The Science of Reading - What EdLeaders Need to Know
As an elementary teacher and former elementary principal, I have watched the battle lines drawn and the theories, best practices, and curriculum shaming hurled back and forth in the "Reading Wars." Equating a war with the debate over the best way to teach children to read seems a bit excessive, but a quick glance over the blogs spewing nastiness about the thought-leaders on each side of the debate seems to give rise and credence to the name, "Reading Wars." (While you could quickly find those blogs, I have not referenced any of them here as they seem more focused on attacking people than on debating the approaches to teaching reading comprehension.)
On one side is whole-language or balanced literacy, an offshoot of whole language. This is the methodology and theory that undergirded my formal training as an elementary teacher. I had the incredible honor of learning from Professors like Dr. Lester Laminack, a noted author, scholar, and frequent Professional Developer in the areas of teaching reading and writing. Dr. Laminack was my Student-Teacher Supervisor and perhaps most responsible for who I am as a teacher of reading. I also was blessed to learn from and with Professor Dr. Katie Wood Ray, who had spent two years as a Staff Developer with The Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College at Columbia University with Dr. Lucy Calkins. Dr. Calkins is perhaps the most well-known voice for Balanced Literacy. As a new elementary teacher at Glen Arden Elementary School, I was blown away to be invited to join other teachers from the school in going to New York City to Teachers College to learn directly from Dr. Lucy Calkins. That week of learning was incredible as teachers from across the country gathered to discuss and share best practices in teaching children how to read fluently and how to make meaning from the words they read. To say the least, I was well-versed in Balanced Literacy and Whole Language.
Essentially, Balanced Literacy is built upon the premise that children learn to read through good books. They are taught strategies and cues to approach unknown words such as looking at the pictures or using the context of the story. Certainly, a positive outcome of whole language was the growth of outstanding classroom libraries and more time devoted during the day to reading.
The Readers and Writers Workshop models of literacy instruction (Balanced Literacy) swept across the country with the Units of Study curriculum written by Dr. Calkins and her team being purchased and becoming "integral to classroom life in tens of thousands of schools around the world." (Units of Study) Critics argue that despite the growth and proliferation of the balanced literacy approach, reading proficiency growth in our country has been mired with little improvement.
"The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) is a congressionally mandated project administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) within the U.S. Department of Education and is the largest continuing and nationally representative assessment of what our nation's students know and can do in select subjects." (The Nation's Report Card) According to the NAEP Report, "in 2019 [pre-pandemic], average reading scores were lower for both fourth- and eighth-grade students compared to 2017: scores were lower by 1 point at fourth grade and lower by 3 points at eighth grade. At grade 12, the average score was 2 points lower in comparison to 2015. Average scores at grades 4 and 8 were higher compared to the first reading assessment in 1992; however, the average score at grade 12 was lower in comparison to 1992." (The Nation's Report Card)
So...
Balanced Literacy results left parents, community members, and secondary teachers complaining that students could not read and that the reason was directly tied to the lack of phonics instruction in the early grades classrooms. Researchers wonder if we had taught phonics better, would people spell better in general.
Enter the Science of Reading (in my head, I hear that said with a booming voice and a cacophony of trumpets blaring!) lol
There has been a deluge of articles and podcasts on the Science of Reading. One of the major voices to really bring the Science of Reading into the mainstream conversation has been that of Emily Hanford, an education journalist, who has written numerous articles including this one titled, "Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?" in the New York Times, this one titled, "At a Loss for Words: How a Flawed Idea is Teaching Millions of Kids to be Poor Readers" in APM Reports, and this one titled, "There's a Right Way to Teach Reading and Mississippi Knows It," also in the New York Times.
Her reporting also sprung up as a trilogy of podcast documentaries: "Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia," "Hard Words: Why Aren't Our Kids Being Taught to Read," and "At a Loss for Words: How a Flawed Idea is Training Millions of Kids to be Poor Readers,"
Emily Hanford's work has been so pervasive that Dr. Lucy Calkins responded directly to it in a statement released on Facebook and through the publisher (Heinemann) of the Units of Study curriculum she publishes.
Emily Hanford responded to Dr. Calkins' response through another podcast episode titled, "New Salvos in the Battle Over Reading Instruction."
Wow! Shots fired.
Again, mind you, I am not posting links to the ugliest of blog posts that simply attack persons on either side.
Enter legislators.
States have begun passing legislation requiring evidence-based reading instruction. Noting that universities were slow to move away from Balanced Literacy, my home state of North Carolina passed legislation that required that teacher-prep courses to include a “substantive understanding of reading as a process involving oral language, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.” (NC Statute Session Law 2021-8, signed into law by Governor Roy Cooper on April 9, 2021)
So...
There is a Reading War that has been going on for a really long time and the Science of Reading has taken the upper hand.
What is the Science of Reading?
The Science of Reading has been defined in North Carolina statute as "evidence-based reading instruction practices that address the acquisition of language, phonological and phonemic awareness, phonics and spelling, fluency, vocabulary, oral language, and comprehension that can be differentiated to meet the needs of individual students." (NC Statute Session Law 2021-8, signed into law by Governor Roy Cooper on April 9, 2021)
Cory Armes, in the Science of Learning Blog, stated, "The term “science of reading” refers to the research that reading experts, especially cognitive scientists, have conducted on how we learn to read. This body of knowledge, over twenty years in the making, has helped debunk older methods of reading instruction that were based on tradition and observation, not evidence."
In 1997, the United States Congress directed the “Director of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in consultation with the Secretary of Education, to convene a national panel to assess the status of research-based knowledge, including the effectiveness of various approaches to teaching children to read” (2000 National Reading Panel Report.) A National Reading Panel was convened "composed of 14
individuals, including (as specified by Congress) 'leading
scientists in reading research, representatives of colleges
of education, reading teachers, educational
administrators, and parents'” (2000 National Reading Panel Report.) The National Reading Panel found that students need explicit instruction in the essential components of reading including phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension.
Central to the Science of Reading approach is a theory called the "Simple View of Reading" or SVR which basically states that there are two elements that combine to result in Reading Comprehension. The SVR formula states:
Decoding x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension.
Decoding is translating letters into sounds and sounds into words. Language Comprehension includes the interaction among a reader’s background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures like grammar, verbal reasoning abilities, and literary knowledge (e.g., genres).
From the Simple View of Reading Theory grew Scarborough's Reading Rope (depicted above) as conceived by Dr. Hollis S. Scarborough. Dr. Scarborough believed that the elements of Word Recognition and the elements of Language Comprehension all wove together into the rope of Reading Comprehension. Just like a true rope, the more strands present and the stronger each strand is, the stronger the rope is. It is surmised that if a student is weaker in one strand, the strength of the other strands can still help the student comprehend what she is reading.
The strands of Word Recognition include Decoding, Phonological Awareness, and Sight Word Recognition.
The strands of Language Comprehension include background knowledge, vocabulary, language structures, verbal reasoning, and literacy knowledge.
Seemingly, the biggest difference between Balanced Literacy and the Science of Reading is explicit instruction in phonics. Phonics teaches children to begin reading by manipulating the sounds in words, or “sounding out” words. Learning to read is no easy task. The English language is made up of 26 letters and 44 sounds, called phonemes. There are 144 ways to write the sounds of the language, called graphemes. Science of Reading advocates argue that children are not just going to figure out 26 letters, 44 phonemes, and 144 graphemes simply by being exposed to great books.
There now seems to be universal agreement around the need for phonics instruction as now Dr. Calkins' Units of Study include a unit on Phonics. The Science of Reading proponents appreciate the inclusion of phonics in Balanced Literacy but argue the three-cueing system that is a part of Balanced Literacy (asking students to use cues from meaning, sentence structure, and visual cues to essentially guess the word) work against phonological awareness.
In the end, the pressing needs of our students do not give us the luxury of idly sitting back and watching shots being fired until the dust settles on the Reading Wars. Students will return to school in August after a year marked by a pandemic and will have no instructional time to waste.
My advice for classroom, school, and district leaders is to convene a group of curriculum and instruction leaders (regardless of title) to review the research from Cognitive Science, Neurological Science, and valid educational research to determine shared expectations about how reading comprehension will be taught in the school(s).
In our school system, our school and district-based leaders are reading "The Integrated Approach to Student Achievement" by Dr. Donyall Dickey. In the book, Dr. Dickey states, “Ninety-seven percent of the words that students will encounter as they read will come from the 30 most commonly used prefixes, 30 most commonly used root words, and the 30 most commonly used suffixes. A strategic focus on providing students, grades kindergarten to grade 12, to curriculum-driven opportunities to learn Latin and Greek word parts will invariably build students’ vocabulary and ability to create meaning while they read.” Building vocabulary is a strand in Language Comprehension in Scarborough's rope.
We will also be reviewing our instructional practices and instructional guarantees as we renew our District Strategic Plan.
EdLeaders, regardless of your position or title, too often we get buried in all of the work that is not directly related to teaching and learning (budgets, facilities, discipline, logistics, etc.) All of that is important and necessary, but we cannot lose sight of our singular purpose for existing, preparing our students for a choice-filled future. Ensuring they emerge from our schools as great readers is key and crucial to that work. Take the time to dig into the research, listen to the podcasts interviewing the Cognitive and Neuro Scientists who are studying how we learn to read, and using tools like FMRIs to map the brain as it learns to read. Involve teachers and building-level administrators in authentic conversations about instruction. Then, bring all of your team's expertise and experience to bear in making decisions about how reading will be taught in the classrooms you serve.
Our children are worthy of our very best efforts. Let others fight their fights over the $8 billion dollar educational publishing market. We cannot allow our children to become casualties in their war. We must learn and grow and do our best for our children.
In closing, as the great Maya Angelou reminds us, when we know better, we must do better.
References Not Linked in the Text Above
Literacy Strategies for Students with Disabilities, Texas Education Agency, The State of Texas
Reading Instruction: A Flurry of New State Laws by Catherine Gewertz, Education Week
The Science of Reading Resources, North Carolina Department of Public Instruction
READ: The Research Education ADvocacy Podcast by the Windward Institute
Podcasts
Science of Reading: The Podcast (I have listened to just about every episode, but would like to especially highlight episode 12 of season 1, Neuroscience and early literacy: Dr. Bruce McCandliss as Dr. McCandliss discusses using FMRIs to map students' brains as they learn to read.)
Teaching Literacy Podcast by Jake Downs, particularly the 12/26/2020 episode, Reading Comprehension Research: Schema, Simple View of Reading, and The Rope [Comprehension Instruction Part 1/3]
Thank you for this. Very informative, extremely helpful.
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