Science of Reading

Over 5 million English learners attend public school today. Close to 80% of those speak Spanish. A Structured Literacy approach emphasizes the structure of language across the speech sound system (phonology), the writing system (orthography), the structure of sentences (syntax), the meaningful parts of words (morphology), the relationships among words (semantics), and the organization of spoken and written discourse. (IDA/CERI, 2018c, March)

The Four-Part Processing Model for word recognition is a simplified model that illustrates how the brain reads or recognizes words. (Based on Seidenberg & McClelland, 1989)

Magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging studies have shown the directionality of brain processes when seeing/hearing a word.

Implementation Science Begins with Leadership

What does it take to implement the science of reading? 

• Dedicated, caring, and compassionate leadership
• An in-depth reflection of how reading is taught to see where you are in alignment with the science and where you may need improvement
• On-going coaching support for teachers as they implement new ways of teaching reading
• Foundational reading materials that include explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, encoding and use decodable text aligned with the phonics instruc

Educational equity means that all students have the right to quality instruction and all teachers have the right to quality training.

Literacy Partnerships

While offering guidance documents, professional development, and technical assistance, the ADE ELA team also serves as partners to several professional literacy groups through outreach, collaboration, and ongoing communication.   

Administrators: It Takes Leadership

What does it take to implement the science of reading? 

• Dedicated, caring, and compassionate leadership
• An in-depth reflection of how reading is taught to see where you are in alignment with the science and where you may need improvement
• Ongoing coaching support for teachers as they implement new ways of teaching reading
• Foundational reading materials that include explicit instruction in phonological awareness, phonics, encoding, and use of decodable text aligned with the phonics instructional sequence

Dr. Hollis Scarborough, American psychologist and literacy expert, is the creator of the famous Scarborough’s Reading Rope. Like Gough & Tunmer’s Simple View of Reading, Scarborough replicates the interconnectedness (and interdependency) between decoding and language comprehension in order to establish proficient reading. 

These well-validated theoretical models inform educators what to test for and what to teach.