6/7/2023
Evidence-Based Science of Reading Strategies for Instruction
Education systems in the U.S. are still recovering from the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this becomes evident as we look at the impact the pandemic had on student learning loss and the already long-standing shortage of teachers. In addition to the pandemic, teaching students how to read without evidence-based professional training can be incredibly difficult. Thankfully, evidence-based professional development courses centering on the science of reading are becoming more accessible for educators at all levels.
Integrating the science of reading into instructional practices through Structured Literacy is the best way to address student learning loss and provide students with high-quality literacy education. The science of reading is beneficial to educators as well—by providing teachers with proper training about teaching reading, we are empowering them and helping them feel more prepared to address in-class challenges.
Structured Literacy: Research-Based Reading Curriculum
The science of reading refers to the accumulated evidence of gold-standard research on the process of literacy acquisition and reading instruction. This body of evidence combines research from multiple disciplines, including neuroscience, linguistics, education, and psychology. The science of reading and Structured Literacy go hand in hand—Structured Literacy is the in-class application of the science of reading.
Many programs claim to be research- or evidence-based, but oftentimes they cherry-pick science of reading evidence to accommodate certain beliefs. This is why the term Structured Literacy is so important—it provides differentiation among reading programs and instructional approaches.
How to Teach Reading: Components of Structured Literacy
Structured Literacy instruction is characterized by multiple specific principles: explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, and responsive instruction. These principles distinguish Structured Literacy as being informed by the science of reading, and should all be implemented when teaching reading.
Explicit
New concepts are explained directly and clearly by the teacher, followed by guided practice. After receiving instruction and practice, students apply each new concept to reading and writing words under the direct supervision of their teacher. Educators should provide immediate feedback and guidance, and make sure they correct any mistakes as they come up. One key aspect of this principle is remembering students should never be expected to intuitively learn new concepts simply through exposure—all concepts should be taught directly.
Systematic and cumulative
Language concepts should be taught systematically, meaning the teacher explains how each element fits into the whole. Instruction should follow a planned scope and sequence of skills that progress from easier to more difficult. Each concept should build on top of the previous one. Ultimately, the goal of systematic and cumulative teaching is the automatic and fluent application of language knowledge to reading for meaning.
Diagnostic and Responsive
Teachers should use student response patterns to inform and adjust the lesson’s pacing, presentation, and amount of practice given within the lesson framework. Student progress should also be monitored through observation and short assessments that measure retention of what has been taught.
Along with these principles, there are two critical hallmarks of Structured Literacy instruction that make it unique from other forms of literacy instruction:
- It teaches all the components that evidence has found to be foremost in ensuring reading success.
- It employs principles that align with the necessity of each component.
So what are the science of reading components educators should be teaching through the Structured Literacy approach?
Constructing Curriculum with the Simple View of Reading
Structured Literacy is the approach educators should take when teaching reading, but there are also a clear set of components outlined by the science of reading that show educators exactly how the human brain learns to read. One way of looking at these components is through the Simple View of Reading, which is an equation that demonstrates reading comprehension is made up of decoding and linguistic comprehension.
Decoding x Linguistic Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
The Simple View of Reading is set up as a multiplication equation to represent the importance of both decoding and linguistic comprehension. Both skills must be developed adequately to have strong reading comprehension abilities—a deficit in one skill could result in overall reading failure. Decoding and linguistic comprehension are both made up of a combination of skills, which we break down below.
What is Decoding?
Decoding is the translation of printed symbols on a page into their spoken equivalents. The ultimate goal of decoding is to make it automatic. Automaticity frees up cognitive resources, which in turn allows readers to focus on the meaning behind what they are reading, as opposed to what the word actually is. Decoding can be broken down into three underpinning components: phonology, orthography, and morphology.
Phonology
This refers to the speech sound system of a language. The phonology of English comprises around 44 speech sounds, or phonemes. In pre-K through first grade, students might be taught phonological awareness tasks at an oral level using Structured Literacy. This can look like rhyming, blending words into sentences, or segmenting sentences into words and syllables. For older students and/or struggling readers, tasks might involve blending phonemes into spoken words and segmenting spoken words into phonemes.
Orthography
This is the writing system of a language; English contains 26 letters that represent the 44 phonemes in written words. Orthography is built through multiple years of education, beginning with learning the reliable and frequently recurring patterns required to match sounds to letters or groups of letters. As students get older, they are introduced to syllable types, the major syllable division matters in English, and ultimately they begin reading grade-appropriate texts aloud to build fluency skills.
Morphology
Morphology is the study of morphemes, which are the meaningful units of words such as prefixes, roots, suffixes, and combining forms. Through Structured Literacy, students begin by learning common Anglo-Saxon/Old English prefixes, inflectional endings, and suffixes. As they become more experienced readers, they can be taught Latin-based prefixes, suffixes, and roots, as well as Greek-based combining forms that comprise literary and informational texts in upper-grade levels. Morphology combines phonology, orthography, and meaning, which bridges the gap between alphabetic reading and comprehension.
What is Linguistic Comprehension?
Linguistic comprehension (also referred to as language comprehension) is the ability to derive meaning from words, sentences, and texts at a listening level. For readers to do this, they must have a strong vocabulary, solid background knowledge, an understanding of sentence structures, and the ability to infer what the author is implying. This makes Structured Literacy incredibly important to the development of linguistic comprehension. The underpinning components that make up linguistic comprehension are semantics, pragmatics, syntax, and discourse.
Syntax
This refers to the order and relationships of words in sentences, along with the structure of sentences in oral and written language. In school, students spend pre-K through eighth grade learning the parts of speech and structures of sentences—simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex. Along with this, they also learn pronoun references, verb tenses, subject-verb agreement, and what words connect clauses within and across sentences.
Semantics
Semantics refers to the meanings and relationships of words. Through definitions, multiple contexts, repeated exposure, and discussion, students in grades pre-K through eight are taught Tier 2 words appropriate for their grade level. In addition to vocabulary, students are also taught shades of meaning, word connotations, and literal vs. nonliteral meanings of similes, metaphors, and other figurative expressions.
Pragmatics
This refers to the rules of conversation—such as making eye contact or taking turns in discussion—as well as the use and interpretation of language within a given context. In class, students in pre-K through eighth grade learn conversation rules commensurate with their grade level. Through a Structured Literacy approach, students can learn how context, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, etc. aid the use and interpretation of oral communication. This also involves understanding how features of spoken language are imitated in print through the use of bolded words, italics, capitalization, and punctuation.
Discourse
The organization of spoken and written communication is referred to as discourse. This is taught by having students generate questions as they listen to or read a text, use graphic organizers to identify specific textual elements, and develop their background knowledge by reading widely on one topic.
By teaching decoding and linguistic comprehension through a Structured Literacy approach, students can build their knowledge in a way that is empowering and evidence-based.
Taking an Evidence-Based Approach to Teaching Reading
Structured Literacy is the application of the science of reading. This means when educators take a Structured Literacy approach to teaching reading, they are ensuring their students are receiving an evidence-based literacy education. But it is not enough to simply be aware of Structured Literacy and the science of reading—educators need a strong foundation of knowledge to teach reading properly. This is why it is so important educators have access to high-quality professional development resources.
If you’re interested in learning more about the importance of science of reading professional development, as well as what to look for when seeking professional development resources, we break it down for you in another blog.