5/7/2024

The Science of Reading: Going Beyond ‘Just More Phonics’ to Drive Student Success

“The message [that] we just need to do more phonics is one of the most disappointing parts of the science of reading movement,” Host Dr. Liz Brooke says during Episode 8 of the All For Literacy® podcast’s second season.

Brooke sat down with Natalie Wexler—an education writer and author of “The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System and How to Fix It”—for an insightful conversation about applying evidence-backed practices to improve literacy levels.

One important point the pair discussed was the need for educators to continue to revisit research and resist distilling it down to a simplistic “more phonics” approach. Emphasizing the urgency of the discussion, the same conclusion emerged in multiple other podcast episodes including with Dena Mortensen and Dr. Shayne Piasta.

While all three guests approached the topic from different lenses—author, researcher, educator—they each provided related evidence and ideas to avoid this quick-fix approach and implement more effective strategies.

Natalie Wexler

All For Literacy guest Wexler says, “There's this dangerous notion getting out there that…to solve our reading problems, we just need to do more phonics.” Wexler further explains that no science of reading expert currently recommends an approach that focuses solely on this singular foundational skill.

Wexler instead recommends a more holistic method, balancing phonics mastery and automaticity with more content-related activities. “I think what's really crucial, and I think what often gets left out of the discussion, is we can't rely on kids to build knowledge themselves through their own reading when they are still learning to decode and really beyond,” she explains.

Wexler recommends educators read complex text aloud to their students and hold discussions about and carry out activities related to the material. “Not just when they're still learning to decode, but even for a while afterward, kids can take in more complex information and vocabulary through listening than through their own reading,” she emphasizes. “Through that listening and discussion…you're building kids' vocabulary, their knowledge, their familiarity with complex syntax in ways that will serve them well in years to come.”

Wexler and Brooke agree that the science of reading movement is about more than just increasing the amount of phonics practice in a classroom. The content-centric studies and activities that Wexler references throughout their discussion give listeners evidence-backed ideas for increasing literacy success among students.

Dena Mortensen, Ed.D., All For Literacy Season 2, Episode 7

An elementary reading and language arts supervisor for Waterbury Public Schools in Waterbury, Connecticut, Mortensen offers listeners a detailed look into how her school district uses the science of reading to improve student literacy rates. “[The] science of reading is not about phonics, it's about all of it,” she says on All For Literacy.

Mortensen further explains that phonics was often excluded from literacy instruction and that now it's tempting to try to change student results merely by increasing a focus on phonics. “That’s the rub because [phonics is] the part that’s been traditionally left out,” she says.

Her district is currently undergoing its own transition to better support student literacy skills. They are finding success by selecting a new core program that uses evidence-based practices to emphasize full language comprehension. “The whole point of the [selection process] was to find a program that did a better job at building language for our kids,” Mortensen states.

Mortensen remains optimistic a new program will best support students. “We did find one now that we are confident in that's going to help us with building not just language at the sentence level, but science and social studies aligned to those standards as well,” she says. The new program focuses on “how do we pull out particular phrases and then sentences and then passages that have a really good example of the structure of our language and pull that apart and mimic that and our writing so that there's reading, writing, speaking, and listening.”

Brooke voiced a similar thought, stating, “We can't forget the language side of things, the simple view.”

Dr. Shayne Piasta, All For Literacy, Season 1, Episode 10

“This is really hard to do…we need to actually acknowledge that this is not going to be super simple,” says Piasta, professor of Teaching and Learning at The Ohio State University, about implementing research into the classroom.

Piasta explains further that many people still believe the misconception that the science of reading is only about decoding, word recognition, and phonics. “It becomes…either you’re doing that or you’re not, as opposed to recognizing that there are multiple components,” she states. “It is critical to devote time to supporting skills related to decoding and word recognition, but at the same time, we're having to balance that.”

Instead, she recommends including more than just foundational skills, stating, “We have to provide opportunities for children to enjoy reading, to be motivated to read, and also focus on the other components that are just as important for reading and reading comprehension.”

“It’s tricky that people think of it as a dichotomy. It's either phonics or not, and we know there's so much more than just phonics,” Brooke agrees during the episode. Overall, Piasta emphasizes a more balanced approach that includes foundational skills alongside activities that inspire an interest in reading while also individualizing instruction for students in the classroom as much as possible.

More Than Just ‘More Phonics’

“It's not just phonics, there's a whole other language component and how that oral language is such a foundational element to later reading ability,” Brooke says during her discussion with Piasta, summing up the idea that the science of reading is about more than just phonics.

Tune into the All For Literacy episode with Natalie Wexler to understand the latest conclusion about the achievable complexity of implementing the science of reading, and dive into Mortensen’s and Piasta’s conversations to build expertise on the matter.