What is all this buzz about the science of reading?

Question

I hear people saying that it schools have not been using the latest research to teach reading and it is causing kids to be left behind.

Answer 1

✅ What Is the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading is not a program—it's a large body of research from fields like education, neuroscience, linguistics, and psychology that explains how the brain learns to read. This research spans decades and has given us a clear picture of what effective reading instruction looks like, especially for beginning and struggling readers.

It emphasizes that reading is not natural—our brains aren’t wired to read the way they are to speak. That means kids need to be explicitly taught how to decode written language.

🧠 Key Components of the Science of Reading

Often summarized using the “Simple View of Reading” and Scarborough’s Reading Rope:

1. The Simple View of Reading

Reading comprehension =

Decoding (word recognition) × Language comprehension

If either is weak, reading comprehension breaks down.

2. Scarborough’s Reading Rope

This model shows that skilled reading comes from two intertwined strands:

A. Word Recognition (Lower Strand):

1. Phonological awareness (hearing/manipulating sounds in words)
2. Decoding (sounding out written words)
3. Sight recognition (instantly recognizing familiar words)

B. Language Comprehension (Upper Strand):

1. Background knowledge
2. Vocabulary
3. Language structures (grammar, sentence structure)
4. Verbal reasoning
5. Literacy knowledge

🔤 SoR-Aligned Instruction Is:

1. Explicit – concepts are directly taught
2. Systematic – skills are taught in a logical sequence
3. Cumulative – lessons build on what was already learned
4. Multisensory – engages visual, auditory, and kinesthetic pathways
5. Diagnostic – instruction is adjusted based on student needs

🧩 Essential Instructional Areas in SoR for K–3:

1. Phonemic Awareness – hearing and working with sounds (e.g., blending, segmenting)
2. Phonics – connecting sounds to letters and spelling patterns
3. Fluency – reading with accuracy, speed, and expression
4. Vocabulary – understanding word meanings
5. Comprehension – making meaning from text
6. Oral Language – speaking and listening skills (hugely important!)

✍️ Why It Matters for Tutoring:

Students who struggle often miss foundational skills in phonemic awareness or decoding. SoR-aligned tutoring identifies those gaps and builds from there. Your structured literacy approach (which you're already using!) aligns beautifully with the Science of Reading—especially your focus on:

1. Teaching one spelling pattern at a time
2. Using oral language and handwriting (including cursive!)
3. Multisensory instruction
4. Language and reading application
5. Helping students with decoding and fluency

📚 SoR & Dyslexia

Students with dyslexia especially benefit from SoR methods, since they require explicit, sequential, and multisensory instruction to build the neural pathways for reading.

🧒 The Goal?

To create accurate, fluent readers who understand what they read and enjoy it.

The structured literacy program that I use, is based on the Science of Reading. The program was created for students with dyslexia, but it does a great job helping fill the gaps for students who need remediation! Please contact me if you are interested in this program. There are a 2 books to get started with the program, but it is so worth it! My background is in early childhood and primary education, specifically Pre-K through 3rd grade.

Please contact me: [email protected]

Answer 2

Unfortunately, despite decades of solid, settled research, many schools across the US have not been teaching reading in the ways that have been scientifically shown to actually help students learn how to read. The first reporting I read about the situation was Emily Hanford's investigations, linked below:

"In 2017, Emily Hanford began investigating how children are taught to read. In a series of ongoing reports, collected here, she helped teachers, parents and policymakers recognize widespread flaws in instruction and helped spark a movement to bring the science of reading to schools. She and reporter Christopher Peak have a new podcast about how reading instruction went so wrong." https://features.apmreports.org/reading/

If you want to learn more about how learning to read works, I highly recommend Mark Seidenberg's "Language at the Speed of Sight" https://seidenbergreading.net/

Let me know if you have any questions!

Answer 3

📚 What Is the Science of Reading?

1. A large body of research from education, psychology, and brain science.
2. Shows how children learn to read best—reading is not automatic; it must be taught step by step.
3. Focuses on teaching five key reading skills, often called the “Big 5”:
4. Phonemic Awareness – hearing and working with sounds in spoken words.
5. Phonics – connecting sounds to letters to decode words.
6. Fluency – reading smoothly with expression and understanding.
7. Vocabulary – knowing and understanding words.
8. Comprehension – understanding what is read.

✅ What the Research Shows

1. 95% of children can learn to read with the right instruction (Moats, 2020).
2. Yet, only 35% of U.S. 4th graders are reading at a proficient level (NAEP, 2022).
3. This gap highlights the need to bring research-based methods into every classroom.

📖 What Works Best

1. Children learn best with Structured Literacy:
2. Step-by-step, explicit teaching of sounds, letters, and word patterns.
3. Helps all children—and is especially important for struggling readers and children with dyslexia.
4. Research consistently shows these methods lead to stronger reading success, especially in early grades.

🧠 Bottom Line for Parents

1. Reading is a skill that can be taught to nearly every child.
2. Programs grounded in the science of reading give children the best chance to succeed—early and for life.

Hi ,I'm Michele. Let me help your child learn phonetic awareness, phonics, and important reading skills. I have just finished over 100 hours of Science of Reading and Writing Training and Have a Literacy Endorsement (pending state approval ) . With 30 years of teaching and tutoring experience and the proper training all children can learn to read! Let's talk.