Universal Tier 1 literacy instruction should benefit all learners, including learners with disabilities. At the elementary level, it integrates listening, speaking, reading, and writing and emphasizes language structure. Class-wide reading instruction includes lessons in phonology (speech-sound system), sound/symbol associations, orthography (writing structure), syntax (structure of sentences), morphology (meaningful parts in words), and semantics (meanings of words, phrases, sentences in text). Mechanisms are in place to support teachers as they prioritize curriculum resources to teach the structure of language using a combination of whole-group and small-group instruction. Sufficient time is dedicated to teaching learners to be skillful readers across disciplines. Tier 1 instruction includes ongoing use of assessment data to inform instruction and help identify learners needing additional reading intervention support. For tier 1 instruction to serve all students, it must also align with intervention supports. Students must have the opportunity to continue practicing and generalizing the strategies and skills they are learning during intervention instruction in their tier 1 classroom instruction.
Secondary tier 1 literacy instruction integrates listening, speaking, reading, and writing across core subject areas. Core subject-area teachers (ELA, math, science, social studies) meaningfully incorporate relevant discipline-specific text into daily lessons (e.g., different ELA genres and informational texts for social studies and science). Evidence-based instructional strategies support students’ ongoing development of comprehension processes to actively construct meaning from text and establish a mental model of disciplinary concepts. Tier 1 instruction includes the ongoing use of formative data to inform instruction and help identify learners needing additional reading intervention support at the secondary level. Consistent with elementary literacy instruction, for Tier 1 instruction to serve all students, it must also align with Tier 2 and 3 intervention supports. Students must be able to continue practicing and generalizing the strategies and skills they are learning during intervention instruction in their classes.