The Science of Reading in K-2

This is the first blog post in a series exploring the Science of Reading and how to bring it to teacher table small groups in your K-2 classroom.

When I was a little girl, reading was my life. I easily read a book a day. I would read anything in front of me; backs of cereal boxes, newspapers, magazines, flyers, shampoo bottles in the shower. I couldn't get enough. When I had children, I just assumed they would be readers too. We had baskets of children's books scattered around the house, book shelves tucked into corners. Books were always accessible and visible. My older two boys were readers. Not the way that I was, but they both enjoyed various book series through elementary and early high school. My youngest - very much NOT a reader. We went to the library every Saturday when he was a toddler. I read chapter books aloud to him. Yet, he never found the same pleasure in reading that I did.

I doubted myself. Did I not read with him enough? Did I allow too many video games? Maybe I just needed to find the right book - we tried historical fiction, historical non fiction, graphic novels, magazines. Nope.

He's in middle school now, and just started AIS for reading. Turns out, reading is HARD for him. His teachers had never mentioned it, and I never picked up on it. It wasn't until he started middle school that someone noticed he was struggling.

He was raised on leveled readers at school. 2 years ago our district switched to a structured literacy approach, and suddenly there it was. Had I failed him? Had his teachers failed him? I don't know. We were all just doing the best we could with what we had, I guess.

Before I was a teacher, I was an accountant. I was 38 when I started teaching. My first year was 2019/2020. In the winter of that year, I was looking at our benchmarking data for a group of students in my class. I was new to teaching, and my teacher prep was heavy on the balanced literacy. My district used a popular leveled reader system. I had one group of students that just weren't growing. And I was frustrated, because how could I help them when I didn't really have any real data on what they needed? Was I just supposed to keep throwing the same information at them, hoping it would eventually stick?

While browsing our local PD offerings, there was an upcoming session for teaching the struggling reader. I signed up immediately, and that training changed my life. It was offered by Really Great Reading. My training was in person, but they offer free PD all the time online, and I HIGHLY recommend signing up if you are struggling to make the transition to the Science of Reading.

At the time, Science of Reading wasn't making the news it is now, but I walked out of that training feeling SO empowered, and SO angry that I hadn't learned any of this already!

When I returned to the classroom, I immediately began to make changes. Unfortunately, we shut down due to Covid soon after. Soon after, my district did make the change to a structured literacy program.

The next few blog posts will be dedicated to implementing structured literacy at your teacher table. No matter what your curriculum is, or isn't, your teacher table offers the time and space to begin to give your students what they really need.

So, What Is the Science of Reading?

Before we delve into how to implement SoR in your small groups, let's take a quick look at what the Science of Reading is. There are SO MANY really great websites, books, blogs, and places to get really detailed information on the Science of Reading, but as a quick overview:

The Science of Reading focuses on 5 big ideas:

Phonemic Awareness: the ability to hear, identify, and manipulate individual sounds (phonemes) in spoken words. It's an essential skill for learning to read.
Phonics: the relationship between sounds (phonemes) and their corresponding letters or groups of letters (graphemes). This systematic approach teaches children how to decode words by sounding them out.
Fluency: Fluency is the ability to read text accurately, quickly, and with proper expression. Fluent readers recognize words automatically and can focus on comprehension rather than decoding each word.
Vocabulary: Vocabulary refers to the words a child knows and understands. A strong vocabulary is crucial for reading comprehension because it allows children to make sense of what they read.
Comprehension: Comprehension is the ability to understand and interpret what is being read. Good comprehension involves not just decoding the words but also connecting them to prior knowledge, making inferences, and thinking critically about the text.

The Science of Reading is not a program you can buy. It's not a curriculum. The Science of Reading is based on decades of research on how reading and writing develops. The research continues to this day. There are programs that align with the Science of Reading, but it is important that instructors also have an understanding of SOR to best implement it in their classroom.

I am a classroom teacher, just like you. While I have spent a lot of time and training learning more about the Science of Reading, I am not an expert in this field. For more in depth information, you may want to check out the following resources:

Benefits of SOR Aligned Instruction

Remember my group of students that weren't growing with leveled readers, and my frustration at not knowing how to help them? I'm betting you have a similar story. I'm certain many, many teachers have similar stories.

Because the Science of Reading encompasses a clear, evidence-based framework for instruction, teachers are better able to understand how children learn to read and which instructional methods are most effective. Teachers can move away from guessing and trial and error approaches and instead use proven strategies for more successful outcomes.

SoR emphasizes the use of data to inform instruction. I'm going to be real for a second - data is a trigger word for me. I read a quote years ago about data - I'm not sure where it originated but it resonated with me even before I was a teacher:

"First they said they needed data about the children to find out what they're learning. Then they said they needed data about the children to make sure they are learning. Then the children only learnt what could be turned into data. Then the children became data."

So many times we collect "data" just for it to sit in a spreadsheet with no real action. But I promise, this data is worthwhile. Teachers can use assessments to progress monitor, adjust teaching strategies, and provide interventions. This data-driven approach ensures that instruction is responsive and effective. This data is real world and actionable - the data you collect when you are following an SoR approach is data that really paints a picture of your student's strengths and weaknesses, making your teaching time much more direct, explicit, and valuable. In search of a Science of Reading aligned Benchmarking Kit? Check this out!