Teams and Dipthongs Skill Explainer

        Coming soon.

          '-tch' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
          '-dge' Spelling Rule Skill Explainer
          Consonant '-le' Skill Explainer

          Coming soon.

            Schwa Skill Explainer

            Coming soon.

              Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

              High-frequency words that have a part of their spelling that has to be memorized

              Irregularly Spelled High-Frequency Words

              Multisyllable Words

              Words that have more than one word part

              Prefixes

              How to add meaningful beginnings to words

              Suffixes

              How to add meaningful endings to words

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              Language Comprehension

              The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words

              (active)
              Knowledge

              All the information one acquires over time to understand language and comprehend text

              Building Student Knowledge

              Knowledge Skill Explainer

              Coming soon.

                Reading Comprehension

                The ability to understand the meaning of printed text

                Text Considerations

                Characteristics of a text that impact the ease or difficulty of comprehension.

                Strategies and Activities

                How a reader approaches a specific text, depending on their purpose for reading

                Reader’s Skill and Knowledge

                The skills and knowledge a reader brings to the reading task that are necessary for comprehension

                Sociocultural Context

                Elements in a classroom that affect how well a child learns to read

                Fluency

                The ability to read accurately with automaticity and expression

                Fluency: Accuracy, then Automaticity

                Reading or decoding words correctly (accuracy) and reading at an appropriate rate (automaticity)

                Accuracy, then Automaticity Skill Explainer

                Coming soon.

                  Fluency: Expressive Text Reading

                  Reading characterized by accuracy with automaticity and expression

                  Expressive Text Reading Skill Explainer

                  Coming soon.

                    Writing

                    The act of putting thoughts into print using transcription and composition skills

                    Features of Structured Literacy

                    A systematic and explicit approach to teaching reading based on research

                    All Knowledge Content

                    Reading Universe is made possible by generous support from Jim & Donna Barksdale; the Hastings/Quillin Fund, an advised fund of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation (opens in new window); the AFT (opens in new window); the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation (opens in new window); and three anonymous donors.