The Principal’s Reading Walk- Through: K-3 Orientation

This publication was adapted by the Center on Instruction from multiple products as shown in acknowledgments and cited in references. The Center on Instruction is operated by RMC Research Corporation in partnership with the Florida Center for Reading Research at Florida State University; Instructional Research Group; the Texas Institute for Measurement, Evaluation, and Statistics at the University of Houston; and The Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk at the University of Texas at Austin. The contents of this Guide were developed under cooperative agreement S283B with the U.S. Department of Education. However, these contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the Department of Education, and you should not assume endorsement by the Federal Government. To download a copy of this document, visit

Introduction to the Principal’s Reading Walk- Through: K-3

National Reading Panel: High quality instruction during the early school years can prevent reading difficulties for many children.

Five Components of Reading Phonemic awareness Phonics Fluency Vocabulary Comprehension

A Principal’s Reading Walk- Through (PRWT) is not an evaluation.

A Principal’s Reading Walk- Through is a systematic way to collect real-time teaching and learning data.

Reading Walk-Through Checklist for 1st Grade Classrooms

Everyone can learn from objective comments about their practice.

The point is to observe instruction, take notes, and open dialogue.

Reading Walk-through Categories Classroom Environment CE Instructional MaterialsIM Teacher InstructionTI Reading CentersRC Phonemic AwarenessPA PhonicsP FluencyF VocabularyV ComprehensionC

Classroom Environment

Instructional Materials

Teacher Instruction When a teacher provides explicit instruction, students don’t have to guess what they should learn.

Reading Centers Each center offers meaningful, research-based activities that reinforce or extend what the teacher has already taught explicitly.

Concepts of Print Awareness that print carries a message, directionality, differences between letters and words, distinctions between upper and lower case, punctuation, etc.

Phonemic Awareness The ability to hear and manipulate the individual sounds in words.

Phonics The relationship between graphemes (letters) and the phonemes (sounds) they represent.

Fluency includes both automaticity (accuracy and speed) and prosody (appropriate expression and phrasing). Fluency

To develop strong vocabularies, 1st and 2nd graders need to learn more than 800 words a year—about two words a day. (Nagy & Anderson, 1984; Beck, 2002) Vocabulary

Comprehension Comprehension rests on metacognition—an awareness of one’s thinking and understanding: Does it make sense?

After the Reading Walk- Through, the principal offers his or her feedback.

Observation and reflective practice support a school’s evolution into a professional learning community.

Teachers who feel enabled to succeed with students are more committed and effective than those who feel unsupported in their teaching and in their practice.

Students experience academic gains in math, science, history, and reading.

The Principal’s Reading Walk- Through helps track trends— over time, by teachers, by grade level, by indicator, by category.