For most Americans, learning to read is a fundamental part of early childhood. Whether it’s our parents reading to us at night or early school lessons filled with colorful, rhyming stories, reading is one piece of the beautiful and intricate puzzle that makes us who we are.
Our brains have been trained for years to take the information we see and turn it into something we understand. For students, the most important period for this training takes place between kindergarten and third grade. During those years, students slowly transition from learning to read to reading to learn. By fourth grade, most of the curriculum is taught through reading.
How we teach early literacy plays a large role in a student’s ability to read successfully by the fourth grade checkpoint.
Incorrect instruction can lead to reading failures
America is facing a reading crisis. According to NAEPonly 33% of US fourth graders are achieving grade-level proficiency in reading.
This number is so low in part because schools have been using harmful reading practices such as three-cues. it flawed the instructional model teaches students to read based on meaning, structure, and visual cues, redirecting the student from the word itself. Basically, students are taught to guess a word based on a picture rather than sounding out the word.
Eight countries prohibited three-tips in 2023.
So what is the right way to teach students to read? ExcelinEd is one of many education-focused entities that embrace and promote the research-based and evidence-based practice known as the science of reading.
To ensure that every child can read by third grade, all educators must be trained in the science of reading, an evidence-based approach that teaches phonemic awareness, phonics/decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. This is the opposite of the three-hint system.
The science of reading is the best way forward
of the science of reading is a culmination of research that incorporates information learned through the studies of developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience.
For example, neuroscientists using functional MRI scans showed that the part of the brain that deals with language was significantly more active in young students who were taught to read through a phonics-based curriculum than in children who were taught using three-cue methods.
While the science of reading is based on phonics learning, other skills such as oral language, alphabet recognition, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary development are critical to becoming a proficient reader.
The researchers have been able to determine the brain’s pathway to reading comprehension and the type of clear instruction needed for students who may have difficulty learning to read.
This style of reading instruction is working for students across the country. or 2023 study in several California schools found improvements in reading ability using evidence-based approaches. California does not mandate the science of reading instruction, so the study focused on 76 of the state’s lowest-performing schools. Researchers found that the science of reading approach increased English and math test scores for third-graders in 2022 and 2023. The increase in comprehension was equivalent to attending an extra quarter of a school year compared to other students that did not use evidence-based guidance.
As of April 2024, 38 states and the District of Columbia have passed the laws or implemented new policies related to evidence-based reading instruction. For most of these states, this includes training teachers on how to best implement the science of reading instruction.
For example, California has adopted 10 of the 18 core principles of recommended early literacy policies, one of only 12 states operating without requiring teachers to learn how to teach using the science of reading.
The science of reading can make a difference
I have seen the difference it can make in a teaching situation with clear guidelines and scientifically based methods.
From 2013 to 2019, I was the state director of literacy for the Mississippi Department of Education. In 2013, the state ranked last in the nation in fourth-grade reading, according to NAEP. We have decided to change that.
Under the courageous leadership of then-State Superintendent Carey Wright, Ed.D., (now state superintendent for Maryland) and policy knowledge from state officials, we were able to implement it Literacy-based promotion act to mandate research-based literature instruction and better professional learning opportunities for Mississippi teachers.
As of 2023, Mississippi ranks 21st in the nation for fourth grade reading. Some call this change The Mississippi Miracle. it’s not a miracle. It’s proof that research-based learning works.
Evidence-based literary instruction is the key to solving our nation’s reading crisis. By working together, as other states have done over the past two decades, we can bring more science-based reading methods into our classrooms to ensure our youngest readers have a strong foundation for ‘was built as they pass through and beyond the school.
The opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
________________________
Subscribe to SmartBrief’s FREE email ASCD newsletter to see the latest hot topics in education. It is among SmartBrief more than 250 industry-focused newspapers.
