Reading Awareness Goals in Young Children

Early childhood. The foundation for reading success is formed long before a child reaches first grade. Parents, care providers, and other community members should give children a strong base of cognitive skills related to print, background knowledge, and a love of books starting at infancy

By the end of kindergarten, children should have: a great deal of experience with children’s literature; language skills that allow them to describe their experiences; familiarity with the alphabet; and the ability to identify the sounds that make up words.

First grade. In first grade, children begin to use reading ability to define themselves and their level of academic success. It is also in first grade when common instructional practices and materials are often inconsistent with the most current research findings. Although some children are able to teach themselves how to sound out words, other children need to be taught this skill or they ma have lifelong reading problems. In order to avoid leaving some children behind, all children shoul be taught phonetic decoding strategies, although those who acquire reading easily can quickly move through this instruction. Reading materials should feature a high proportion of new words that children can sound out using the letter-sound relationships they have been taught. Writing skills and comprehension strategies should also be taught from the earliest grades. Reading pleasure is equally important, and text should be as interesting and meaningful as possible.

Second grade and beyond. By second grade, children should be able to sound out short phonetically regular words, know many sight words, and have good reading comprehension skills. Any child who cannot perform these skills needs immediate attention. Even as children are further developing their decoding skills, they should be reading quality literature, including nonfiction. Instruction should focus on increasing comprehension, adding to children’s vocabulary, and writing. Older children who have not yet learned to read, children in special education, and children for whom English is a second language require additional assistance. For some of these students, additional research is needed to learn what strategies are most effective.