What’s Important to Know
Today’s students achieve the most important task of schooling, that is, developing skilled literacy (reading and spelling) over the course of several years.
It is often said that grades Kindergarten through Grade 3 are the years students “learn to read”, with the years from Grades 4+ the years students “read to learn.” In fact, in several states, something exists called ‘The 3rd Grade Guarantee’. The idea is that students who cannot read proficiently need to either have intensive intervention and/or possibly be retained in Grade 3. As we all are aware, many students who are not proficient in Grade 3 are passed on to Grade 4 and beyond.
Unless students become skilled readers, spellers, and writers, much of what our educational system has to offer, inclusive of learning about science, social studies (history and the world), and even solving mathematical problems will remain elusive. And that is the case these days for many students, as learners continue to suffer the residuals of “Covid Learning Loss.” Additionally, a whopping 2/3 of our nation’s students possess reading achievement below levels which would be considered proficient. These students will never get to the point of being able to “read to learn”, not to mention the emotional costs of ‘reading failure’ to these students, and society as a whole.
Many parents did not even realize this was and is the case until Covid forced in-person classroom learning to a grinding halt. Once the transition to ‘remote schooling’ was put in place, many parents became uneasily aware of their child(ren)’s learning deficits—there was no way to avoid seeing the obvious. Emily Hanford and Christopher Peak’s Sold a Story podcast brought this ‘literacy tragedy’ to the forefront of education, parenting, and legislative efforts. If you haven’t listened to it, go for it. One of my colleagues found it so intriguing, he described, “staying up very late to binge listen” in an email correspondence.
Image from APM Reports
More is NOT Better! Literacy Does NOT Equal ‘The Kitchen Sink’
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Just a few weeks ago, I received a phone call from parents of an 8-year-old child. I’ve known both of these parents since they were teens. They are well educated and want nothing better for their children than to enjoy and easily achieve academic competence. Instead, the conversation related a ‘tale of woe’—their child “hates to practice reading”, is not very confident in terms of reading/writing skills, “does ok on weekly spelling tests”, but doesn’t retain the correct spelling of the many words they are required to study and learn each week. Handwriting is not the issue, but ‘failure to launch’ in terms of literacy skills sure IS becoming an issue.
I asked the parents if they knew how reading and spelling were taught. At first, they were not sure, but I probed further, asking:
- Does your child get any additional reading assistance?” (The response: “Yes, Reading Recovery.”)
- “Does your child use ‘leveled readers’?” (The response: ‘Yes”) If you are unsure about what a ‘leveled reader’ is, watch The Purple Challenge Part 1 and Part 2.
- “Does your child’s school use a phonics program?” (The response: “Yes, Fundations.”)
- “Does your child take weekly spelling tests?” (The response: “Yes, but has trouble studying for them and does not retain them the next week.”
Of course, I was flabbergasted—and annoyed for the umpteenth time over the course of my career—and it never ceases to greatly bother me. Why?
This child has been taught to read and spell using a ‘recipe for disaster’..that is, containing everything but the kitchen sink! Leveled Readers and Reading Recovery are based upon using various ‘cues’ (3 Cueing System), often resulting in students ‘guessing’ rather than truly ‘decoding the words on the page’, while Fundations utilizes more of an approach aligned to the Science of Reading if it is taught as it is meant to be taught. Teachers need training, coaching, and most importantly, the appropriate amount of time to teach this curriculum. I encourage you to go to the links provided above to learn more about these diametrically opposed approaches in order to see for yourselves. It is no wonder this 8-year-old’s ‘reading world’ is confused and resistant.
This child’s dad came up with the perfect analogy! He said, “it’s [teaching literacy using many uncoordinated programs] like giving us a recipe using the metric system when we use the imperial standard system (cups, ounces, etc.)—and were never provided with a way to change up the equivalencies.” I couldn’t have said it better.
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Cognitive psychologist Mark Seidenberg refers to this educational conundrum as “the kitchen sink” approach. That is, our schools often think “more is better”. Let’s combine this with the notion that it is difficult for many (especially teachers) to eliminate items in their ‘educational toolboxes’ they think are valuable. Some may be valuable, but, but, but…Dr. Seidenberg goes on to state that with “limited time for instruction”, students need to have the [foundational] tools to use what they have learned in order to learn even more about how English patterns repeat themselves. He states, “human brains are attracted to patterns.”
The Science of Reading
Well….while literacy skills can be taught in numerous ways, according to cognitive neuroscientist, Stanislaus Dehaene, “there is only one way reading develops in the brains of humans.” Reading is not a natural act as is oral language development, and pretty much all humans need to be explicitly taught to ‘crack the code of English’ (or whatever other language one is learning to reading and spell) to greater or lesser extents. This is especially true of students who are just beginning their educational adventures in grades Kindergarten through Grade 2 mastering foundational literacy skills. And let us not forget the students in the upper grades who never truly were taught and/or failed to master foundational literacy skills.
The Science of Reading, a term first referred to in Snowling and Hume’s The Science of Reading: A Handbook (2005) has come to describe this ‘one way’ humans learn to read (spell, and write). You will hear and see the term ‘Science of Reading’ at school open houses, local Boards of Educations, in local and national newspapers, and even written on textbooks. You can read even more about the Science of Reading here.
The Science of Reading (SoR) approaches to literacy all are based on the same premises:
–oral language development is natural and sets the stage for literacy development
–phonemic awareness — most important skills are sound blending and sound segmentation
–phonics — development of the Alphabetic Principle (letters represent the sounds oral language; letters do not make sounds or say anything!)
–letter formation (writing by hand)
–simultaneous instruction in reading, spelling, writing
–development of automatic word recognition (orthographic mapping) and reading/spelling fluency with practice first using decodable text following a well thought out and intentional scope and sequence (reading practice based pretty much only on the sound/symbol relationships that have been taught) and then transitioning to authentic text
–vocabulary development—foundational years via oral read alouds/discussion followed by independent reading on the part of the student(s)
–morphology, which begins in Kindergarten—i.e. suffixes, -s, -ed, -ing, Latinate and Greek roots, which bear meaning such as ‘struct’, which means ‘to build’ as in ‘construct’ or ‘structure’.
An easy way to digest this information with your child(ren) is to read my new book, Calling All Neurons! How Reading and Spelling Happen — just look it up here or my website. You won’t be sorry!
Ask Questions! Yes, Do It! And Don’t Be Fooled, Be Complacent, or Accept the Notion of “More Time” for Your Child!
As a parent or caregiver, it is your responsibility to ask questions and research the answers you receive rather than assume “the school administrators and/or teachers know best.” Oftentimes, your child(ren)’s teachers have no say when it comes to the curricula they need to use. Sometimes, these decisions are made at the district level. And some school districts are very large.
Once you have done your research and gathered information, don’t be afraid to share it with school personnel. See if a branch of The Reading League in your state has been formed. See if the curriculum implemented is on the Reading League’s approved list of curricula aligned with the Science of Reading. If you think your child has dyslexia, reach out to your local Decoding Dyslexia or International Dyslexia Association branch.
Time IS of the essence. You want to avoid children suffering from ‘reading failure’. The best way to accomplish this is to be sure your child(ren) can get the words off the page when reading and get the words on the page when spelling and writing. As Anita Archer aptly states, love of reading cannot exist if the student cannot get the words off the page.
End of story for the 8-year-old: The parents hired a tutor who is well versed in the Science of Reading to untangle this child’s confusion and get this kiddo ‘on the road to reading’. Remember, ‘no time to waste’.
A Final Thought
If you are aware of a plethora of literacy tutors in your neck of the woods, all of whom have waiting lists, give some thought to the notion that the reading instruction offered in the local schools may not be aligned with the Science of Reading. Spread the word about how literacy should be taught…help to clean up but one set of dishes and silverware in ‘the kitchen sink’–it would be SO much easier for both our kids and their teachers!
Photo by Lori Josephson!