What the Research Says: Effective Reading Instruction for All Students

What the Research Says: Effective Reading Instruction for All Students provides educators with a foundational understanding of how skilled reading develops and what decades of reading research mean for effective instruction.

Designed as a primer, the course introduces research-based models of reading and builds understanding of the interconnected skills and knowledge students need to become proficient readers. Throughout the course, participants connect the research to instructional practice, including the role of high-quality instructional resources (HQIR) in supporting evidence-based reading instruction.

Format: Self-paced online course

Length: 13 modules, approximately 12 hours total

Estimated time per module: 30–45 minutes

What Participants Will Learn:

Through the course, educators build foundational knowledge that enables them to:

• Explain how skilled reading develops, including the relationship between word recognition and language comprehension through models such as the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope.
• Understand the development of foundational reading skills and evidence-based approaches to instruction in emergent literacy, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and fluency.
• Examine the components of language comprehension that contribute to successful reading, including background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, literacy knowledge and engagement with complex text.
• Consider how students’ strengths and needs in decoding, fluency and comprehension can inform appropriate instructional responses across grade levels.
• Connect reading research to classroom practice and HQIR, identifying how high-quality materials and evidence-based instructional practices work together to support the development of skilled readers.