What Is Science of Reading?

What Is Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading isn't a specific program, but rather the collected findings from thousands of studies on how people learn to read. This large body of evidence, gathered over decades, gives educators clear guidance on how reading skills develop and why some students struggle. By applying these proven methods, you can build a strong foundation for literacy and improve outcomes for every student in your classroom.

Science of Reading Strategies and Activities

We provide tools to help you build stronger readers using evidence-based strategies. Based on extensive research, these methods support all learners through structured, explicit, and systematic instruction. This approach focuses on the five core components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Science of Reading strategies offer direct instruction in foundational skills like decoding and word recognition. The activities provide students with repeated practice to build accuracy, speed, and understanding.

Here are some Science of Reading strategies and activities you can incorporate into your lessons:

• Finger Blending to Decode: A kinesthetic activity where students use their fingers to segment and blend sounds in words
• Vowel Valley Activity: An instructional method using a sound wall to explicitly teach vowel sounds and corresponding mouth formations
• Sound Sweeping to Blend: Using a finger to sweep across letters while blending sounds to build decoding skills
• Readers’ Theater: Students perform scripts by reading aloud to practice fluency, expression, and comprehension.
• Oral Cloze Read: The teacher reads a text aloud and omits certain words for students to supply, modeling fluency.
• Chunking Sentences: Breaking down sentences into smaller parts for students to read, gradually increasing the length to build fluency
• Academic Vocabulary Squares: A graphic organizer where students define a word, use it in a sentence, and draw a symbol to represent it
• Generative Vocabulary: Teaching morphology, such as roots and affixes, to help students understand the meaning of new words
• Making Connections: Guiding students to relate text content to their own experiences, other texts, or world events
• Writing About Reading: Students write responses or summaries about a text to deepen their comprehension and analytical skills.

Science of Reading Benefits

The Science of Reading refers to a large body of research on how people learn to read. This research informs a structured and systematic approach to instruction, focusing on core components like phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Proponents suggest this research-backed framework can lead to higher reading proficiency and address learning gaps. However, critics point to challenges in its application, such as developmentally inappropriate expectations for young learners and a failure to address important contextual variables that affect student success.

Here are some of the reported effects and points of discussion surrounding the Science of Reading:

• Systematic Instruction: Provides an explicit, systematic, and cumulative approach to teaching foundational reading skills.
• Early Reading Expectations: Encourages formal reading instruction at young ages, which some consider developmentally inappropriate.
• Support for Dyslexia: The instructional methods are often cited as effective for students with learning disabilities like dyslexia.
• High-Stakes Policies: Is sometimes linked to third-grade retention policies, where students may be held back if they do not meet reading benchmarks.
• Curriculum Focus: Can lead to a narrowing of the curriculum, with less time for subjects like science, social studies, and the arts.
• Teacher Training: Implementation often requires significant changes to teacher training and professional development.
• Instructional Materials: Promotes the use of specific high-quality instructional materials aligned with its principles.
• Contextual Factors: The approach is sometimes criticized for not fully accounting for variables like class size, school resources, or teacher qualifications.
• Overemphasis on Skills: Can result in an overemphasis on certain skills, such as auditory-only phonemic awareness, with diminishing returns.
• Corporate Connection: Is associated with corporate interests and the sale of specific online reading programs.

Science of Reading Examples

Recent national assessments show varied results in reading scores, with some states seeing improvement after implementing policies related to evidence-based reading instruction. Research suggests a high percentage of students can learn to read proficiently when taught with a curriculum based on the Science of Reading.

This approach provides students with explicit, direct teaching intended to help most learners achieve skilled reading. However, some educators may feel unprepared for the instructional change, which points to a need for professional learning and support.

Here are some examples of Science of Reading frameworks and instructional approaches:

• Five Pillars of Reading Instruction: A framework focusing on phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension
• Scarborough’s Reading Rope: A model that shows how word recognition and language comprehension skills intertwine to create skilled reading.
• Structured Literacy: An instructional approach that is explicit, systematic, and diagnostic in teaching reading skills.
• Vowel Valley Activity: An explicit method for teaching vowel sounds and mouth formations, often using mirrors and sound walls.
• Generative Vocabulary: An approach to teaching morphology, including roots, prefixes, and suffixes, to help students understand new words.

Science of Reading Best Practices

Science of Reading best practices are evidence-based strategies for teaching reading. These methods are grounded in research and focus on structured, explicit, and systematic instruction across five core components: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.

Implementation involves using direct instruction for foundational skills, often beginning with teacher modeling before moving to independent practice. Instruction can be adapted for different learning needs by adjusting the difficulty of texts or activities and incorporating multisensory approaches.

Here are some examples of Science of Reading best practices:

• Readers’ Theater: Students read from a script in small groups to practice oral reading fluency and expression.
• Morphology Study: Instruction focuses on understanding word structure by examining morphemes, such as roots and affixes, to build vocabulary.
• Academic Vocabulary Squares: A graphic organizer activity where students define a word, use it in a sentence, and draw a visual representation to deepen their understanding.
• Double-Sided Note-Taking: A method where students take notes from a text on one side of the page and write summaries or reflections on the other to promote active engagement.
• Writing About Reading: Students write responses or analyses about a text, often using prompts to guide their thinking and demonstrate comprehension.

Teach with TeachShare

The Science of Reading offers a proven, research-based path to improve literacy for all students. By applying these evidence-based strategies, you can provide the explicit, systematic instruction needed to build strong, confident readers. Our platform makes it easy to apply these principles with TeachShare Boosts, which add research-backed strategies like scaffolding and inquiry to your resources in a single click. This feature helps you intentionally design lessons that support every student's learning journey. Start creating resources with TeachShare now.