Reading: Foundational Skills, Kindergarten

It doesn't get more foundational than the kindergarten Common Core Standards for Reading: Foundational Skills. They'll be the foundation of all Foundational Reading Skills to come. These standards start with the very basics of reading and help students acquire skills that are so ingrained in adults, we don't even remember learning them.

But don't be intimidated by all that foundational-ness. These building blocks seem second nature, and for good reason. Chances are, even if you haven't broken reading down into these standards, you're probably throwin' down the blocks and your kids are probably picking up every one of 'em.

These standards are broken down into three key areas of understanding: what letters and words look like, what letters and words sound like, and how these graphemes and phonemes fit together to form a means of visual communication. Students will start small, pairing sounds with letters, combining and rearranging letters to make syllables, and then using these syllables to break down words.

If all that sounds a bit complicated for kindergartners, just put down the Jean Baudrillard and imagine yourself teaching them how to read the word ball. You'd explain what the letters sound and look like and how ball is different from the word fall. Simple, right? You've essentially got it.

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