Praxis Teaching Reading: Elementary cheat sheet

Simple View of Reading: reading comprehension equals decoding multiplied by linguistic comprehension; weakness in either factor constrains overall comprehension.

Scarborough's Reading Rope interweaves word-recognition strands (phonological awareness, decoding, sight recognition) with language-comprehension strands (background knowledge, vocabulary, syntax, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge).

Ehri's word-reading phases progress from pre-alphabetic to partial alphabetic, full alphabetic, and consolidated alphabetic; sight-word recognition grows through orthographic mapping.

Phonological awareness is the broad awareness of spoken-language sound structure (words, syllables, onset-rime, phonemes); phonemic awareness is the phoneme-level subset.

The alphabetic principle is the understanding that letters and letter patterns map predictably to phonemes; it underpins decoding and spelling.

Orthographic mapping stores words as connected letter-sound sequences in long-term memory after repeated decoding and phoneme-grapheme analysis.

Fluency has three components: accuracy, automatic rate, and prosody; it bridges word recognition and comprehension.

Text complexity is judged using quantitative measures, qualitative features, and reader-task considerations; no single measure determines appropriate text.

Explicit, systematic phonics instruction follows a planned sequence of letter-sound correspondences and includes modeling, guided practice, and application to reading and spelling.

A typical phonics scope moves from single letters to digraphs, blends, vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, and multisyllabic patterns; random order is not systematic.

Six syllable types are closed (short vowel), open (long vowel), vowel-consonant-e (long vowel), vowel team, r-controlled, and consonant-le.

Decodable texts should align with taught phonics patterns and give practice applying decoding rather than encouraging guessing from pictures or context.

Phonemic awareness tasks progress from rhyme and alliteration to blending and segmenting, then deletion and substitution; tasks use spoken words only.

Elkonin boxes support phoneme segmentation: one box represents each phoneme, and students move tokens as they produce the sounds.

Repeated reading improves fluency when a student reads the same short passage multiple times with feedback; goals shift from accuracy to rate to prosody.

Word-building activities reinforce blending and orthographic patterns when students manipulate letters to form, change, and read words sharing taught patterns.

Vocabulary tiers: Tier 1 words are common everyday words; Tier 2 words are high-frequency academic words across domains; Tier 3 words are low-frequency domain-specific terms; prioritize Tier 2 instruction.

Morphological instruction teaches roots, prefixes, and suffixes so students can use word parts to infer meanings of unfamiliar words.

Comprehension strategy instruction is explicit: teacher modeling, guided practice, gradual release, and application to authentic text.

Common text structures are description, sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, and problem-solution; recognizing structure supports recall and inference.

Inferencing combines text evidence with background knowledge; questions should require students to justify conclusions with evidence.

Think-alouds make invisible comprehension processes visible, including predicting, questioning, visualizing, monitoring, and repairing meaning.

Reciprocal teaching uses predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing in student-led dialogue to build strategic reading.

Background knowledge strongly affects comprehension and is built through read-alouds, discussion, and wide reading.

Universal screening is brief and given to all students to identify those at risk; it is not diagnostic and should be followed by more specific assessment.

Diagnostic assessment provides a detailed profile of strengths and weaknesses in phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Progress monitoring uses frequent brief probes, graphed over time, to determine response to intervention and to adjust instruction.

Curriculum-based measurement uses standardized timed probes; oral reading fluency is a common indicator of overall reading proficiency.

RTI/MTSS tiers are Tier 1 core instruction for all, Tier 2 targeted small-group support for some, and Tier 3 intensive individualized intervention for few students.

Running records record oral reading accuracy, error types, and self-corrections; error patterns in meaning, structure, and visual cues guide instruction.

Decision rule: if a progress-monitoring trend is flat or below the goal line, intensify intervention; if adequate, continue or fade support.

Disciplinary literacy teaches the specialized reading, writing, and reasoning practices of each content area, such as sourcing evidence in history.

Informational text features such as headings, captions, diagrams, glossaries, and indexes support navigation and comprehension; teach their functions explicitly.

Academic vocabulary includes cross-content process words (analyze, evaluate, cite) and signal words (however, therefore); explicit instruction is needed.

Writing-to-learn tasks such as quickwrites, summaries, and exit tickets promote content processing and reveal misconceptions.

Summarizing requires main-idea identification, key-detail selection, and condensation; paragraph frames and graphic organizers support the process.

Source evaluation examines author, purpose, evidence, date, and bias; students need explicit criteria for judging credibility.

Content-area comprehension depends on background knowledge, text-structure knowledge, and discipline-specific vocabulary.