Go inside Cathy Doyle's second-grade classroom to observe how her students use semantic gradients to talk about the nuanced differences in the meaning of related words. This video introduces the strategy and describes how semantic gradients help kids become stronger readers and more descriptive writers.

Listen to a member of the IES Panel discuss how teachers can helps students use strategies to plan and evaluate their writing. He illustrates the importance of peer interaction in revision and describes how teachers can gradually release students to use self-regulated strategies.

This video clip focuses on phonological awareness, specifically blending and segmenting the sounds in words. Reading expert Linda Farrel helps a student learn to stretch consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words and identify the vowel sound in the word. Watch how Ms. Farrell gives the student explicit practice with blending and segmenting the sounds of the word.

This infographic outlines some of the instructional principles that are the hallmark of explicit instruction. Educators need to understand what must be taught as part of Structured Literacy. It is equally essential for them to know how the instruction should be structured and delivered.

This factsheet from International Dyslexia Association defines the content, principles, and methods of structured literacy instruction. Evidence is strong that the majority of students learn to read better with structured teaching of basic language skills, and that the components and methods of Structured Literacy are critical for students with reading difficulties.

Dr. Ellen B. Mandinach discusses the importance of providing professional development to help teachers learn how to use data. She emphasizes the need for the professional development to be aligned with the school's goals and needs. The professional development should be timely and ongoing.

This video depicts a kindergarten small group engaging in a syllables activity. There are 5 students in this demonstration and they are using manipulatives.

This video walks viewers through a 3-step routine for teaching academic vocabulary to young students. The routine is aligned with evidence-based recommendations from two What Works Clearinghouse Practice Guides on teaching early literacy skills to all students and may be especially beneficial for students whose home language is not English.

This REL West video walks viewers through a 3-step routine for teaching academic vocabulary to young students.

Dr. Steve Graham discusses ways you can help a student with writing difficulties in our webcast, "Teaching Writing".

Teachers illustrate what they do to create a community of writers in which their students feel comfortable and safe. Activities such as Author's Chair and Publishing Parties are important for creating this sense of community.

Elkonin boxes provide an effective method for developing students' phonemic awareness and understanding of the alphabetic principle. In this video, a teacher demonstrates using Elkonin sound boxes with a student.

Dr. Joanna Williams discusses the importance of teaching children about narrative and informational text structure and describes some instructional tools she has used in her research with teachers.

This transcript accompanies the "Uncovering Text Structure" video with Dr. Joanna P. Williams, which can also found in eMedia.

"The National Center on Intensive Intervention (NCII) provides a series of reading lessons to support special education instructors, reading interventionists, and others working with students who struggle with reading. These lessons address key reading skills and incorporate instructional principles that can help intensify and individualize reading instruction. The reading lessons are examples of brief instructional routines that may be used to supplement reading interventions, programs, or curricula that are currently in place. These lessons are designed to supplement, not supplant, reading instruction and interventions for struggling readers. They do not represent an exhaustive reading curriculum. It is expected that teachers would customize these lessons to meet the needs of their target students" (Weingarten et al., 2018)

This Educator’s Toolbox, developed in Partnership with The Reading League Journal, uses an infographic to explain the critical role that phonological awareness plays in learning to read. You will learn what phonological awareness is, how to effectively teach phonological awareness to prepare early readers, and how this and other NCIL infographics can be used to promote awareness and understanding of evidence-based literacy practices.

This video depicts a first grade small group engaging in a word-building activity. There are 4 students in this demonstration and they are using sound boxes and letter-tiles.

This video depicts a whole kindergarten class engaging in a read-aloud and discussion.