The Science of Reading: A Handbook: 18 (Wiley Blackwell Handbooks of Developmental Psychology)

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One of my favorites! This is the ultimate rule book for all of my rule lovers! This book helps uncover the rules of English through systematic, easy-to-read examples. The author argues that 98% of English words can be explained through phonograms and spelling rules, and explicitly teaching these rules to students could transform literacy as we know it. demonstrate how different knowledge sources underpin reading processes using a wide range of methodologies; I hope this was helpful. I've really enjoyed doing the science of reading series with you. This concludes our official science of reading podcast series, but we're not going to stop talking about these things next week. We're going to start a series about teaching phonics. Duff D, et al. (2015). The influence of reading on vocabulary growth:A case for a Matthew effect.DOI: Fluency: Include frequent chances for students to read and re-read orally from connected text—sentences, paragraphs, and passages. Focus on the development of both automatic word recognition and fluent expression, keeping understanding of the text as the central goal.

A research brief for educators embracing the science of reading from the EAB District Leadership Forum. This is an accessible read for educators who want to learn more and implement classroom instruction that is aligned to the science of reading.

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Text comprehension: Even before young students can read on their own, teach from rich texts via read-alouds and scaffolded reading. Teach students to use metacognitive strategies like setting a purpose, monitoring for meaning, and building inferences while reading. Discuss texts, including focusing on their organizational structures. Geary D C (2008). An Evolutionarily Informed Education Science. Educational Psychologist, 43(4), 179–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520802392133

Phonological awareness, phonemic awareness and phonics should be explicitly and directly taught in the early years of school to enable children to accurately sound out printed words. The active sounding out of words using letter-sounds knowledge is referred to as reading through the phonological pathway. Of course we want kids to love reading. But they’re more likely to enjoy it when they can learn it with less of a struggle. And advocates of the science of reading approach say their structured methods are more successful. It’s possible to ground kids in phonics and teach them to love books, at the same time. Where can I learn more? Learning to read proficiently is critical to a student’s entire education and predictive of future education, health and employment outcomes. The 5 specific reading sub-skills of phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension should be taught explicitly and systematically so all children become capable readers. Explicit teaching of these important skills is not yet consistently happening in Australian schools. It is important teachers and school leaders are supported to implement this evidence-based approach if all young Australians are to achieve the success in reading they deserve. References The Simple View formula explains the role decoding plays in reading and it is the widely accepted reading model by scientists (Gough and Tunmer 1986). It shows that reading has two basic components, word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Orthographic mapping is supported by phonics, as it's designed to build and strengthen relationships between sounds and letters and sequences of letters. This can explain why kids who haven't been taught phonics correctly, or who have poor decoding skills, struggle to learn words they're only exposed to a few times. What can educators do with this research?

Rizzolo D, et al. (2009). Stress management strategies for students: The immediate effects of yoga, humor, and reading on stress.DOI: The Knowledge Gap is another dense, but fantastic read! Wexler is actually an education journalist, not an educator. I appreciate her writing style and how she is able to weave in history, the science, and teaching vignettes to tell a full story. I also really enjoyed how her book was organized into three parts: The Way We Teach Now, How We Got Here, and How We Can Change.

For years now, the early literacy education community has been talking about the need to reform our practice to align to the science of reading. But what is the science of reading? And how can it improve our practice so kids become better readers? What is the science of reading? To become good orthographic mappers, children need to master the skills discussed above – phonemic awareness and knowing their letter sounds. But here’s the good news. You don’t need to be a content expert or researcher to discover which instructional practices or programs represent the most current science. The federally funded What Works Clearinghouse (opens in a new window) (WWC) offers trusted reports and practice guides on the research behind reading instruction. WWC is a free resource for educators and policymakers. The Best Evidence Encyclopedia (BEE) is a free resource created by the Johns Hopkins University School of Education’s Center for Research and Reform in Education. It gives educators and researchers information about the strength of the evidence supporting a variety of programs available for students in grades K-12. The BEE mostly consists of systematic meta-analyses of research on effective programs.The second section of her book is titled, “Instruction.” In this section, we are given SO MANY sample lessons and activities teachers can use to improve students’ phonological awareness and spelling. The range of skills covered is impressive and can be used through middle school or to differentiate in lower grades. Today, much of how we experience our information society reflects the influence of these enterprises. This book explains both how the science of reading shaped our age and why, with so-called reading wars still plaguing schools across the nation, it remains bitterly contested. I like this book because, again, if you are in a balanced literacy classroom, this shows you how to start to understand the science of reading and make some changes. It's not judgmental, but is a good way to start integrating the science into more of what you're doing. The Reading League and the National Committee for Effective Literacy issued this joint statement (2023): Understanding the Difference: The Science of Reading and Implementation for English Learners/Emergent Bilinguals (ELs/EBs) (opens in a new window).