Have you heard all the buzz about the Science of Reading? I bet you have. Is it really the answer to helping struggling readers? Should teachers abandon tried and true practices? Are there simple ways to embrace the Science of Reading?
What is the Science of Reading?
First, I need to disclose that I am in no way a Science of Reading expert. Not one bit! I have a Master’s in Reading, but I am still just beginning my journey into what the Science of Reading means and how I can implement the principles of SoR.
I have been in education for over 30 years. I was a classroom teacher for 24 years and a school librarian for 6 years. When I was in the classroom, I mainly taught first grade. In 2022, I retired but returned part-time as a first-grade interventionist (a fancy way to say small group tutor). This year I will be providing one hour of English instruction to a second-grade class of dual-immersion students.
As a veteran teacher, I am always curious but a little wary when I hear about a “new approach” to teaching reading. I mean, for 24 years, teaching students to read was my life and my passion.
Is Science of Reading a new approach? Actually, it is not. The Science of Reading (or SoR) is based on decades of research in many disciplines, including cognitive psychology, linguistics, neuroscience, education, and language acquisition. Whew! THAT IS A LOT!
Basically, The Science of Reading focuses on understanding how people learn to read and how reading skills are developed.
Why is a Non-expert talking about the SoR?
If you are still reading, thank you! I can guess you probably are wondering why a self-proclaimed novice is even talking about the Science of Reading. The fact that I am not an expert is exactly why I am talking about it.
When I am unsure of something or even a little nervous about something, doing research on the topic makes me feel better. I guess this explains why I have always loved school and loved doing research.
Well, when I agreed to take on the job as an English teacher, I was nervous. These kids have been participating in a special program at our school. For the last two years, they have been immersed in Spanish. All of their instruction, except elective classes, has been in Spanish. This year, as second graders, they will receive one hour of literacy instruction in English. If you are an elementary teacher, you know that one hour for literacy instruction is not enough time. No way! I know I have to get the most bang for my buck with this one hour.
My school system began participating in LETRs training in the last year of my career. As someone about to retire, I was not allowed to participate in the very expensive training. I understood, but I was disappointed. I wanted to understand this Science of Reading.
Although I had been in the classroom for 24 years, spending a great deal of time teaching students to read, I was really nervous that my lack of knowledge about the SoR would negatively impact my new students.
What did I decide to do this summer? You guessed it – RESEARCH! I have read tons of articles and watched all kinds of videos to help me feel more prepared.
I realize I still have a lot to learn, but I do feel better. Now, still not an expert, I am going to share why I feel better and why you should too.
We are Already Rocking It!
I am serious! There are certainly some specific and distinct changes I have learned that I need to make during my literacy block. However, when I was teaching first grade I was already implementing many SoR best practices and I bet you are too!
This structured literacy approach demands explicit and systematic phonics instruction. We do that!
I began my journey as an educator during the whole language movement. It didn’t take too long to realize that kids needed phonics instruction and needed to develop their phonemic awareness.
For many years, my school system relied on the Open Court reading series. While I didn’t love everything about this program, I did love the phonemic awareness activities, systematic and explicit instruction of sounds and their spellings, as well as daily opportunities to blend and decode words.
Now my school system uses Heggerty for phonemic awareness and Letterland for phonics instruction.
SoR encourages multi-sensory practice and an understanding of individual learning preferences and needs. I believe most elementary teachers are “experts” in these two areas.
This structured literacy approach still has a strong emphasis on developing vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension. If you have been teaching for a while, I know you know the importance of the big 5 – phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.
As students develop into fluent, proficient readers, they need lots of opportunities to work with sounds and words and need time to explore the written language! They benefit from listening to an engaging read-aloud read by a fluent reader. I wholeheartedly believe this and my research into SoR supports this as well.
See? A lot of what you have already been doing to support your students’ literacy development is what you should continue doing.
If you have been feeling a little nervous about embracing the SoR, I hope I am helping you feel a little better.
Here comes the part that may take a little time to fully understand and embrace. There are some best practices that are different than what I did for many years and may be different for you too. Remember, it is ok to go slow and make gradual changes as needed.
Goodbye to Some Favorites
Goodbye Word Wall
I loved my word wall (cue the single tear). My word wall was huge and beautiful! It had bright colors, printed words, and hand-written words that my students wanted to add. We had so much fun with word chants and sight word games. Each week, we learned 5 new sight words that we would add to our word wall.
At times, the word wall was a great tool. When a student was writing and they did not know how to spell a word, I would suggest they go look at the word wall. This was only helpful if the student knew what letter the word began with and if they already had an idea of how to spell the word. I mean really, who knows to look for “know” under the letter K.
This year, I am going to embrace a sound wall. I think this tool will be much more beneficial. Reading Rockets provides a fabulous explanation of what a sound wall is and how to transition from a word wall to a sound wall.
Goodbye Leveled Text – Wait, Actually No!
Ok, remember when I said it was ok to make gradual changes? This one has to be gradual for me. Structured literacy encourages a strong emphasis on decodable text. Personally, I agree. However, in the past, I found decodable books to be a little boring and only wanted to use them to reinforce the phonics skill I was teaching. My main tool for literacy instruction, especially small groups, was leveled text.
During my hours of research, I have encountered some very strong arguments why leveled readers are not necessarily our best choice for teaching reading. It makes sense that students need a great deal of practice decoding in order to improve their ability to decode. I get this and fully endorse using decodable passages and books. I also know that leveling a book is not an exact science and books can vary in difficulty even on the same level. Students should not be confined to one level and should certainly be allowed to explore other levels.
I do plan to utilize decodable texts even more than I have in the past. However, I think leveled texts can be beneficial. Leveled texts will still be used in my literacy block, I just plan on not making them such a large component. I also will not be sending home leveled books each week with my students (another tear falls).
Goodbye Ineffective Reading Strategies
Look at the picture. What do you think makes sense in this sentence? I admit I did encourage my students to rely on pictures and to basically make guesses when they got stuck with a word.
These strategies really aren’t the best choices. I plan to help my students focus on the actual words now and utilize their phonics knowledge. I know I did this before, but I plan to be more aware and more intentional with giving my students effective tools for dealing with a word they can’t read easily.
Goodbye Random Sight Words and Spelling Lists
First, I am cheering saying goodbye to random spelling lists. I never thought this was good practice. Typically I would focus on word families. This year, I plan on providing spelling lists that coincide with the phonics focus of the week. Truthfully I would not even have weekly spelling words, but I know parents like to have a spelling list. I might as well choose words that matter and reinforce the phonics skill we are learning.
I really thought I was doing a good job with sight words. I now understand that most high-frequency words are actually decodable and it is best to help students see this by integrating sight words with phonics instruction. Two terms you may have heard are flash words and heart words. Flash words are high-frequency words that students can decode and read in a flash. Heart words have spelling patterns that are more irregular and must be learned by heart. Reading Rockets has great charts that will help as we make this change in our instruction.
What Can We Still Continue?
No doubt, there are still many more things that I must change or stop doing. I am going to give myself some grace as I continue to learn. You should too!
Along with research, figuring out what I can still “use” and what still “works” reduces my stress greatly.
Guess what? There is a lot that we can continue using!
Read-alouds
As I mentioned earlier, read-alouds should still be an important part of your daily instruction. Children need to be exposed to a variety of books. They need to hear books that are too challenging for them to read. Reading to your students is still important and should absolutely be continued!
Put Books in Their Hands
We still want to encourage our students to be lifelong readers. Kids need the opportunity to interact with books daily. Yes, use your decodables to reinforce systematic phonics instruction. Don’t forget that students still need to explore real literature. Maybe you won’t use leveled text every day during small group instruction, but you can still make books accessible to your students.
Combine Whole Group and Small Group Instruction
Students certainly benefit from both types of instruction and this should not change. I felt like I laid the foundation during whole group instruction, but made the most impact during small group instruction. If you are not sure how to structure your literacy block, this 90-minute schedule may help.
Use Technology
There is still a place for technology in a Science of Reading classroom. There are so many wonderful sites, such as Epic or Storyline Online, that can really enhance your instruction and make reading so much fun.
Another way to use technology is to incorporate it into your literacy centers for additional practice. One of my favorites is using Boom Cards™ . There are so many wonderful digital task cards that can really reinforce what students are learning in class. I know that my TPT store, Leigh’s Library has a bunch.
Play Games and Have Fun
That’s right, it is still good practice to have fun in a Science of Reading classroom! Games are a great way to reinforce skills.
I mentioned earlier that Science of Reading research encourages a multi-sensory approach. Students should have hands-on learning. They should tap out sounds in a word and make words with playdough. They should use their hands and bodies as they learn and review key concepts and skills. It is a great idea to incorporate games and hands-on activities that directly correlate to what students are learning.
Phonics gameboards can be used in small groups or during partner practice. Games are also great for your early finishers and can be an engaging way to keep them focused on meaningful learning. You can grab this free phonics game set.
You can also add fun review into your literacy centers. These self-checking Poke cards are a great way to give students a chance to practice skills independently.
Don’t be afraid to continue doing the “fun” things. As long as you are intentional with your use of these materials or activities they can still fit in a Science of Reading classroom.
Think about What Your Students Need
You still have to take into account the individual needs of your students. Students will still be on different levels. They will still have different learning preferences. While providing more explicit and systematic phonics instruction may help students become more proficient readers, you still have to do what is best for your students. Remember, when it comes to your students, you know them better than anyone. Keep learning and keep growing as a teacher, but trust the knowledge you already have.
Experts That Can Help
As I said, I am not an expert on the Science of Reading. I am still reading, viewing, and researching as much as I can about SoR. There are certainly experts out there, but sometimes their message is a little difficult to understand. Here are three sources of information I have found very helpful.
The Institute for Multi-Sensory Education has a great article that really explains SoR in an understandable way. Christina Winters, of Mrs. Winter’s Bliss, is a person I have started following. She also does a great job explaining the Science of Reading and showing us teachers how we can implement SoR best practices in our classroom. Another “must follow” is Savannah Campbell, of Campbell Creates Readers. Savannah Campbell is an expert and a wonderful resource for understanding and implementing the Science of Reading.
Conclusion
Remember, change can be hard. Sometimes the thought of trying one more new thing is almost too much to handle. Ultimately, we want to do what is best for our students. While it can be easier to just continue with what we know, sometimes we have to take a hard look at what we are doing and consider whether there could be a better approach. However, I still think it is important to take stock of what materials and techniques we have been using and see what still fits as we make the shift to structured literacy and embrace the Science of Reading.