Literacy Resources

Advanced Word Study

Advanced word study is reading and spelling instruction focused on analyzing multisyllabic words by breaking them into meaningful parts through use of advanced phonics strategies.

Alphabetic Principle

The alphabet principle is the knowledge that letters represent the sounds of spoken language.

Arts & Letters

Arts & Letters is the K-5 reading comprehension curriculum for knowledge-building, comprehension, vocabulary, language development, writing, and culturally responsive instruction. (beginning fall 2026)

Assessment

An assessment is a systematic process used to measure, evaluate, and understand a student's reading, writing and speaking capabilities

Automaticity 

Automaticity is the ability to recognize or decode words quickly, accurately, and effortlessly, allowing readers to focus on comprehension rather than individual word recognition.

Benchmark Adelante

Benchmark Adelante is the current K-5 reading comprehension curriculum used only in Dual Language schools.

Comprehension

Comprehension is the process of using background knowledge together with print in reading to construct meaning.

Continuous Improvement

Continuous improvement is an ongoing cycle of goal setting, implementation, and assessment used to create measurable growth in student outcomes and teaching practices district wide.

Culturally Responsive Curriculum

A culturally responsive curriculum connects students’ backgrounds, identities, languages, and experiences to their learning, using those assets to support academic success.

Data-Based Decision Making

Data-based decision making is a process of using assessments to guide instructional choices at the district, school, grade, classroom, and student levels.

Decoding

Decoding is the process of using letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech. 

Diagnostic Assessments 

A diagnostic assessment pinpoints the specific literacy skills that a student has mastered and which are missing in order to design instruction that meets exactly what a student needs to learn in order to succeed.

Dual Language Schools

Dual language schools are schools in which students learn literacy and academic language simultaneously in both English and an additional language.

Dyslexia

The International Dyslexia Association (IDA) defines dyslexia as “a specific learning disability characterized by persistent difficulties in word reading and/or spelling. These challenges affecting accuracy, speed, or both, occur on a continuum of severity, and persist despite instruction that is effective for an individual's peers.”

ELA

English Language Arts

Expression

Expression means using tone, pitch, volume, emphasis and rhythm while reading out loud in a way that sounds like spoken language

Family and Community Engagement

Family and community engagement is the practice of building relational trust and equitable partnerships between families and school/district staff to create shared responsibility for student success.

FastBridge

FastBridge is the specific universal screening assessment tool used by Minneapolis Public Schools to monitor overall literacy progress for all students.

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read accurately and automatically with expression.

Foundational Skills

Foundational skills are the basic skills required to read words on a page, including phonemic awareness, phonics and automatic word reading.

Grapheme

A grapheme is a written letter (such as S) or letter combination (such as SH) that represents a sound in a word.

Intervention 

Intervention is small group instruction, provided in addition to classroom instruction,  for students whose screening data indicates a need for additional support.

Knowledge-Building Curriculum

A Knowledge-building curriculum is a literacy curriculum that develops reading comprehension through rich content in science, history and the arts.

Language Development

Language development is the continuous growth of the ability to understand and express ideas through the integrated practices of reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

Morpheme

A morpheme is the smallest part of a word that holds meaning.  It can be a whole word like dog, or it can be part of a word like “pre-,” which means "before" in words such as preview.

Morphology

Morphology is the study of word parts that have meaning.  (roots, prefixes, suffixes and base words)

MnMTSS

MnMTSS stands for Minnesota Multi-Tiered System of Supports. It is a systemic, continuous improvement framework to ensure equitable social, emotional, behavioral, developmental, and academic outcomes for all students.

Multi-Layered Practices and Support

The Mult-Layered Practices and Support system is part of the MnMTSS framework.  It is a data-driven instructional system designed to layer support for students by need:

• Tier 1 (Strong Core Support): High-quality core literacy instruction provided to all students using the standard curriculum.
• Tier 2 (Supplemental Layer): Targeted skills support provided to some students during specialized times or small group instruction.
• Tier 3 (Intensive Support): High-intensity, direct intervention provided to a few students, which is inclusive of students with disabilities.

Multilingual Learner

A multilingual learner is any student who is actively developing proficiency in two or more languages. While it often refers to a student learning English as an additional language at school. The term highlights that a student's home language is a valuable asset rather than a barrier.

Phoneme

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a word that makes one word different from another.

Phonemic Awareness

Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to identify and manipulate the individual sounds that make up words.  

Phonics

Phonics is the ability to match sounds to letters and letter groups when reading.

Progress Monitoring

Progress monitoring is the systematic and ongoing process of frequently collecting data to assess student performance, track improvement, and evaluate the effectiveness of instruction or intervention.

Prosody

Prosody is reading with expression and fluency, including rhythm, intonation, pitch and pauses, which help convey meaning and emotion. 

READ Act

Minnesota’s Reading to Ensure Academic Development Act, known as the READ Act, was passed and signed into law by Governor Tim Walz on May 24, 2023. The goals of this legislation are to have every Minnesota child reading at or above grade level every year, beginning in kindergarten, and to support multilingual learners and students receiving special education services in achieving their individualized reading goals in order to meet grade-level proficiency. It includes requirements for screening, professional development for teachers, and intervention for all students reading below grade level.

Reading Accelerator

EPS Reading Accelerator is an evidence-based reading intervention program for middle school that accelerates mastery of foundational reading skills for striving readers.

S.P.I.R.E.

S.P.I.R.E stands for Specialized Program Individualizing Reading Excellence. S.P.I.R.E. is an evidence-based reading curriculum used in grades 6-12 to solidify foundational reading skills for striving readers.

Science of Reading

The science of reading is body of research that explains how the human brain learns to read and which identifies best practices in reading instruction

S.T.A.R.I.

S.T.A.R.I. stands for Strategic Adolescent Reading Intervention. S.T.A.R.I. is a literature-focused, Tier II intervention for students in grades 6-9 who read two or more years below grade level.

Students with Disabilities

Students with language disabilities require systematic, explicit, multisensory structured literacy and accommodations to ensure equitable access to grade-level literacy.

Tier I / Core Instruction

Tier 1 or core instruction is the every day teaching that all students receive.

Tier II

Tier II supports are delivered in small groups and provide targeted teaching in addition to core instruction, focusing on specific student needs as identified through diagnostic assessments and progress monitoring.

Tier III

Tier III supports intensive, targeted instruction in addition to core instruction which focuses on specific student needs as identified through diagnostic assessments and more frequent progress monitoring. Tier III supports are delivered in very small groups or individually. Students meet more frequently and for more time than tier two groups. Tier III should be administered by a trained educator. 

UFLI Foundations

University of Florida Literacy Institute (UFLI) Foundations is the elementary curriculum for phonics, phonemic awareness, fluency, and foundational skills.

Vocabulary 

A student's vocabulary is a set of words they can use correctly in spoken and written language to communicate meaning.

Writing

Writing is the complex process of expressing ideas, knowledge, and thinking through both the mechanical act of producing text and the cognitive process of composition.