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All About Teaching Reading & Writing
Taxonomy

‎Reading Universe Taxonomy

Our taxonomy presents the essential reading skills, shows how they’re connected, and lays the groundwork for teaching all students how to read and write.

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 Diphthongs 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

              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

              Language Comprehension

              The ability to understand the meaning of spoken words

              Knowledge

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

              Building Student Knowledge

              Knowledge Skill Explainer

              Coming soon.

                Words

                The building blocks of spoken and written language

                Word Meanings & Relationships

                Sentences

                Language Structures

                Grammar Skill Explainer

                Coming soon.

                  Syntax Skill Explainer

                  Coming soon.

                    Connected Sentences

                    The use of multiple sentences, oral or written, to share ideas and information

                    Text Structures

                    Informational Text Skill Explainer
                    Narrative Text Skill Explainer

                    Critical Thinking Strategies

                    Using higher order thinking skills to analyze, synthesize, or evaluate oral or written information

                    Critical Thinking Strategies

                    Comprehension Monitoring Skill Explainer
                    Reasoning and Inferencing Skill Explainer
                    Retelling, Summarizing, Synthesizing Skill Explainer

                    Coming soon.

                      Perspective Taking 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

                            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.