The Pandemic hit early literacy hard, with disrupted schooling and detached classroom learning making it hard for students to learn properly and has yet to fully recover. Reading scores on the 2024 National Assessment of Educational Progress fell two points, on average, for both 4th and 8th graders, continuing the steady decline that started in 2019. One-third of 8th graders are below the benchmark, while 40 percent of 4th graders fall below it as well.
Here are 4 ways to help improve foundational reading skills:
- Strengthening Phonemic Awareness
If you have students struggling with blending letters or manipulating sounds, quick, daily practice with phonemic awareness can help reinforce reading skills. Activities like “sounds stretchers” where kids say a word slowly, stretching out syllables, then blending sounds together to say the whole word, or “tap it out” where students tap a finger to their thumb for each sound they hear in a word, can be a simple starting place for practice.
2. Active Bodies Fuel Early Literacy
Movement has been proven to keep students’ brains active and engaged for longer periods of time. A 2022 study of 1st graders found that when students practiced whole-body movements that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet they doubled their ability to accurately recall letter-sound pairings, compared to students who merely read while sitting at their desks.
3. Classroom Read Aloud
Reading Aloud as a group has been proven to be a highly effective way to introduce students to grade-level and above text and get them practicing the basics of comprehension. In a 2025 study, students that had mixed teaching models with echo reading, choral reading, and paired reading with frequently repeated read-aloud sessions outperformed peers by 20 to 35 percent on measures of accuracy, speed, vocabulary, and overall reading proficiency.
4. More Word Activities
Continuing the trend with phonemic practice, there are other everyday activities students can use with text to continue and strengthen their understanding. Activities like a scavenger hunt with simple clues that involve reading signs, labels, and logos can help get kids moving while understanding words and their meaning; teachers can also use partner reading to have peer-on-peer help where each student takes turns reading pages aloud.
What reading techniques have you found the best to build fundamental reading skills?
Resources:
https://www.studentachievementsolutions.com/strategies-to-boost-foundational-reading-skills/
https://www.edutopia.org/article/5-research-backed-literacy-strategies-that-go-beyond-phonics/
https://grozalearningcenter.com/fun-reading-activities-for-confidence/
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