Which statement best defines cumulative instruction?

• A. Progressively building on concepts that students have already learned.
• B. Isolating each skill and teaching it separately with no connection.
• C. Waiting to introduce new topics until old ones are mastered.
• D. Limiting practice to individual reading tasks.

Answer: (A)

Cumulative instruction means building new learning on what students already know, connecting each new concept to prior knowledge so it rests on a solid foundation. In early literacy, this shows up as starting with foundational skills like phonemic awareness, then adding decoding, then fluency and vocabulary, with activities that explicitly link the new skill to what was learned before. This approach helps students retain information and apply skills to new reading tasks because everything fits together in a coherent progression. Other approaches that isolate skills with no connection, delay introducing new topics until everything old is mastered, or limit practice to single reading tasks don’t foster that continuous, integrated growth.