OAE Foundations of Reading study plan

Map the five essential components of reading (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) and explain in writing how each supports the others in early reading development.

Trace the continuum of reading development from emergent literacy through the consolidated alphabetic phase, and label the key behaviors a reader shows at each stage.

Compare the alphabetic principle, concept of word, and print awareness, and give a classroom example of instruction that builds each one.

Build a personal glossary of at least 25 core terms from Domain 1 with a one-sentence definition and an example for each term.

Distinguish phonological awareness, phonemic awareness, and phonics, and correctly classify 20 sample instructional activities into those categories.

Sequence phonemic awareness skills from rhyme and syllable work through blending, segmenting, and phoneme manipulation, and justify the order.

Apply common phonics generalizations (short and long vowels, vowel teams, r-controlled, consonant digraphs, blends, diphthongs) to decode a list of 40 unfamiliar words and mark the rule used.

Analyze syllable types and syllabication patterns to decode multisyllabic words, and explain how structural analysis (prefixes, suffixes, roots) extends word recognition.

Identify the difference between decodable text and predictable text and state when each is appropriate.

Design a systematic, explicit phonics lesson sequence for a five-day week that moves from review to guided practice to application in connected text.

Explain how spelling development (invented spelling through conventional spelling) informs phonics instruction and error analysis.

Diagnose five samples of student spelling errors and name the phonics or orthographic concept each error reveals.

Describe how morphology and etymology (including common Greek and Latin roots) support vocabulary and decoding in upper grades.

Define fluency as accuracy, automaticity, and prosody, and explain how each component contributes to comprehension.

Compare repeated reading, echo reading, choral reading, partner reading, and reader's theater, and state the grade level and purpose best suited to each.

Calculate words correct per minute and accuracy percentage from a timed oral reading sample, and interpret the result against a stated benchmark.

Distinguish the three tiers of vocabulary (basic, general academic, domain-specific) and select appropriate instructional strategies for each.

Apply direct and indirect vocabulary instruction techniques, including context clues, semantic mapping, morphemic analysis, and multiple exposures, to a short informational passage.

Differentiate the major comprehension models and the roles of background knowledge, vocabulary, and strategic processing in constructing meaning.

Compare narrative and expository text structures and explain how teaching text structure supports comprehension.

Plan explicit instruction in at least four comprehension strategies (predicting, questioning, visualizing, summarizing, monitoring, or inferencing) with modeling and gradual release.

Distinguish literal, inferential, and evaluative questions and write two questions at each level for a short passage.

Explain how close reading, text-dependent questions, and text complexity (quantitative, qualitative, reader and task) interact in selecting instructional texts.

Identify and correct errors in the six language conventions areas: sentence structure, grammar and usage, punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and paragraph organization.

Explain the writing process (planning, drafting, revising, editing, publishing) and describe how each stage connects to reading comprehension and response to text.

Analyze a short student writing sample and produce a prioritized list of instructional next steps tied to conventions and organization.

Describe how writing about text (summaries, constructed responses, text-dependent essays) reinforces comprehension of that text.

Distinguish screening, diagnostic, progress-monitoring, and summative assessments, and state the purpose and typical timing of each.

Interpret a set of reading assessment data (letter naming, phonemic awareness, phonics inventory, oral reading fluency, comprehension measure) and identify the student's primary area of need.

Design a tiered intervention plan (Tier 1, 2, 3) for a struggling reader that names the specific skill focus, group size, frequency, and progress-monitoring tool.

Explain how to use assessment data to form flexible groups and to adjust instruction within a multi-tiered system of support.

Outline a repeatable structure for constructed-response items: restate the task, name the concept, cite evidence from the scenario, and explain the instructional implication.

Write two full constructed-response answers under timed conditions using a provided teaching scenario, each addressing every part of the prompt.

Score your own constructed-response answers against a self-built rubric covering accuracy, use of evidence, and clarity, and revise one answer to raise the score.

Complete a timed mixed-domain practice test and log every missed item by domain and by error type (content gap, misread, or reasoning error).

Build a final review sheet of the 15 concepts you missed most often across all eight weeks.