STRIVE Consulting

Students who read with understanding at an early age gain access to a broader range of texts, knowledge, and educational opportunities, making early reading comprehension instruction particularly critical. This guide recommends five specific steps that teachers, reading coaches, and principals can take to successfully improve reading comprehension for young readers.

This practice guide provides four recommendations for teaching foundational reading skills to students in kindergarten through 3rd grade. Each recommendation includes implementation steps and solutions for common obstacles. The recommendations also summarize and rate supporting evidence. This guide is geared towards teachers, administrators, and other educators who want to improve their students’ foundational reading skills, and is a companion to the practice guide, Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade.

The NWEA flowcharts are a free resource to help guide you in placing students on your Focus Folder. The flowcharts are part of STRIVE's Data System: A how-to on planning, teaching, and assessing reading groups. The flowcharts are a guide and should be used with additional data, including teacher's expertise and knowledge of students.