Science of Reading: The Pivot We Didn’t See Coming (But Should Have)

Teachers, you know the drill. Just when you think you’ve mastered the art of teaching. BOOM-a new wave of research lands on your desk, sending you scrambling to revamp lesson plans yet again. It’s like setting up the perfect classroom layout only to be told you now have 10 more students and need to “make it work.” This time, the shake-up comes courtesy of the Science of Reading, and honestly, it’s a game changer.

Remember the days when we were told kids just needed to “look at the picture and guess the word?” Or were told kids need to memorize sight words so we gave them each a set of flashcards and with lots of practice hoped they magically became readers? Turns out, we were basically giving students a map without a compass. Enter Emily Hanford and her now famous “Sold a Story” investigation, which revealed the myths of reading instruction. Spoiler alert: Teaching reading isn’t magic. It’s science. And the research has been there all along.

In 2000 ( No, that's not a typo for 2020-we’ve had this research for over two decades!) The National Reading Panel conducted extensive research to identify the most effective evidence-based methods to teach reading and laid out clear recommendations: effective reading instruction must include explicit instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Yet, for years, many teachers (including me) relied on methods that prioritized memorization and guessing strategies (Frank Smith and Ken Goodman’s “ three cueing system”) to rely on pictures, context, or the first letter of a word to “guess” what it was. Some of you may know it as “MSV”-Meaning (context), Structure (grammar), and Visual (letter) Cues to guess words and recorded such on a running record. Science has shown that it's not reading.  It's like trying to piece together a puzzle with half the pieces missing.

At the core of the Science of Reading is cognitive neuroscience-studying how the brain learns to read. According to Dr. Carolyn Strom reading-unlike spoken language, which humans acquire naturally-must be explicitly taught because it requires rewiring multiple areas of the brain to recognize symbols, connect them to sounds, and derive meaning. Research from neuroscience, psychology, and linguistics has confirmed that proficient reading stems from a complex interaction of phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Psychologist Dr. Hollis Scarborough illustrates this interaction using a model of a “Reading Rope” showing how all the strands must strengthen and intertwine to produce skilled reading.

(Image source: The Reading League, 2002)

 This builds on earlier research by cognitive scientists, Philip Gough and William Tunmer published in 1986 and their formula The Simple View of Reading (Decoding x Linguistic Comprehension=Reading Comprehension). In other words, kids don’t just absorb words through osmosis (if only!); they need structured, explicit instruction to connect letters to sounds and words to meaning. Decoding skills build the foundation for fluent reading because once kids learn the code their brains can focus on understanding, not just figuring out the words on the page.

Phonemic Awareness, Decoding, Fluency, and Comprehension: In the classroom

In regard to phonemic awareness-think of this in terms of activities where students focus on listening to and manipulating sounds such as rhyming, alliteration, clapping out syllables or stretching out words. Then phonics connects the sounds to specific letters and letter patterns. There are 44 phonemes (sounds) in the English language that are represented by more than 280 letter or letter combinations (graphemes). Readers use their knowledge of letters and letter sounds to segment and blend to decode the word. Orthographic mapping is the process associated with decoding where students connect the sounds in words to these specific letters or letter patterns to mentally store these words and then retrieve them. You can use magnetic letters, letter tiles or whiteboards to help them “map” words visually. Students reinforce these skills using texts that are decodable, which means the texts are carefully designed with words that follow the phonetic patterns the students are learning. These texts are meant to build fluency and thus comprehension as they apply what they know.  

What about the other books in my classroom library? If you are a teacher of emergent and transitional readers, the research tells us that students need to focus on decoding regular phonetic words first to build strong word recognition skills. This means that the leveled texts (yes, Fountas and Pinnell leveled books) need to take a backseat for these readers. Hey! I’m just the messenger-I feel your pain. Studies show that for orthographic mapping to occur, students need consistent exposure to words that follow the phonetic rules they are learning. Too many irregular words in the mix can prevent the brain from effectively making these connections, which slows down the development of reading fluency.

What about irregular or trick words? Some literacy educators also refer to these as heart words. You know the words that appear frequently in the English language, but don’t follow regular phonetic patterns such as “said” or “was”. Well, if you have read this far you may have guessed what not to do…have them memorize. Instead, you can have students also “map” these words, because there will be phonetic parts they can decode. For example, with the word “said” students can recognize the “s” sound at the beginning and the “ed” ending. Although the middle vowel sound in “said” doesn’t follow the expected phonetic rule, pointing out parts they can decode gives students a foundation for understanding the word. Next explicitly teach in “said” the “ai” doesn’t make the expected long “a” sound and doesn’t follow a typical spelling pattern while putting a heart above or marking the irregular spelling pattern. Rather than memorizing these words by sight alone, students can understand that they need to recognize the irregularity and “map” the word. Irregular words are introduced systematically once students show proficiency in decoding regular words, ensuring they have a strong foundation before tackling exceptions to phonics rules.

An additional way to teach irregular words is using morphology, especially for older students struggling with reading.. For example, the root word “go” is decodable, but the past participle form is “gone.” You can explain to students that this form of go comes from the Old English “gan” which meant “to go.” Over time the word evolved and became “gone.” Understanding the irregularity in terms of morphology helps students recognize that some words in English have transformed over time due to historical influences.

Vocabulary and Comprehension: In the classroom

Vocabulary is one aspect of reading instruction that can get overlooked in lesson planning, but it’s absolutely critical when we zoom out and look at the big picture of reading comprehension. Without strong vocabulary knowledge, even the most accurate decoders will hit a wall—reading the words, but not truly understanding what they’ve read. So what does that look like in the classroom? It means teaching words intentionally and in context—across read-alouds, science, social studies—everywhere. Teachers thoughtfully choose target words essential to the comprehension of the text. Then provide meanings through word maps (think Frayer model), visuals, and affixes in order to connect these words to their world, and revisit them often. Because if kids don’t know the words, they can’t build meaning—and without meaning, reading is just word calling. Vocabulary is the bridge from decoding to true comprehension.

One more thing…

Reading and Writing are reciprocal processes. The National Reading panel also found that writing words and breaking them into phonemes strengthens phonemic awareness. In addition, research from Dr. Virginia Berninger, Dr. Karin James, and Dr. Stanislas Dehaene shows an activation in the brain when putting pencil to paper in ways typing just can’t match, reinforcing letter recognition, spelling, and fluency. So, handwriting isn’t just about neat papers and fancy penmanship, it’s a secret weapon for building strong readers! Who knew those early wobbly letters were doing such heavy lifting?

So, fellow teachers, here’s to pivoting yet again. This time, though, we’re pivoting toward what actually works. And that? That’s a move worth making.