Principles of the Science of Reading

Effective reading instruction is grounded in research-based literacy principles. In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) identified the Five Pillars of Literacy phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension as essential components for building strong, proficient readers. 1. Phonemic Awareness: Before children even connect letters to sounds, they must recognize that words are made up of individual sounds (phonemes). Activities like blending and segmenting phonemes help students build this foundational skill. 2. Phonics: Once students grasp phonemic awareness, they learn how letters correspond to sounds. Systematic phonics instruction ensures they decode words accurately, fostering confidence in reading unfamiliar texts. 3. Fluency: Fluency bridges decoding and comprehension. When students read smoothly and with expression, they free up cognitive resources to focus on meaning rather than word recognition. 4. Vocabulary: A strong vocabulary helps students unlock meaning in texts. Explicit vocabulary instruction, coupled with exposure to diverse literature, enriches their ability to comprehend new words in context. 5. Comprehension: The ultimate goal of reading is understanding. Strategies like making inferences, summarizing, and asking questions equip students with tools to engage deeply with texts. By integrating these five components into classroom instruction through explicit teaching, scaffolded practice, and engaging literacy activities, educators ensure all learners regardless of background or learning differences develop strong reading skills that support academic success and lifelong learning.

Teaching reading strategies in isolation—without developing the cognitive functions that support them—is like handing students tools with no grip. Strategies like summarizing, clarifying, or questioning are only effective when students possess the mental operations required to carry them out. That’s why we must intentionally introduce and strengthen thinking as we teach the strategy—not after students struggle. The cognitive work must come first or, at minimum, walk in tandem. When students are taught how to abstract, categorize, and compare as they learn to summarize, they build deeper comprehension, not just procedural memory. Mediated Learning Experiences provide the structure to do just that. They help educators target the specific mental processes behind literacy—functions like perceptual clarity, systematic exploration, and hypothetical thinking—so students don’t just mimic strategy use, they internalize it. When thinking is part of the strategy from the start, students gain more than skills—they gain intellectual control. And that’s how we move from rehearsed performance to real proficiency.

It's common practice in IEPs to set reading goals with an 80% mastery benchmark—but this is 𝒅𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒆𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒔𝒍𝒚 𝒎𝒊𝒔𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒈 accuracy and fluency. As Dr. Matthew Burns and other reading researchers have emphasized, students must read with 97% accuracy or higher to support true comprehension. At 80%, a student is misreading 1 in 5 words—creating a reading experience riddled with errors that disrupt understanding and reinforce frustration. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐢𝐬𝐬𝐮𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐝𝐞𝐞𝐩𝐞𝐫. 𝐍𝐨𝐭 𝐚𝐥𝐥 “𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭” 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐥. There's a critical difference between: A student who reads a CVC word instantly and effortlessly (indicating the word is orthographically mapped and stored in long-term memory), and a student who decodes the same word slowly through sounding out or subvocalizing—relying heavily on working memory and cognitive effort. Standardized reading assessments like the Woodcock Reading Mastery Test (WRMT) include timing parameters for a reason: automaticity is key. Without it, comprehension breaks down, and the reading brain becomes overloaded. 🤔 Consider this: Two students each decode 8 out of 10 words correctly. — One does so in under a minute. — The other takes over two minutes. Technically, both are “80% accurate”—𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒚 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒍𝒅𝒔 𝒂𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒎𝒔 𝒐𝒇 𝒇𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒏𝒄𝒚, 𝒂𝒖𝒕𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒑𝒓𝒆𝒉𝒆𝒏𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒏𝒆𝒔𝒔. When IEP goals don’t account for time and fluency, they risk masking significant deficits. Instead of defaulting to generic accuracy percentages, we must push for precision in progress monitoring, goals that reflect automaticity, and measures aligned with research on how the brain learns to read. Let’s stop settling for the illusion of progress—and start demanding goals that ensure real, functional literacy.

When kids don't learn to decode, they guess. They look at the picture. They say the first letter and make a prediction. They memorize. At first glance, it looks like reading. But it isn't. And over time, the cost becomes clear: 👎 Comprehension gaps widen 👎 Confidence drops 👎 Behavior issues increase The Science of Reading Formula helps schools replace guessing strategies with real decoding skills by: 👍 Teaching phonics explicitly 👍 Following a cumulative sequence 👍 Providing aligned intervention and support Reading isn’t a guessing game. Let’s stop treating it like one. 🔗 https://lnkd.in/gaaSDrJ7 #ReadingInstruction #Decoding #PhonicsFirst #ScienceOfReading #EarlyIntervention