# 5 Key Areas of Knowledge Every Reading Teacher Needs to Master October 5, 2023 What does it take to be a great reading teacher? All prospective teachers of reading require core knowledge and skills in at least five areas. In today’s post, adapted from the book **[The Power of RTI and Reading Profiles](https://products.brookespublishing.com/The-Power-of-RTI-and-Reading-Profiles-P812.aspx)** by Louise Spear-Swerling, discover which areas—and associated skills—are the most important for elementary (K–6) teachers of reading to master. ### Area 1: Knowledge about typical reading development, common reading difficulties, and disabilities Reading teachers should be able to… - Explain phases, abilities, and processes involved in typical reading development, including the five components of reading and how the importance of different components shifts during development. - Describe the influence of socioeconomic, cultural, and linguistic factors on children’s reading development, including for English language learners. - Explain key abilities/knowledge involved in reading comprehension such as background knowledge, inferencing, and knowledge of text structure. - Describe common profiles and patterns of reading difficulties as well as basic features of common disabilities that affect reading (e.g., dyslexia). - Explain the most important provisions of federal and state laws for students with disabilities (e.g., free appropriate public education). ### Area 2: Knowledge about the structure of language Reading teachers should be able to… - Segment phonemes and morphemes in words, identify syllable types, and identify phonetically irregular words. - Identify common roots, prefixes, and suffixes as well as generalizations for syllabication of long words. - Explain common spelling generalizations. - Identify common morphemes, cohesive words, and semantic relationships among words. - Identify different sentence and paragraph structures. - Identify different genres and discourse structures. - Identify specific features of a text that may make comprehension difficult (e.g., complex syntax, double negatives). ### Area 3: Knowledge about research foundations Reading teachers should be able to… - Explain fundamental consensus research findings about reading (e.g., skilled reading is associated with highly accurate, automatic decoding; language differences and early language delay are risk factors for reading difficulties) and their implications for educational practice. - Recognize the importance of ongoing professional development that includes reading professional journals and other sources of research. ### Area 4: Knowledge about assessment Reading teachers should be able to… - Explain important concepts about the technical adequacy of tests, such as reliability and validity; interpret information about specific tests to determine if the test is technically adequate for its intended purpose. - Administer and interpret assessments for screening, progress monitoring, and evaluation of outcomes. - Administer and interpret assessments of the five components of reading, including diagnostic assessments. - Interpret multiple assessments in conjunction with each other to determine a student’s overall profile or pattern of reading difficulty (e.g., recognize when a child’s poor reading comprehension is due solely to decoding difficulties versus core comprehension weaknesses). ### Area 5: Knowledge about instruction Reading teachers should be able to… - Provide explicit, systematic teaching of the five components of reading and of specific comprehension abilities/knowledge (e.g., inferencing, text structure, cohesive words). - Integrate instruction appropriately across different components, including making instructional connections between specific components of reading and specific components of writing. - Choose appropriate instructional examples or questions in all five component areas. - Provide clear, constructive feedback to children’s errors and confusions for all five components. - Differentiate and adapt instruction for students with varied needs, including for English language learners, for students with common disabilities, and for different profiles and patterns of reading difficulties. - Motivate and engage students of varied achievement levels and cultural-linguistic backgrounds as well as manage groups of students. - Describe different text types (e.g., predictable, decodable, children’s literature, informational) and how/when each is useful in instruction. - Place children in appropriate texts for instruction and identify when a text is too difficult / too easy for a given child. - Appropriately foster, monitor, and guide children’s independent reading. To help them develop this knowledge base and the essential skills that go with it, reading teachers need both high-quality preservice preparation and practical in-service professional resources. Find both in the latest edition of our [**Reading & Literacy textbooks catalog**](https://products.brookespublishing.com/The-Power-of-RTI-and-Reading-Profiles-P812.aspx) and our [**professional guides for educators.**](https://products.brookespublishing.com/reading-and-literacy.aspx) And get the book behind today’s post for a proven approach to addressing reading difficulties! ### The Power of RTI and Reading Profiles **A Blueprint for Solving Reading Problems** By Louise Spear-Swerling, Ph.D. This one-of-a-kind text explains why RTI is today’s best approach for preventing reading difficulties—and how research on reading profiles can enhance the power of RTI. For practitioners, the book provides a complete, evidence-based blueprint for using RTI and reading profiles in tandem to plan effective core literacy instruction and help struggling readers in Grades K-6. [LEARN MORE](https://products.brookespublishing.com/The-Power-of-RTI-and-Reading-Profiles-P812.aspx)