Elementary Literacy Resources

Seven Essentials of Literacy

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Oral Language

The spoken language used to express knowledge, ideas, and feelings.

Phonological Awareness

The ability to manipulate phonemes within words by isolating sounds and blending them.

Phonics

The relationship between phonemes and printed letters and the use of this knowledge to read and spell.

Fluency

The effortless reading of text with adequate rate, accuracy, and expression to support comprehension.

Vocabulary

The knowledge of words and their meanings.

Comprehension

The ability to extract and construct meaning from text.

Writing

The ability to communicate knowledge, ideas, and feelings in written form.

Kindergarten

Parent Guide to the Core

A parent guide from the Utah State Board of Education to help inform families on specific literacy skills in grades K-6th.

Kindergarten Here We Come

A guide to support your child's learning before they enter kindergarten.

Building Readers: A Parent's Guide

Age-appropriate guide and at-home strategies for parents to encourage their child to read.

Research and Innovation for a More Literate World

A source for research and developement on literacy in the United States and worldwide.

Helping Your Child Become a Reader

The United States Department of Education publishes activities by age level to help students become readers.

First Grade

This site provides resources for families to practice and reinforce important literacy skills with their children who are being assessed with mCLASS (Acadience) reading assessments. All students Kindergarten-Third grade are administered the Acadience testing screener at their local elementary school.

Reading Rockets

A step-by-step guide to what parents can do to raise a reader.

Do Regular Literacy Performance Check

Partner with your school and be informed about assessment information and instruction that best supports your child's needs.

Waterford Upstart

Waterford UPSTART provides four-year-old children access to academic support in their early education.

Second Grade

Toolkit for Struggling Readers Grades 6-12

The toolkit for struggling readers, produced by the Utah State Board of Education, is a resource for parents and teachers who work with struggling readers. It offers suggestions for instruction and for increasing the motivation of adolescent readers.

Dyslexia Handbook

This dyslexia handbook is published by the Utah State Office of Education and is meant to help local education agencies, educators, and parents support their struggling readers.

Dyslexia Google Plugin

Open-Dyslexic is an open sourced font created to increase readability for readers with dyslexia. This extension overrides all fonts on web pages with the OpenDyslexic font and formats pages to be more easily readable.

Partnering with your Child's School

Collaborate with your school to make decisions about your child’s literacy education right from the start.

Helping your child with homework

The United States Department of Education offers suggestions for creating a home environment conducive to productive homework time.

National Center on Improving Literacy

Practical help for implementing recommended literacy practices with beginning readers.

Third Grade

United for Literacy

Digital picture books for children.

Scholastic

A website for parents with resources to encourage a love of learning.

Sora

Sora by Overdrive is an online library that provides access to digital reading materials for students. This is a great resource for accessing audiobooks.

Utah Online Library

Utah’s Online Library is a rich collection of digital resources provided for K-12 students and educators in the state of Utah. It provides access to subscription databases and services such as EBSCO, Utah Digital Newspapers, and World Book Encyclopedia.

I Love Libraries

This website contains suggested reading lists from the American Library Association. The titles represent a broad range of interests, reading levels, and maturity levels. We highly recommend that adults take an active role in helping their students select books that are a good fit for them and their families.

Fourth Grade

Read Write Think, Construct a Word

Provides a simple, engaging way for students to generate dozens of different words by first choosing an ending (for example -an, -ed, -at, -op) and then adding a beginning letter or blend.

Lexia

Lexia is a computerized reading program that provides students with independent practice in basic reading skills. Lexia consists of MyLexia for teachers, Core 5 for students in K-5, and PowerUp for students in 6-12.

Starfall

Starfall is a site specializing in reading, phonics, and math educational games, movies, books, songs for children K-3rd.

PBS Kids

PBS Kids is a site with educational games and videos that support early literacy skills.

Fifth Grade