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What it Takes to be a Literacy Education Changemaker with Kareem Weaver

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What it Takes to be a Literacy Education Changemaker with Kareem Weaver

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In this episode, Susan Lambert sits down with Kareem Weaver to discuss change management for educators implementing the Science of Reading. Kareem Weaver is a member of the Oakland NAACP Education Committee and a leader of the organization Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate (FULCRUM). He was also an award-winning teacher and administrator in Oakland, California, and Columbia, South Carolina. Kareem discusses what the Science of Reading is at the simplest level and why it's important that educators are undivided in backing the research. He goes on to give an impassioned plea to educators to come together, because this is an issue that impacts all kids. Kareem also highlights the importance of meeting educators where they are and realizing that change cannot happen if teachers aren't given the tools and support they need first. Lastly, Kareem calls for systemic changes to education so that teachers can do their jobs in a way that is balanced, sustainable, and ultimately benefits the students.

Quotes:
"In order to save our kids and to get them competitive in the information age, they have to be able to access information. And so we've got to focus on literacy." -Kareem Weaver
Show Notes:
FULCRUM: Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate

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s4-e14: what it takes to be a literacy education changemaker: kareem weaver

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‎Science of Reading: The Podcast: S4-E14: What it takes to be a literacy education changemaker: Kareem Weaver on Apple Podcasts

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In this episode, Susan Lambert sits down with Kareem Weaver to discuss change management for educators implementing the Science of Reading. Kareem Weaver is a member of the Oakland NAACP Education Committee and a leader of the organization Full and Complete Reading is a Universal Mandate (FULCRUM)....

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Molly Woodworth was a kid who seemed to do well at everything: good grades, in the gifted and talented program. But she couldn't read very well.

"There was no rhyme or reason to reading for me," she said. "When a teacher would dictate a word and say, 'Tell me how you think you can spell it,' I sat there with my mouth open while other kids gave spellings, and I thought, 'How do they even know where to begin?' I was totally lost."

Woodworth went to public school in Owosso, Michigan, in the 1990s. She says sounds and letters just didn't make sense to her, and she doesn't remember anyone teaching her how to read. So she came up with her own strategies to get through text.

Strategy 1: Memorize as many words as possible. "Words were like pictures to me," she said. "I had a really good memory."

Strategy 2: Guess the words based on context. If she came across a word she didn't have in her visual memory bank, she'd look at the first letter and come up with a word that seemed to make sense. Reading was kind of like a game of 20 Questions: What word could this be?

Strategy 3: If all else failed, she'd skip the words she didn't know.

Most of the time, she could get the gist of what she was reading. But getting through text took forever. "I hated reading because it was taxing," she said. "I'd get through a chapter and my brain hurt by the end of it. I wasn't excited to learn."

No one knew how much she struggled, not even her parents. Her reading strategies were her "dirty little secrets."

Woodworth, who now works in accounting, 1 says she's still not a very good reader and tears up when she talks about it. Reading "influences every aspect of your life," she said. She's determined to make sure her own kids get off to a better start than she did.

That's why she was so alarmed to see how her oldest child, Claire, was being taught to read in school.

As long as this disproven theory remains part of American education, many kids will likely struggle to learn how to read.

A couple of years ago, Woodworth was volunteering in Claire's kindergarten classroom. The class was reading a book together and the teacher was telling the children to practice the strategies that good readers use.

The teacher said, "If you don't know the word, just look at this picture up here," Woodworth recalled. "There was a fox and a bear in the picture. And the word was bear, and she said, 'Look at the first letter. It's a "b." Is it fox or bear?'"

Woodworth was stunned. "I thought, 'Oh my God, those are my strategies.' Those are the things I taught myself to look like a good reader, not the things that good readers do," she said. "These kids were being taught my dirty little secrets."

She went to the teacher and expressed her concerns. The teacher told her she was teaching reading the way the curriculum told her to.

Woodworth had stumbled on to American education's own little secret about reading: Elementary schools across the country are teaching children to be poor readers - and educators may not even know it.

For decades, reading instruction in American schools has been rooted in a flawed theory about how reading works, a theory that was debunked decades ago by cognitive scientists, yet remains deeply embedded in teaching practices and curriculum materials. As a result, the strategies that struggling readers use to get by - memorizing words, using context to guess words, skipping words they don't know - are the strategies that many beginning readers are taught in school. This makes it harder for many kids to learn how to read, and children who don't get off to a good start in reading find it difficult to ever master the process. 2

A shocking number of kids in the United States can't read very well. A third of all fourth-graders can't read at a basic level, and most students are still not proficient readers by the time they finish high school.
Percentage of U.S. fourth-graders below basic level in reading
When kids struggle to learn how to read, it can lead to a downward spiral in which behavior, vocabulary, knowledge and other cognitive skills are eventually affected by slow reading development. 3 A disproportionate number of poor readers become high school dropouts and end up in the criminal justice system. 4

The fact that a disproven theory about how reading works is still driving the way many children are taught to read is part of the problem. School districts spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on curriculum materials that include this theory. Teachers are taught the theory in their teacher preparation programs and on the job. As long as this disproven theory remains part of American education, many kids will likely struggle to learn how to read.
Percentage of U.S. 12th-graders proficient in reading
The origins

The theory is known as "three cueing." The name comes from the notion that readers use three different kinds of information - or "cues" - to identify words as they are reading.

The theory was first proposed in 1967, when an education professor named Ken Goodman presented a paper at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association in New York City.

In the paper, 5 Goodman rejected the idea that reading is a precise process that involves exact or detailed perception of letters or words. Instead, he argued that as people read, they make predictions about the words on the page using these three cues:

graphic cues (what do the letters tell you about what the word might be?)

syntactic cues (what kind of word could it be, for example, a noun or a verb?)

semantic cues (what word would make sense here, based on the context?)

Goodman concluded that:

Skill in reading involves not greater precision, but more accurate first guesses based on better sampling techniques, greater control over language structure, broadened experiences and increased conceptual development. As the child develops reading skill and speed, he uses increasingly fewer graphic cues.

Goodman's proposal became the theoretical basis for a new approach to teaching reading that would soon take hold in American schools.

Previously, the question of how to teach reading had focused on one of two basic ideas.

One idea is that reading is a visual memory process. The teaching method associated with this idea is known as "whole word." The whole word approach was perhaps best embodied in the "Dick and Jane" books that first appeared in the 1930s. The books rely on word repetition, and pictures to support the meaning of the text. The idea is that if you see words enough, you eventually store them in your memory as visual images.

The other idea is that reading requires knowledge of the relationships between sounds and letters. Children learn to read by sounding out words. This approach is known as phonics. It goes way back, popularized in the 1800s with the McGuffey readers.

These two ideas - whole word and phonics - had been taking turns as the favored way to teach reading until Goodman came along with what came to be known among educators as the "three-cueing system."

In the cueing theory of how reading works, when a child comes to a word she doesn't know, the teacher encourages her to think of a word that makes sense and asks: Does it look right? Does it sound right? If a word checks out on the basis of those questions, the child is getting it. She's on the path to skilled reading.

Teachers may not know the term "three cueing," but they're probably familiar with "MSV." M stands for using meaning to figure out what a word is, S for using sentence structure and V for using visual information (i.e., the letters in the words). MSV is a cueing idea that can be traced back to the late Marie Clay, a developmental psychologist from New Zealand who first laid out her theories about reading in a dissertation in the 1960s. 6

Clay developed her cueing theory independently of Goodman, but they met several times and had similar ideas about the reading process. Their theories were based on observational research. They would listen to children read, note the kinds of errors they made, and use that information to identify a child's reading difficulties. For example, a child who says "horse" when the word was "house" is probably relying too much on visual, or graphic, cues. A teacher in this case would encourage the child to pay more attention to what word would make sense in the sentence.

Goodman and Clay believed that letters were the least reliable of the three cues, and that as people became better readers, they no longer needed to pay attention to all the letters in words. "In efficient word perception the reader relies mostly on the sentence and its meaning and some selected features of the forms of words," Clay wrote. 7 For Goodman, accurate word recognition was not necessarily the goal of reading. The goal was to comprehend text. 8 If the sentences were making sense, the reader must be getting the words right, or right enough.

These ideas soon became the foundation for how reading was taught in many schools. Goodman's three-cueing idea formed the theoretical basis of an approach known as "whole language" that by the late 1980s had taken hold throughout America. 9 Clay built her cueing ideas into a reading intervention program for struggling first-graders called Reading Recovery. It was implemented across New Zealand in the 1980s and went on to become one of the world's most widely used reading intervention programs. 10

But while cueing was taking hold in schools, scientists were busy studying the cognitive processes involved in reading words. And they came to different conclusions about how people read. 11

Scientists take on three cueing

It was the early 1970s, and Keith Stanovich was working on his doctorate in psychology at the University of Michigan. He thought the reading field was ready for an infusion of knowledge from the "cognitive revolution" that was underway in psychology. Stanovich had a background in experimental science and an interest in learning and cognition due in part to the influence of his wife, Paula, who was a special education teacher.

Stanovich wanted to understand how people read words. 12 He knew about Goodman's work and thought he was probably right that as people become better readers, they relied more on their knowledge of vocabulary and language structure to read words and didn't need to pay as much attention to the letters.

So, in 1975, Stanovich and a fellow graduate student set out to test the idea in their lab. They recruited readers of various ages and abilities and gave them a series of word-reading tasks. Their hypothesis was that skilled readers rely more on contextual cues to recognize words than poor readers, who probably weren't as good at using context.

They couldn't have been more wrong.

"To our surprise, all of our research results pointed in the opposite direction," Stanovich wrote. "It was the poorer readers, not the more skilled readers, who were more reliant on context to facilitate word recognition." 13

The skilled readers could instantly recognize words without relying on context. Other researchers have confirmed these findings with similar experiments. It turns out that the ability to read words in isolation quickly and accurately is the hallmark of being a skilled reader. This is now one of the most consistent and well-replicated findings in all of reading research. 14

Other studies revealed further problems with the cueing theory: 15

Skilled readers don't scan words and sample from the graphic cues in an incidental way; instead, they very quickly recognize a word as a sequence of letters. That's how good readers instantly know the difference between "house" and "horse," for example.

Experiments that force people to use context to predict words show that even skilled readers can correctly guess only a fraction of the words; this is one reason people who rely on context to identify words are poor readers.

Weak word recognition skills are the most common and debilitating source of reading problems. 16

The results of these studies are not controversial or contested among scientists who study reading. The findings have been incorporated into every major scientific model of how reading works.

But cueing is still alive and well in schools.

Picture Power!

It's not hard to find examples of the cueing system. A quick search on Google, Pinterest or Teachers Pay Teachers turns up plenty of lesson plans, teaching guides and classroom posters. One popular poster has cute cartoon characters to remind children they have lots of strategies to use when they're stuck on a word, including looking at the picture (Eagle Eye), getting their lips ready to try the first sound (Lips the Fish), or just skipping the word altogether (Skippy Frog).

There are videos online where you can see cueing in action. In one video posted on The Teaching Channel, 17 a kindergarten teacher in Oakland, California, instructs her students to use "picture power" to identify the words on the page. The goal of the lesson, according to the teacher, is for the students to "use the picture and a first sound to determine an unknown word in their book."

The class reads a book together called "In the Garden." On each page, there's a picture of something you might find in a garden. It's what's known as a predictable book; the sentences are all the same except for the last word.

The children have been taught to memorize the words "look," "at," and "the." The challenge is getting the last word in the sentence. The lesson plan tells the teacher to cover up the word with a sticky note.

In the video, the wiggly kindergarteners sitting cross-legged on the floor come to a page with a picture of a butterfly. The teacher tells the kids that she's guessing the word is going to be butterfly. She uncovers the word to check on the accuracy of her guess.

"Look at that," she tells the children, pointing to the first letter of the word. "It starts with the /b/ /b/ /b/." The class reads the sentence together as the teacher points to the words. "Look at the butterfly!" they yell out excitedly.

This lesson comes from "Units of Study for Teaching Reading," more commonly known as "reader's workshop." 18 According to the lesson plan, this lesson teaches children to "know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words." 19

But the children were not taught to decode words in this lesson. They were taught to guess words using pictures and patterns - hallmarks of the three-cueing system.

The author of Units of Study for Teaching Reading, Lucy Calkins, often refers to cueing in her published work. 20 She uses the term MSV - the meaning, structure and visual idea that originally came from Clay in New Zealand.

Then there is Fountas and Pinnell Literacy, started by Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell, teachers who learned the MSV concept from Clay in the 1980s. 21

Fountas and Pinnell have written several books about teaching reading, including a best-seller about a widely used instructional approach called "Guided Reading." They also created a reading assessment system that uses what are called "leveled books." 22 Children start with predictable books like "In the Garden" and move up levels as they're able to "read" the words. But many of the words in those books - butterfly, caterpillar - are words that beginning readers haven't been taught to decode yet. One purpose of the books is to teach children that when they get to a word they don't know, they can use context to figure it out.

When put into practice in the classroom, these approaches can cause problems for children when they are learning to read.

'That is not reading'

Margaret Goldberg, a teacher and literacy coach in the Oakland Unified School District, remembers a moment when she realized what a problem the three-cueing approach was. She was with a first-grader named Rodney when he came to a page with a picture of a girl licking an ice cream cone and a dog licking a bone.

The text said: "My little dog likes to eat with me."

But Rodney said: "My dog likes to lick his bone."

Rodney breezed right through it, unaware that he hadn't read the sentence on the page.

Goldberg realized lots of her students couldn't actually read the words in their books; instead, they were memorizing sentence patterns and using the pictures to guess. One little boy exclaimed, "I can read this book with my eyes shut!"

"Oh no," Goldberg thought. "That is not reading."

Goldberg had been hired by the Oakland schools in 2015 to help struggling readers by teaching a Fountas and Pinnell program called "Leveled Literacy Intervention" that uses leveled books and the cueing approach. 23

Around the same time, Goldberg was trained in a program that uses a different strategy for teaching children how to read words. The program is called "Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words," or SIPPS. 24 It's a phonics program that teaches children how to sound out words and uses what are known as "decodable books." Most words in the books have spelling patterns that kids have been taught in their phonics lessons.

Goldberg decided to teach some of her students using the phonics program and some of her students using three cueing. And she began to notice differences between the two groups of kids. "Not just in their abilities to read," she said, "but in the way they approached their reading."

Goldberg and a colleague recorded first-graders talking about what makes them good readers.

One video shows Mia, on the left, who was in the phonics program. Mia says she's a good reader because she looks at the words and sounds them out. JaBrea, on the right, was taught the cueing system. JaBrea says: "I look at the pictures and I read it."

Courtesy of Margaret Goldberg, Oakland Unified School District

It was clear to Goldberg after just a few months of teaching both approaches that the students learning phonics were doing better. "One of the things that I still struggle with is a lot of guilt," she said.

She thinks the students who learned three cueing were actually harmed by the approach. "I did lasting damage to these kids. It was so hard to ever get them to stop looking at a picture to guess what a word would be. It was so hard to ever get them to slow down and sound a word out because they had had this experience of knowing that you predict what you read before you read it."

Goldberg soon discovered the decades of scientific evidence against cueing. 25 She was shocked. She had never come across any of this science in her teacher preparation or on the job.

And she started to wonder why not.

Balanced Literacy

People have been arguing for centuries about how children should be taught to read. The fight has mostly focused on whether to teach phonics.

The whole language movement of the late 20th century was perhaps the zenith of the anti-phonics argument. 26 Phonics instruction was seen as tedious, time-consuming and ultimately unnecessary. Why? Because - according to the three-cueing theory - readers can use other, more reliable cues to figure out what the words say. 27

Marilyn Adams came across this belief in the early 1990s. She's a cognitive and developmental psychologist who had just written a book summarizing the research on how children learn to read. 28 One big takeaway from the book is that becoming a skilled reader of English requires knowledge of sound-spelling correspondences. 29 Another big takeaway is that many kids were not being taught this in school.

Soon after the book was published, Adams was describing her findings to a group of teachers and state education officials in Sacramento, California. She was sensing discomfort and confusion in the room. "And I just stopped and said, 'What is it that I'm missing?'" she recalled. "'What is it that we need to talk about? Help me.'"

A woman raised her hand and asked: "What does this have to do with the three-cueing system?" Marilyn didn't know what the three-cueing system was. "I think I blew all of their fuses that I did not [know what it was] since this was so fundamental to being an elementary reading teacher," she said. "How could I present myself to them as an expert on reading and not know about this?"

The teachers drew her a Venn diagram of the three-cueing system. It looked something like this:

Adams thought this diagram made perfect sense. The research clearly shows that readers use all of these cues to understand what they're reading.

But Adams soon figured out the disconnect. Teachers understood these cues not just as the way readers construct meaning from text, but as the way readers actually identify the words on the page. And they thought that teaching kids to decode or sound out words was not necessary.

"The most important thing was for the children to understand and enjoy the text," Adams said. "And from that understanding and joy of reading, the words on the page would just pop out at them."

She would explain to teachers at every opportunity that explicitly teaching children about the relationships between sounds and letters is essential to ensure all kids get off to a good start in reading. But she got tons of pushback from teachers. "They didn't want to teach phonics!" she recalled in frustration.

In 1998, Adams wrote a book chapter about how the three-cueing system conflicts with what researchers have figured out about reading. She hoped it would help put three cueing to rest. 30

By this time, the scientific research on reading was gaining traction. In 2000, a national panel convened by Congress to review the evidence on how to teach reading came out with a report. 31 It identified several essential components of reading instruction, including vocabulary, comprehension and phonics. The evidence that phonics instruction enhances children's success in learning how to read was clear and compelling. National reports on reading a few years later in the United Kingdom and Australia came to the same conclusion. 32

"When I got into the classroom and someone told me to use this practice, I didn't question it."-Stacey Cherny

Eventually, many whole language supporters accepted the weight of the scientific evidence about the importance of phonics instruction. They started adding phonics to their books and materials and renamed their approach "balanced literacy."

But they didn't get rid of the three-cueing system.

Balanced literacy proponents will tell you their approach is a mix of phonics instruction with plenty of time for kids to read and enjoy books. But look carefully at the materials and you'll see that's not really what balanced literacy is mixing. Instead, it's mixing a bunch of different ideas about how kids learn to read. It's a little bit of whole word instruction with long lists of words for kids to memorize. It's a little bit of phonics. And fundamentally, it's the idea that children should be taught to read using the three-cueing system.

And it turns out cueing may actually prevent kids from focusing on words in the way they need to become skilled readers.

Mapping the words

To understand why cueing can get in the way of children's reading development, it's essential to understand how our brains process the words we see.

Reading scientists have known for decades that the hallmark of being a skilled reader is the ability to instantly and accurately recognize words. 33 If you're a skilled reader, your brain has gotten so good at reading words that you process the word "chair" faster than you process a picture of a chair. 34 You know tens of thousands of words instantly, on sight. How did you learn to do that?

It happens through a process called "orthographic mapping." 35 This occurs when you pay attention to the details of a written word and link the word's pronunciation and meaning with its sequence of letters. 36 A child knows the meaning and pronunciation of "pony." The word gets mapped to his memory when he links the sounds /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ to the written word "pony."

That requires an awareness of the speech sounds in words and an understanding of how those sounds are represented by letters. 37 In other words, you need phonics skills.

Here's what happens when a reader who has good phonics skills comes to a word she doesn't recognize in print. She stops at the word and sounds it out. If it's a word she knows the meaning of, she has now linked the spelling of the word with its pronunciation. If she doesn't know the meaning of the word, she can use context to try to figure it out.

By about second grade, a typically developing reader needs just a few exposures to a word through understanding both the pronunciation and the spelling for that word to be stored in her memory. 38 She doesn't know that word because she memorized it as a visual image. She knows that word because at some point she successfully sounded it out.

The more words she stores in her memory this way, the more she can focus on the meaning of what she's reading; she'll eventually be using less brain power to identify words and will be able to devote more brain power to comprehending what she's reading. 39

But when children don't have good phonics skills, the process is different.

"They sample from the letters because they're not good at sounding them out," said David Kilpatrick, a psychology professor at SUNY Cortland and the author of a book about preventing reading difficulties. 40 "And they use context."

In other words, when people don't have good phonics skills, they use the cueing system.

"The three-cueing system is the way poor readers read," said Kilpatrick.

And if teachers use the cueing system to teach reading, Kilpatrick says they're not just teaching children the habits of poor readers, they are actually impeding the orthographic mapping process. 41

"The minute you ask them just to pay attention to the first letter or look at the picture, look at the context, you're drawing their attention away from the very thing that they need to interact with in order for them to read the word [and] remember the word," Kilpatrick said. In this way, he said, three cueing can actually prevent the critical learning that's necessary for a child to become a skilled reader.

In many balanced literacy classrooms, children are taught phonics and the cueing system. Some kids who are taught both approaches realize pretty quickly that sounding out a word is the most efficient and reliable way to know what it is. Those kids tend to have an easier time understanding the ways that sounds and letters relate. They'll drop the cueing strategies and begin building that big bank of instantly known words that is so necessary for skilled reading.

But some children will skip the sounding out if they're taught they have other options. Phonics is challenging for many kids. The cueing strategies seem quicker and easier at first. And by using context and memorizing a bunch of words, many children can look like good readers - until they get to about third grade, when their books begin to have more words, longer words, and fewer pictures. Then they're stuck. They haven't developed their sounding-out skills. Their bank of known words is limited. Reading is slow and laborious and they don't like it, so they don't do it if they don't have to. While their peers who mastered decoding early are reading and teaching themselves new words every day, the kids who clung to the cueing approach are falling further and further behind. 42

These poor reading habits, once ingrained at a young age, can follow kids into high school. Some kids who were taught the cueing approach never become good readers. Not because they're incapable of learning to read well but because they were taught the strategies of struggling readers.

'So what if they use the picture?'

Once Margaret Goldberg discovered the cognitive science evidence against cueing, she wanted her colleagues in the Oakland school district to know about it too.

Over the past two years, Goldberg and a fellow literacy coach named Lani Mednick have been leading a grant-funded pilot project to improve reading achievement in the Oakland schools. 43

They have their work cut out for them. Nearly half the district's third-graders are below grade level in reading. Goldberg and Mednick want to raise questions about how kids in Oakland are being taught to read.

They meet every couple weeks with literacy coaches from the 10 elementary schools in the pilot program. They read and discuss articles about the scientific research on reading. At a meeting in March, the coaches watched the video of the "picture power" lesson.

"This teacher meant well," Mednick said to the coaches after they watched the lesson. "It seemed like she believed this lesson would ensure her students would be on the road toward reading."

Mednick wanted the coaches to consider the beliefs about reading that would lead to the creation of a lesson like "picture power." The Oakland schools purchased the Units of Study for Teaching Reading series, which includes the "picture power" lesson, as part of a balanced literacy initiative the district began about 10 years ago. The district also bought the Fountas and Pinnell assessment system.

The coaches saw right away that "picture power" was designed to teach kids the cueing system. But they said many teachers don't see any problem with cueing. After all, one of the cues is to look at the letters in the word. What's wrong with teaching kids lots of different strategies to figure out unknown words? 44

"I remember before we started looking at the science and everything, I thought to myself, 'Reading is so hard for kids, so what if they use the picture?'" said Soraya Sajous-Brooks, the early literacy coach at Prescott Elementary School in West Oakland. "Like, use everything you've got."

But she's come to understand that cueing sends the message to kids that they don't need to sound out words. Her students would get phonics instruction in one part of the day. Then they'd go reader's workshop and be taught that when they come to a word they don't know, they have lots of strategies. They can sound it out. They can also check the first letter, look at the picture, think of a word that makes sense.

Teaching cueing and phonics doesn't work, Sajous-Brooks said. "One negates the other."

Goldberg and Mednick want to show the district there's a better way to teach reading. Schools in the pilot project used grant money to buy new materials that steer clear of the three-cueing idea. Two charter school networks in Oakland are working on similar projects to move their schools away from cueing.

To see what it looks like, I visited a first-grade classroom at a charter school in Oakland called Achieve Academy. 45

One part of the day was explicit phonics instruction. 46 The students were divided into small groups based on their skill level. They met with their teacher, Andrea Ruiz, at a kidney-shaped table in a corner of the classroom. The lowest-level group worked on identifying the speech sounds in words like "skin" and "skip." The highest-level group learned how verbs like "spy" and "cry" are spelled as "spied' and 'cried" in the past tense.

There were also vocabulary lessons. 47 The entire class gathered on a rug at the front of the classroom to talk about a book Ms. Ruiz read out loud to them. One of the words in the book was "prey."

"What animals are a chameleon's prey?" Ms. Ruiz asked the children. "Or we can also ask, what animals do chameleons hunt for food?"

The kids turned and talked to each other. "A chameleon's prey are bugs and insects and other chameleons and mice and birds," a little boy explained to his classmate. "That's it."

Other vocabulary words these first-graders had learned were posted on cards around the classroom. They included: wander, persevere, squint and scrumptious. The kids weren't expected to read those words yet. The idea is to build their oral vocabulary so that when they can read those words, they know what the words mean.

This comes straight from the scientific research, which shows that reading comprehension is the product of two things. 48 First, a child needs to be able to sound out a word. Second, the child needs to know the meaning of the word she just sounded out. So, in a first-grade classroom that's following the research, you will see explicit phonics instruction and also lessons that build oral vocabulary and background knowledge. And you will see kids practicing what they've been taught.

After their vocabulary lesson, the kids did "buddy reading." They retreated to various spots around the classroom to read books to each other. I found Belinda sitting on an adult chair at the back of the classroom, her little legs swinging. Across from her was her buddy Steven, decked out in a yellow and blue plaid shirt tucked neatly into his jeans. He held the book and pointed to the words while Belinda read.

"Ellen /m/," Belinda paused, sounding out the word "meets." She was reading a decodable book about some kids who visit a farm. Almost all of the words in the book contain spelling patterns she'd been taught in her phonics lessons.

"I am a farm here," Belinda read.

Steven did a double-take. "A farmer here," he said gently. Steven's job as Belinda's reading buddy was to help her if she missed a word or got stuck. But that didn't happen much because Belinda had been taught how to read the words. She didn't need any help from the pictures, either. She barely glanced at them as she read.

To be clear, there's nothing wrong with pictures. They're great to look at and talk about, and they can help a child comprehend the meaning of a story. Context - including a picture if there is one - helps us understand what we're reading all the time. But if a child is being taught to use context to identify words, she's being taught to read like a poor reader.

Many educators don't know this because the cognitive science research has not made its way into many schools and schools of education. 49

Ruiz didn't know about this research until the Oakland pilot project. "I didn't really know anything about how kids learn to read when I started teaching," she said. It was a relief when she came to Oakland and the curriculum spelled out that kids use meaning, structure and visual cues to figure out words. "Because I came from not having anything, I was like, 'Oh, there's a way we should teach this,'" she said.

I heard this from other educators. Cueing was appealing because they didn't know what else to do.

"When I got into the classroom and someone told me to use this practice, I didn't question it," said Stacey Cherny, a former teacher who's now principal of an elementary school in Pennsylvania. She says many teachers aren't taught what they need to know about the structure of the English language to be able to teach phonics well. She says phonics can be intimidating; three cueing isn't.

Another reason cueing holds on is that it seems to work for some children. But researchers estimate there's a percentage of kids - perhaps about 40 percent - who will learn to read no matter how they're taught. 50 According to Kilpatrick, children who learn to read with cueing are succeeding in spite of the instruction, not because of it.

Goldberg hopes the pilot project in Oakland will convince the district to drop all instructional materials that include cueing.

When asked about this, the Oakland superintendent's office responded with a written statement that there isn't enough evidence from the pilot project to make curriculum changes for the entire district and that the Oakland schools remain committed to balanced literacy.

Oakland's situation is no different from many other districts across the country that have invested millions of dollars in materials that include cueing.

"It feels like everyone's trusting somebody else to have done their due diligence," Goldberg said. "Classroom teachers are trusting that the materials they're being handed will work. The people who purchase the materials are trusting if they were on the market, that they will work. We're all trusting, and it's a system that is broken."

'My science is different'

If cueing was debunked decades ago by cognitive scientists, why is the idea still in materials that are being sold to schools?

One answer to that question is that school districts still buy the materials. Heinemann, the company that publishes the Fountas and Pinnell and Lucy Calkins' products that the Oakland schools use, earned somewhere in the neighborhood of $500 million in 2018, according to earnings reports. 51

I wanted to know what the authors of those materials make of the cognitive science research. And I wanted to give them a chance to explain the ideas behind their work. I wrote to Calkins, Fountas and Pinnell and asked for interviews. They all declined. Heinemann sent a statement that said every product the company sells is informed by extensive research.

I also asked Ken Goodman for an interview. It's been more than 50 years since he first laid out the three-cueing theory in that 1967 paper. I wanted to know what he thinks of the cognitive science research. Of the major proponents of three cueing I reached out to, he was the only one who agreed to an interview.

I visited Goodman at his home in Tucson, Arizona. He's 91. He uses a scooter to get around, but he's still working. He just finished a new edition of one of his books.

When I asked him what he makes of the cognitive science research, he told me he thinks scientists focus too much on word recognition. He still doesn't believe accurate word recognition is necessary for reading comprehension.

"Word recognition is a preoccupation," he said. "I don't teach word recognition. I teach people to make sense of language. And learning the words is incidental to that."

He brought up the example of a child who comes to the word "horse" and says "pony" instead. His argument is that a child will still understand the meaning of the story because horse and pony are the same concept.

I pressed him on this. First of all, a pony isn't the same thing as a horse. Second, don't you want to make sure that when a child is learning to read, he understands that /p/ /o/ /n/ /y/ says "pony"? And different letters say "horse"?

He dismissed my question.

"The purpose is not to learn words," he said. "The purpose is to make sense."

Cognitive scientists don't dispute that the purpose of reading is to make sense of the text. But the question is: How can you understand what you are reading if you can't accurately read the words? And if quick and accurate word recognition is the hallmark of being a skilled reader, how does a little kid get there?

Goodman rejected the idea that you can make a distinction between skilled readers and unskilled readers; he doesn't like the value judgment that implies. He said dyslexia does not exist - despite lots of evidence that it does. 52 And he said the three-cueing theory is based on years of observational research. In his view, three cueing is perfectly valid, drawn from a different kind of evidence than what scientists collect in their labs.

"My science is different," Goodman said.

This idea that there are different kinds of evidence that lead to different conclusions about how reading works is one reason people continue to disagree about how children should be taught to read. It's important for educators to understand that three cueing is based on theory and observational research and that there's decades of scientific evidence from labs all over the world that converges on a very different idea about skilled reading.

The cognitive science does not provide all the answers about how to teach children to read, but on the question of how skilled readers read words, scientists have amassed a huge body of evidence.

Goldberg thinks it's time for educators across the country to take a close look at all the materials they use to teach reading.

"We should look through the materials and search for evidence of cueing," she said. "And if it's there, don't touch it. Don't let it get near our kids, don't let it get near our classrooms, our teachers."

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How a flawed idea is teaching millions of kids to be poor readers

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For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

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At a Loss for Words by Emily Hanford (Podcast Version)

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At a Loss for Words by Emily Hanford (Podcast Version)

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For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

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at a loss for words: what's wrong with how schools teach reading

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‎Educate: At a Loss for Words: What's wrong with how schools teach reading on Apple Podcasts

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For decades, schools have taught children the strategies of struggling readers, using a theory about reading that cognitive scientists have repeatedly debunked. And many teachers and parents don't know there's anything wrong with it.

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Using a fundamentally different approach to teaching reading, Amplify Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA)™ sequences deep content knowledge with research-based foundational skills.

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Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

Dr. Reid Lyon Episodes

Fascinating.

Horrible

I thought this was about science / potential energy and forces and motion acceleration and kinetic energy I'm maddddd

So when do we actually get to the science of reading?

The first five episodes are about how teachers are horrible to children, and how they have been letting them down for years, and that children only aren't learning because they've had horrible teachers. Not a single mention behind any of the science of reading methods or practices or theories. Just some interviews with some people who hate teachers

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‎Science of Reading: The Podcast on Apple Podcasts

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Science of Reading: The Podcast will deliver the latest insights from researchers and practitioners in early reading. Via a conversational approach, each episode explores a timely topic related to the science of reading.

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SPIRE® 4th Edition is a multisensory Orton-Gillingham-based reading program that brings Science of Reading principles to work in K-8+ classrooms.

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The Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders' outreach services allow us to expand our mission and help thousands of children through support services for parents and educators. Our staff has developed curricula that have taught hundreds of thousands of children to read. The center offers consultation and training to schools as they use the programs.

Order Our Curriculum
The Rite Flight Rate Program, Rite Flight Comprehension and Take Flight: A Comprehensive Intervention for Students with Dyslexia are curricula written by the staff of the Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders at Scottish Rite Hospital. These programs are available for purchase.

Please Note: Only Take Flight trained therapists can purchase the Take Flight materials and will be required to provide the name of their Training Center and Course Director.

If this is your first time to order Rite Flight or Take Flight materials or you do not know your account number, you must request a Scottish Rite Hospital account number.

1. If you plan to purchase curriculum with a school district purchase order, the account you request should be in the same name as the purchase order. Same applies with a school credit card.

2. If you plan to order curriculum with your personal credit card, the new account should be in the same name as the credit card and the credit card billing address.

Request Account
After completing the request form, your account number will be sent within 3 business days via the email you provided. Username and password will be sent from adminupress@qg.com. You can then log in and complete your order.
Order Now
If you already have a Scottish Rite Hospital account number or have previously purchased Rite Flight or Take Flight materials, please use the order form. Be sure to have your account number ready to expedite the process.

1. All curriculum orders are shipped GROUND. Please provide a physical address with city, state and zip.

2. All sales are final.

3. Please contact adminupress@qg.com if you need to reset your password.

Educational Outreach
View upcoming events for dyslexia educators.

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Dyslexia Educator Center | Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children

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The Luke Waites Center for Dyslexia & Learning Disorders' outreach services allow us to expand our mission and help thousands of children through support services for parents and educators. Our staff has developed curricula that have taught hundreds of thousands of children to read.

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Our brains are hard-wired to master spoken language, but learning to read is another story. Learning to read is a very complex skill - one of the most complex things that we ask our children to take on. And for many kids, it doesn't come easily.

As a result, teaching children to read and write well can be a very challenging job. So much so that researcher Louisa Moats called her influential article "Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science." (This incidentally, became the inspiration for the "Reading Rockets" name!).

There are many reasons why children succeed or struggle in school, but among school-related factors, teachers matter the most. What teachers know and what they do in class every day have an enormous impact on student achievement.

It's never easy, but when reading instruction is delivered by knowledgeable, skilled teachers, more students will be more successful, and all but the most severe reading disabilities can be addressed effectively. This is true even for students who are most at risk.

Reading 101 presents some of the core information that teachers need to help young children learn to read and write well and to support the children who struggle. You may want to start with the introductory section, How Children Learn to Read and then move on to our course modules:

Letter of completion

Reading Rockets does not offer CEUs for this self-study course. After completing each module and successfully answering the post-test questions, you'll be able to download a Letter of Completion.

Certification

To learn how you can become certified by the Center for Effective Reading Instruction, visit Becoming a Certified Literacy Teacher.

Production credits

Reading 101 is a service of WETA/ Reading Rockets in collaboration with the Center for Effective Reading Instruction and The International Dyslexia Association. Reading 101 is made possible in part by grants from The National Education Association and the LD Network.

Executive Editor, Reading 101: Noel Gunther
Director, Reading Rockets: Tina Chovanec

Contributing writers and editors:

Suzanne Carreker, PhD, CALT-QI

Margaret Goldberg

Elizabeth Liptak

Nicole Lubar

Latrice Seals, Ed.D.

Louise Spear-Swerling, Ph.D.

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Our brains are hard-wired to master spoken language, but learning to read is another story. Learning to read is a very complex skill - one of the most complex things that we ask our children to take on. And for many kids, it doesn't come easily.

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Shanahan on Literacy has a variety of literacy blogs in one place. Find out here the information that can use by teachers and parents in teaching and assessing reading, writing, and literacy. Read more here!

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Get Ready to Read Screening Tool by Reading Rockets

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Get Ready to Read Screening Tool by Reading Rockets

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This screener is intended for pre-school children headed to kindergarten.

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Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project that offers a wealth of research-based reading strategies, lessons, and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Our reading resources assist parents, teachers, and other educators in helping struggling readers bui…

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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Linda Farrell and Michael Hunter welcome you to the Readsters® website. At Readsters our passion for seeing students of all ages learn to read inspires the support we deliver. Explore our website to see the many ways we might support you.

Watch New Reading Rockets Videos with Linda Farrell

Looking at Reading Interventions:
Linda works individually with six K-3rd grade students on specific reading weaknesses. Coaches, teachers, and college instructors have all found the videos useful for illustrating strong reading intervention practices.

Consulting and Professional Development

Products

Developing and offering products that improve reading skills.

Current products are:

Phonics Plug-In series teaches beginning and struggling readers to decode well.
Phonics Plug-In ONE: the first set of lessons in a planned set of six. The lessons teach accurate decoding with beginning phonics in small group instruction to beginning readers and to older struggling readers.

Phonics Plug-In TWO: the second set of lessons in a planned set of six. The lessons continue the beginning phonics scope and sequence in small group instruction for beginning readers and to older struggling readers.

Downloadable Practice Packets improve reading by fixing:

1. b-d confusions
2. other common letter confusions (e.g., g-j, b-p, y-w)
3. confusing high frequency words (e.g., was-saw,
where-were, her-here)
4. confusion reading words with closed syllable (CVC) and silent-e (VCe) vowel spellings (e.g., hop-hop, shin-shine,
glob-globe)

Basic Letter Tile Set: magnetic letter tiles, colored tiles, and dry-erase workspace in a compact, folding, one-piece, lightweight, stackable case.

Teaching Vowel Sounds: lesson plans explicitly teach students to hear and label the vowel sounds in spoken words. This ability supports reading and spelling success.

Vowel Sound Posters: help students identify and remember the vowel sounds and their labels.

Resources
Sign up to receive Readsters Reader, our e-mail newsletter

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Linda Farrell and Michael Hunter welcome you to the Readsters® website. At Readsters our passion for seeing students of all ages learn to read inspires the support we deliver. Explore our website to see the many ways we might support you. Looking at Reading Interventions: Linda works individually with six K-3rd grade students on specific reading weaknesses.

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The T4R Box includes: Kid Lips® Cards and Instructional Guide Combo, Phoneme/Grapheme Cards - Teacher's Instructional Set, Phoneme/Grapheme Mini Cards, Phoneme/Grapheme Wall Poster, and the Consonant Chart & Vowel Valley Poster Set Alphabet Strips and Mirrors are not included in the box and must be purchased separately. International Shipping will incur additional charges.

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dyslexia reading problems learning disabilities disability games testing symptoms instruction spelling children's childrens books literature "read aloud" res...

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WETA Washington, D.C., is the third-largest producing station for PBS. WETA's ongoing commitment to education is realized through national services that focus on making learning available to all.

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Phonological Awareness Screening Test: PAST 

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Phonological Awareness Screening Test: PAST 

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual "Equipped for Reading Success" by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with [...]

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Everyone agrees that the goal of reading instruction is for children to understand what they read. The question is: how does a little kid get there? Emily Hanford explores what reading scientists have figured out about how reading comprehension works and why poverty and race can affect a child's reading development. Read the full story.

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‎Educate: What the Words Say on Apple Podcasts

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Everyone agrees that the goal of reading instruction is for children to understand what they read. The question is: how does a little kid get there? Emily Hanford explores what reading scientists have figured out about how reading comprehension works and why poverty and race can affect a child's rea...

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Ensuring Literacy Success for All with Dr. Tracy Weeden

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Ensuring Literacy Success for All with Dr. Tracy Weeden

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Dr. Tracy Weeden, CEO and President of the Neuhaus Education Center, joins host Susan Lambert to discuss ensuring literacy success for all. She shares what it means to be a literacy ally, what the 'COVID Chrysalis' is, and how teachers need to bridge the gap between the language students learn in school and the language they bring from home.

Quote:
"Quality of life and literacy are intrinsically tied to one another."
Resources:

Want to discuss the episode? Join our Facebook group Science of Reading: The Community.

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s4-02: ensuring literacy success for all: dr. tracy weeden

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‎Science of Reading: The Podcast: S4-02: Ensuring literacy success for all: Dr. Tracy Weeden on Apple Podcasts

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Dr. Tracy Weeden, CEO and President of the Neuhaus Education Center, joins host Susan Lambert to discuss ensuring literacy success for all. She shares what it means to be a literacy ally, what the 'COVID Chrysalis' is, and how teachers need to bridge the gap between the language students learn in sc...

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Triple R Teaching by Anna Geiger (The Measured Mom)

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Triple R Teaching by Anna Geiger (The Measured Mom)

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Anna's SoR journey begins with Episode #034.

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It's time to reignite your passion for teaching! Triple R Teaching provides simple strategies and practical tips for PreK-grade 3 educators. Anna Geiger, M.Ed., will show you how to make small changes to improve how you teach literacy concepts. Look forward to episodes about Anna's transition from b...

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"How the Brain Learns to Read" by Stanislas Dehaene (Cognitive Neuroscientist)

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"How the Brain Learns to Read" by Stanislas Dehaene (Cognitive Neuroscientist)

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How the Brain Learns to Read - Prof. Stanislas Dehaene

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The Simple View of Reading as explained by Linda Farrell

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The Simple View of Reading as explained by Linda Farrell

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The Simple View of Reading and its Application

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The Simple View of Reading and its Application

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Aouad, J. and Savage, R. (2009). The component structure of preliteracy skills: Further evidence for the simple view of reading. Canadian Journal of School Psychology, 24 (2), 183-200.

Catts, H., Adlof, S., and Weismer, S. (2006). Language deficits in poor comprehenders: A case for the simple view of reading. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 278-293.

Gough, P., Hoover, W., and Patterson, C. (1996). Some observations on a simple view of reading. In C. Cornoldi and J. Oakhill (eds.), Reading comprehension difficulties: Processes and intervention (pp. 1-13). Mahway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

*Gough, P. and Tunmer, W. (1986). Decoding, reading, and reading disability. Remedial and Special Education, 7, 6-10.

Hoover, W. and Gough, P. (1990). The simple view of reading. Reading and Writing: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2, 127-160.

*Kamhi, A. (2007). Knowledge deficits: the true crisis in education. ASHA Leader, 12 (7), 28-29.

*These articles are short and easy to read.

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The Simple View of Reading is a formula demonstrating the widely accepted view that reading has two basic components: word recognition (decoding) and language comprehension. Research studies show that a student's reading comprehension score can be predicted if decoding skills and language comprehension abilities are known.

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Introduction to the Hourglass Figure by Dr. Carol Tolman

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Introduction to the Hourglass Figure by Dr. Carol Tolman

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Introduction to the Tolman Hourglass Figure

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A Conversation about the Science of Reading with Dr. Louisa Moats

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A Conversation about the Science of Reading with Dr. Louisa Moats

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A Conversation About the Science of Reading and Early Reading Instruction with Dr. Louisa Moats

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Dr. Moats shares her insights about the science of reading, her reflections on the standards for early reading, the types of training that teachers of reading need, and her assessment of how the SIPPS (Systematic Instruction in Phonological Awareness, Phonics, and Sight Words) program aligns with the research about successful reading instruction.

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The National Reading Panel Report (2000)

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The National Reading Panel Report (2000)

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These mirrors are perfect for whole class or small group use when teaching phonemic awareness and phonics. They store easily because they are small and light weight. The compact size also makes it easy for small hands to hold. Mirrors are an important tool to use with beginning readers and English language learners.

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The Hourglass Figure: Phonological Awareness by Dr. Carol Tolman

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The Hourglass Figure: Phonological Awareness by Dr. Carol Tolman

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The Top Part of Tolman's Hourglass Figure: Phonological Awareness

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Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum by Michael Heggerty (Kindergarten Level)

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Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum by Michael Heggerty (Kindergarten Level)

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Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick

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Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick

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The Original SPIRAL BOUND Book! Our CANADIAN Distributors: Caversham CLICK HERE West Coast Literacy CLICK HERE Payment Options: 1) School PURCHASE ORDERS: CLICK HERE 2) Orders for Individuals * Ch...

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The Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPA) by Schuele & Murphy

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The Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPA) by Schuele & Murphy

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Sorry, we just need to make sure you’re not a robot. For best results, please make sure your browser is accepting cookies.

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Effective, evidence-based reading resources - Five from Five

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Five From Five aims to improve literacy levels by ensuring all children receive effective, evidence-based reading instruction.

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Science of Reading Phonics Instruction Material | Secret Stories®

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Secret Stories® follows a child's line of logic to explain WHY letters make the many different sounds that they do! From the Superhero Vowels® and Sneaky Y®, to Mommy E® and the Babysitter Vowels® strategies, the Secrets provide learners of all ages with the logical explanations for letter behavior sound behavior that the brain craves!
Secret Stories® is not a program, but a teaching and learning "tool" that works alongside existing reading/phonics curriculum to simplify skill concepts and get kids reading-easier, earlier and faster!

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Science of Reading Phonics Instruction Material | Secret Stories®

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Secret Stories provides phonics books, posters & flashcards, as well as reading skills activities, word work games, phonics resources for parents & a complete phonics toolkit for teachers & schools.

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The Hourglass Figure: Orthography by Dr. Carol Tolman

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The Hourglass Figure: Orthography by Dr. Carol Tolman

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The Bottom Part of Tolman's Hourglass Figure:  Orthography

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Triple R Teaching by Anna Geiger (The Measured Mom)

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Triple R Teaching by Anna Geiger (The Measured Mom)

# data[].attributes.body
Anna's SoR journey begins with Episode #034.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
It's time to reignite your passion for teaching! Triple R Teaching provides simple strategies and practical tips for PreK-grade 3 educators. Anna Geiger, M.Ed., will show you how to make small changes to improve how you teach literacy concepts. Look forward to episodes about Anna's transition from b...

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Watch this video to see the features of the Basic Letter Tile Set.

The Basic Letter Tile Set is magnetic letter tiles, colored tiles, and dry erase workspace in a compact, one-piece case.

The Basic Letter Tile Set works with any beginning phonics instruction and for teaching letter names and sounds. Colored tiles are for phonemic awareness instruction.

Compact board (8.5" x 11") fits easily on student desk.

The board folds in half to close and hold tiles securely inside.

Closed boards stack easily.

The top of the opened board is color coded and labeled for each tile so tiles are easy to find and put back.

The 4" x 8.5" working area at bottom of open board is magnetic receptive and works with dry erase markers.

The primer font on letter tiles is specially designed to be easy to read.

Weighs only 5 ounces.

Set includes:

45 foam, 11/16" wide x 1" tall, magnetic tiles:

lower case letters a through z (except q)

qu on one tile

digraphs ch, sh, th, ck, wh

trigraphs tch and dge

extra f, l, and s

suffixes er, es, and ing

chunk ink

5 different colored tiles for phonemic awareness activities

8.5" x 11" (standard letter size) laminated board that is case, tile storage, and working space in one.

WARNING: Choking Hazard. Small parts. Not for children under 3 years.

Item No. M-101

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Watch this video to see the features of the Basic Letter Tile Set. The Basic Letter Tile Set is magnetic letter tiles, colored tiles, and dry erase workspace in a compact, one-piece case. The Basic Letter Tile Set works with any beginning phonics instruction and for teaching letter names and sounds.

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Lexia Learning Systems https://www.lexialearning.com/Assets/img/logo.svg 1984 978-405-6232 info@lexialearning.com 300 Baker Avenue, Suite 320 Concord MA 01742 USA

Lexia ® LETRS ® Professional Learning

The Lexia LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) Suite is comprehensive professional learning designed to provide early childhood and elementary educators and administrators with deep knowledge to be literacy and language experts in the science of reading. Developed by Dr. Louisa Moats and leaders in the field of literacy, Lexia LETRS teaches the skills needed to master the foundational and fundamentals of reading and writing instruction-phonological awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and written language.
Download brochure

Why LETRS?

Research shows that only 35% of students are reading proficiently, but 95% of students CAN learn to read. And while teachers are the most essential factor in student success, only about half of teaching institutions effectively prepare teachers for literacy instruction. Teaching reading requires a deep understanding of the processes and science behind it. LETRS is the professional learning program rooted in the science of reading that empowers teachers.

LETRS®

Lexia LETRS provides a professional learning course of study based in the science of reading for elementary educators. The course teaches the how, what, and why of literacy acquisition to improve instructional practice and achieve long-term systemic change in literacy instruction.

LETRS for elementary educators is an investment in teachers' literacy knowledge and professional practice. Teachers gain essential knowledge and skills to master the fundamentals of literacy instruction required to apply and transform student learning.

LETRS® for Early Childhood Educators

LETRS® For Early Childhood Educators professional learning provides deep knowledge of literacy instruction for the youngest learners. The more children know about language and literacy before they begin kindergarten and first grade, the better equipped they are to succeed in literacy learning and beyond.

LETRS® for Administrators

Lexia LETRS® for Administrators is a professional development course designed specifically for school leadership, coaches, principals, and district administrators. The course defines the systems and infrastructures required to successfully implement a literacy initiative aligned to scientifically based research. Built from the research in implementation science and sustainability, school improvement, and shared leadership, the course provides numerous tools-including an analysis of the current systems required for improved literacy outcomes-for guiding an implementation through various stages.

Learn More

Engaged Students

Lexia LETRS provides a professional learning course of study based in the science of reading for elementary educators which teaches the how, what, and why of literacy acquisition to improve instructional practice and impact long-term systemic change in literacy instruction. The more children know about language and literacy before they begin kindergarten and first grade, the better equipped they are to succeed in literacy learning and beyond.

Empowered Educators

Many educators and education leaders are not well prepared to teach reading, or lead those who teach reading. The Lexia LETRS Suite provides science of reading-based professional learning through three different courses of study designed for elementary educators, education leaders, and early childhood educators. Each course of study teaches the how, what, and why of literacy acquisition to educators to improve literacy instruction and positively impact long-term systemic change in literacy outcomes.

Why even trained teachers need support:

Learn More about Empowered Educators

Improved Outcomes

Lexia LETRS empowers educators by going beyond the essential components of literacy. Lexia LETRS gives teachers the skills they need to master how to teach the five essential components of literacy, plus writing, spelling, and oral language.

Lexia LETRS includes five essential elements for literacy success:

Science of reading based

Teaches the content of explicit instruction

Converts research to practice

Enhances educator and leader effectiveness

Transforms instruction

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Professional Learning for Educators Grades Pre-K-5 | Lexia

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Comprehensive Orton-Gillingham Training by IMSE

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Comprehensive Orton-Gillingham Training by IMSE

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IMSE is offering Live Virtual Training courses in several different formats and time zones. Download our course Preview Guide to see what's in store.
Download Preview Guide
Participants can register for:

Traditional Sessions (Monday-Friday, 6 hours per day)

Semester (10 sessions, 10 weeks)

Evening Sessions (10 sessions, 3 hours per session)

Weekend Sessions (4 sessions, 7.5 hours per session)

1-day per week (5 sessions, 5 weeks)

Bi-Weekly Sessions (twice a week for 5 weeks)

To find the course option that works best for you, choose "Course" from the dropdown, then select a timezone and format under "Time".

If you have a large group or would like a private training for your district, please contact IMSE at (844) 292-3249.

Certain courses are offered asynchronously. These pre-recorded videos allow you to take a certified IMSE course at your own pace. A complete list can be found here.
**If you are looking for a virtual training, do not select a state.

Training Options

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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IMSE offers training across the United States. If you cannot find a training near you, or you would like to bring IMSE to your schools, please call us.

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The Science of Reading - The Reading League

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The Reading League's mission is to advance the understanding and use of evidence-aligned reading instruction through the science of reading.

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Founded in 2005, 95 Percent Group emerged as early pioneers in bringing the science of reading into classrooms - creating and advocating for the systematic, explicit literacy instruction and resources relied upon nationwide today. Nearly two decades later, we're proud to continue empowering educators in their transformative work with tomorrow's readers.

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Evidence-Based Literacy Solutions | 95 Percent Group

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Transform literacy outcomes with evidence-based instruction. Explore 95 Percent Group's solutions for reading, writing, and assessment today.

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Countdown Student Kit The Countdown Student Kit is designed to work in conjunction with the Countdown phonics lessons and provide visual and tactile elements to our multisensory approach.

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By IMSE

The large card pack includes short vowels, vowel teams, silent-e, r-controlled, consonants, consonant blends, and spelling rules. The back of each card has examples of each sound. Large size for classroom use with plenty of room to add pictures or illustrations. Individual size is great for tutoring or small group instruction. Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" x 2.25".

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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Orton-Gillingham is a sequential, multi-sensory approach to teach literacy. Our program breaks reading and writing into smaller skills, and builds on them.

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By IMSE

The small card pack includes short vowels, vowel teams, silent-e, r-controlled, consonants, consonant blends, and spelling rules. The back of each card has examples of each sound. Individual size is great for tutoring or small group instruction. Dimensions: 4.25" x 3.75" x 2.25".

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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Orton-Gillingham is a sequential, multi-sensory approach to teach literacy. Our program breaks reading and writing into smaller skills, and builds on them.

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The blending board holds up to 4 large card stacks that can be displayed for individual and classroom blending drills. Custom-made measuring 18" long x 3 1/2" wide with a 6" backer.

*Cards sold separately

Price: $50.00

Bulk Discounts:
1 : $50.00
1-9 : $50.00
10-30 : $45.00
31-99 : $42.50
100+ : $40.00

Product details

Categories: Comprehensive OG+, OG+ Three-Part Drill, Kindergarten, First Grade, Second Grade, Third Grade, Fourth Grade, Fifth Grade and Up

Grade Levels: Kindergarten, 1st grade, 2nd grade, 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, 6th grade, 7th grade

Related products

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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Orton-Gillingham is a sequential, multi-sensory approach to teach literacy. Our program breaks reading and writing into smaller skills, and builds on them.

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By IMSE

Contrasting colors and different textures make this sand ideal when utilizing kinesthetic techniques in a sand tray for letter formation. Each contains two pounds of sand, enough for 4 to 6 student trays.
Non-Toxic

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IMSE | institute for multi-sensory education

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Orton-Gillingham is a sequential, multi-sensory approach to teach literacy. Our program breaks reading and writing into smaller skills, and builds on them.

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from http://www.nrrf.org

Introduction

"At the level of the written word, English is one of the most complex languages in the world.Due to this complexity, most English speakers do not know the basic building blocks of the language; the sounds, their corresponding written expressions, and the spelling rules that go with them."

"There are 26 letters in the alphabet, but they represent 44 sounds that can be spelled in 74 basic ways...learning these 74 phonograms and 30 spelling rules is the most efficient route to mastering English."

"There are more than 2 million words in the English lexicon.The average adult speaker knows between 40,000 and 60,000 words...with a well-educated adult mastering up to 200,000 words."

"Surely the most efficient way to master such a large lexicon is to learn the 104 tools which together describe how to read and spell each of these words."

"Diane McGuinness, PhD, has shown that human memory is limited to approximately 2,000 individual symbols.Yet adult speakers of English need to master 40,000 to 200,000 words - an impossible task without the understanding of how to decipher the code." "Many adults who are functionally illiterate know between

1,000 and 2,000 sight words.Though these students were successful at the task presented to them - memorizing individual words - they are unable to use this knowledge to meaningfully decode new words and thereby crippled from being able to read anything beyond the elementary level."

Note:Quotations above are taken from Chapter 1, Uncovering the Logic of English, Eide, Denise; Pedia Learning, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA, 2012.

Because most of American schools require students to memorize words, rather than systematically teach them the complete sound/symbol knowledge of English spelling, we have had a decades long literacy crisis that has not significantly changed despite billions upon billions of dollars spent at local, state and federal levels to address this crisis.

The most recent statistics provided by the National Assessment of Education Progress indicate that 83% of African American, 78% of Hispanic and 57% of white 4 th grade students have not been taught to read proficiently in our tax payer supported public schools.

This guide provides teachers and parents a reference to some of the excellent resource materials that can be used in the classroom, or at home to teach students to read proficiently.This list is not exhaustive, and CRE does not endorse or place these "instructional tools" in a priority order. They are listed alphabetically by the publisher's name.

CRE strongly recommends that each resource be explored to determine which one will be the most effective for the age/grade/ability of the student(s).Websites are provided so that information about cost, content, and evidence of success can be ascertained.

The Report of the National Reading Panel issued in 2000 identified the five components of reading instruction.They include:direct, systematic instruction in phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension.

Each of the resources listed in this guide include all of these essential components.Some of these resources are more comprehensive than others, also including grammar, syntax, morphemes, graphemes, and penmanship to name a few.However, each resource addresses the KEY element/components effectively - direct, intensive, systematic, early, comprehensive instruction in the English alphabetic code to the point of automaticity.

*Please note: "Professional development" is available, from many of the resource providers listed here.Some is available at no cost, and in other cases for a fee.

Criteria for evaluating K - 3 Structured Reading Programs

The National Right to Read Foundation endorses reading programs that are consistent with the findings of the 2016 Practice Guide of the What Works Clearinghouse and the Report of the National Reading Panel (NRP).

The NRP five components of reading instruction are listed below.
http://lincs.ed.gov/publications/html/prfteachers/reading_first1phonics.html http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/PracticeGuide.aspx?sid=21
Phonemic Awareness

Helps children understand and recognize the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language.

Multisensory Phonics Instruction

This approach leads to an understanding of the alphabetic principle-the systematic and predictable, logical relationships between written letters and the spoken sounds they represent.

Fluency

Once decoding words becomes automatic, the focus is on making connections between the ideas in a text, and between those ideas and the student's background knowledge.Repeated and monitored oral reading improves reading fluency and overall reading achievement.

Vocabulary Development

Students should be able to decode, read, and comprehend any word in their spoken vocabulary, and read them aloud fluently and accurately without guessing.They should learn to use the dictionary, write the vocabulary words they know in sentences, paragraphs, and stories, spell the words they use accurately, and be able to read more complex content consistent with their age and grade level.

Comprehension

By the end of second grade or before, students should be able to comprehend in reading, what they can talk about and understand.Identifying story or text structure and the main idea, looking up unknown words in the dictionary, summarizing parts of the text, and classroom discussion are all parts of building good comprehension.

LANGUAGE TUNE UP KIT

SUMMARY: The Language Tune-Up Kit (LTK®) curriculum includes the eight essential instructional elements needed to successfully teach students:

Multisensory: Instruction involves immediate, intensive, and continuous interaction between what the student is seeing, hearing, and feeling in the speech mechanisms and the writing hand. All the language elements taught are reinforced by having the student listen, speak, read and write. In LTK the student uses a mouse, microphone and keyboard to learn newly taught phonograms and to spell and write letters, words, and sounds from dictation.

Alphabetic/Phonetic: Sound-symbol associations along with linguistic rules and generalizations are introduced in a linguistically logical, understandable order. The essence of the phonetic approach is to make letter-to-sound correlations as simple and comprehensive as possible.

Synthetic/Analytic: The student is taught how to blend sounds together. When using LTK, the student hears the sounds pronounced while seeing the letters move together to make familiar words. LTK teaches the student how to segment words into separate speech sounds before beginning to spell. Drills which require placing the sound and filling in the blanks allows the student to apply the process to many words.

Structured: The student learns one sound association, linguistic rule, or non-phonetic word and practices using it with previously taught material before learning the next language concept. In LTK, each new piece of the language taught is specifically reviewed multiple times through drills and spelling practice. If confusions occur later in another context, additional review is provided. LTK divides the linguistic rules into separate lesson activities and provides practice and correction routines for each lesson activity.

Sequenced: Linguistic concepts are taught in a sequence which will minimize potentially confusing elements. The logic and order of LTK's curriculum was determined by Orton-Gilligham experts who based their training in the Orton-Gillingham method. Their combined experience exceeds over 50 years in using this method to teach students of all ages and to train teachers.

Cumulative: The student should be asked to use each newly introduced element while reinforcing others that have been taught. LTK's quizzes test all of the linguistic information previously taught. Student scores typically indicate 90 to 100 percent mastery within the quizzes. There are multiple review lessons interspersed throughout LTK to provide practice and reinforcement.

Repetitive: The concepts are repeated until the student gains mastery. The program provides 10 repetitions within each lesson activity and measures student mastery. If a mastery level of 80 percent is achieved, the student automatically

progresses to the next lesson activity. If not achieved, additional sets of repetitions are provided and achievement of 80 percent mastery is again determined. Cognitive: The student should understand the "linguistic logic" underlying word formations and patterns and be able to demonstrate that understanding while writing words. During the introductory and review portions of the lessons, LTK explains rules and generalizations both verbally and with on-screen demonstrations.

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from http://www.nrrf.org "At the level of the written word, English is one of the most complex languages in the world.Due to this complexity, most English speakers do not know the basic building blocks of the language; the sounds, their corresponding written expressions, and the spelling rules that go with them."

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual "Equipped for Reading Success" by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with [...]

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Know Better, Do Better by David & Meredith Liben

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Know Better, Do Better by David & Meredith Liben

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy)

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Amazon.com: A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy): 9781506326887: Blevins, Wiley W.: Books

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Moats

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Moats

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Louisa Cook Moats Ed.D. (Author), Dr. Susan Brady Ph.D. (Foreword)

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers

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Amazon.com: Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers: 9781681253305: Moats Ed.D., Louisa Cook, Brady Ph.D., Dr. Susan: Books

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Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide by Wiley Blevins

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Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide by Wiley Blevins

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Phonics From A to Z, 3rd Edition: A Practical Guide

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Amazon.com: Phonics From A to Z, 3rd Edition: A Practical Guide: 9781338113495: Blevins, Wiley: Books

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Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy

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Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy by Denise Eide

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Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy by Denise Eide

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Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy

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Amazon.com: Uncovering the Logic of English: A Common-Sense Approach to Reading, Spelling, and Literacy: 9781936706211: Denise Eide: Books

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Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read

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Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene

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Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read by Stanislas Dehaene

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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf

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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain by Maryanne Wolf

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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

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Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain [Wolf, Maryanne] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Proust and the Squid: The Story and Science of the Reading Brain

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System--and How to Fix it

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The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-and How to Fix it [Wexler, Natalie] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America's Broken Education System-and How to Fix it

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Shifting the Balance by Jan Burkins & Kari Yates

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Shifting the Balance by Jan Burkins & Kari Yates

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Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

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Amazon.com: Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom: 9781625315106: Burkins, Jan, Yates, Kari: Books

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Marilyn Adams 

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Marilyn Adams 

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As recommended by David & Meredith Liben

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum

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Amazon.com: Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum: 9781557663214: Adams Ph.D., Marilyn J., Foorman Ph.D., Dr. Barbara, Lundberg Ph.D., Ingvar, Beeler Ed.D., Terri: Books

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Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum by Michael Heggerty (Kindergarten Level)

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Heggerty Phonemic Awareness Curriculum by Michael Heggerty (Kindergarten Level)

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Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick

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Equipped for Reading Success by David Kilpatrick

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The Original SPIRAL BOUND Book! Our CANADIAN Distributors: Caversham CLICK HERE West Coast Literacy CLICK HERE Payment Options: 1) School PURCHASE ORDERS: CLICK HERE 2) Orders for Individuals * Ch...

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The Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPA) by Schuele & Murphy

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The Intensive Phonological Awareness Program (IPA) by Schuele & Murphy

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Marilyn Adams 

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children by Marilyn Adams 

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As recommended by David & Meredith Liben

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Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum

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Amazon.com: Phonemic Awareness in Young Children: A Classroom Curriculum: 9781557663214: Adams Ph.D., Marilyn J., Foorman Ph.D., Dr. Barbara, Lundberg Ph.D., Ingvar, Beeler Ed.D., Terri: Books

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Teaching Reading Sourcebook from Core Literacy Library

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Teaching Reading Sourcebook from Core Literacy Library

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Teaching Reading Sourcebook (Core Literacy Library)

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Amazon.com: Teaching Reading Sourcebook (Core Literacy Library): 9781634022354: Honig, Bill, Diamond, Linda, Gutlohn, Linda, Cole, Carrie L., El-Dinary, Pamela Beard, Hudson, Roxanne F., Lane, Holly B., Mahler, Jacalyn, Pullen, Paige C.: Books

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Sounding Out the Sight Words from Logic of English

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Sounding Out the Sight Words from Logic of English

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Sounding Out the Sight Words: An Alternative to Rote Memorization

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Sounding Out the Sight Words: An Alternative to Rote Memorization [Denise Eide, Cindy Kringelis] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Sounding Out the Sight Words: An Alternative to Rote Memorization

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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A Fresh Look at Phonics by Wiley Blevins

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A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Amazon.com: A Fresh Look at Phonics, Grades K-2: Common Causes of Failure and 7 Ingredients for Success (Corwin Literacy): 9781506326887: Blevins, Wiley W.: Books

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Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide by Wiley Blevins

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Phonics from A to Z: A Practical Guide by Wiley Blevins

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Phonics From A to Z, 3rd Edition: A Practical Guide

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Amazon.com: Phonics From A to Z, 3rd Edition: A Practical Guide: 9781338113495: Blevins, Wiley: Books

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How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3 by Sharon Walpole

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How to Plan Differentiated Reading Instruction: Resources for Grades K-3 by Sharon Walpole

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Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties by Rollanda O'Connor

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Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties by Rollanda O'Connor

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Teaching Word Recognition: Effective Strategies for Students with Learning Difficulties (What Works for Special-Needs Learners)

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This highly regarded teacher resource synthesizes the research base on word recognition and translates it into step-by-step instructional strategies, with special attention to students who are struggling. Chapters follow the stages through which students progress as they work toward skilled readi...

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Conquering Dyslexia: A Guide to Early Detection and Intervention for Teachers and Parents by Jan Hasbrouck

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Conquering Dyslexia: A Guide to Early Detection and Intervention for Teachers and Parents by Jan Hasbrouck

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Conquering Dyslexia: A Guide to Early Detection and Intervention for Teachers and Parents

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Dyslexia is no longer a mystery. MRI scans and other tools of neuroscience have advanced our understandings in the last decade. We now know what to do to help students become skilled, confident learners. In Conquering Dyslexia, Dr. Hasbrouck shares the instructional approaches that work best for ...

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Overcoming Dyslexia (2020 Edition): Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated

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Overcoming Dyslexia (2020 Edition): Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated [Shaywitz M.D., Sally] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Overcoming Dyslexia (2020 Edition): Second Edition, Completely Revised and Updated

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Effective Universal Instruction by Gibbons, Brown, and Niebling

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Effective Universal Instruction by Gibbons, Brown, and Niebling

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Effective Universal Instruction: An Action-Oriented Approach to Improving Tier 1 (The Guilford Practical Intervention in the Schools Series)

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This accessible volume helps school leadership teams accomplish the crucial yet often overlooked task of improving universal instruction--Tier 1 within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Strong universal instruction reduces the numbers of PreK-12 students who may need additional servi...

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The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading by Christopher Such

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The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading by Christopher Such

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List Price: $33.00

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The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading (Corwin Ltd)

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Amazon.com: The Art and Science of Teaching Primary Reading (Corwin Ltd): 9781529764161: Such, Christopher: Books

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The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects

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Amazon.com: The Writing Rope: A Framework for Explicit Writing Instruction in All Subjects: 9781681255897: Sedita M.Ed., Joan, Hasbrouck Ph.D., Jan: Books

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Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching by Anita Archer

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Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching by Anita Archer

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Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (What Works for Special-Needs Learners)

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Amazon.com: Explicit Instruction: Effective and Efficient Teaching (What Works for Special-Needs Learners): 9781609180416: Anita L. Archer, Charles A. Hughes: Books

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Explore reading basics as well as the key role of background knowledge and motivation in becoming a lifelong reader and learner. Watch our PBS Launching Young Readers series and try our self-paced Reading 101 course to deepen your understanding.

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These student assessments can be used to monitor student progress with phonological and phonemic awareness skills, and the results can be used to plan for instruction. The Heggerty Phonemic Awareness assessments are not required to teach the curriculum.
Please note: English assessments were updated August 2021 to align to the digital assessments now available on myHeggerty. For the previous version of the English assessments, please scroll to the bottom of the page and open the archive folder.
Pre-Kindergarten Assessments:

Progress Monitoring Assessments:
Progress monitoring assessments for individual phonemic awareness skills can be used to gather data about a students' progress. These assessments can be administered throughout the school year to students in Kindergarten, 1st or 2nd grade. Specific lessons from the Kindergarten and Primary curriculum are listed on each assessment, to assist teachers with planning for instruction.

↓ Initial Phoneme Isolation
↓ Final Phoneme Isolation
↓ Medial Phoneme Isolation
↓ Blending Syllables
↓ Blending Body Coda and Onset Rime
↓ Blending Phonemes
↓ Segmenting into Syllables
↓ Segmenting Onset-Rime
↓ Segmenting into Phonemes
↓ Adding Syllables
↓ Adding Initial or Final Phonemes
↓ Substituting Initial, Final, and Medial Phonemes
↓ Deleting Syllables
↓ Deleting Initial or Final Phonemes
↓ Deleting Initial Phonemes - Extra

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Phonemic Awareness Assessments & Lesson Plans | Heggerty

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Download free phonemic awareness assessments and lesson plans in English and Spanish for pre-k, kindergarten, and primary curriculums.

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual "Equipped for Reading Success" by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with [...]

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The PAST can be downloaded above. Please also download and carefully read the instructions before using. Information can also be found in the manual "Equipped for Reading Success" by David A. Kilpatrick, Ph.D in chapter 11 on how to effectively use the test. Make sure to also practice using the test before using it with [...]

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Kindergarten and First Grade Student Center Activities Phonological Awareness | Phonics | Fluency | Vocabulary | Comprehension

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Moats

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers by Louisa Moats

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Louisa Cook Moats Ed.D. (Author), Dr. Susan Brady Ph.D. (Foreword)

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Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers

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Amazon.com: Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers: 9781681253305: Moats Ed.D., Louisa Cook, Brady Ph.D., Dr. Susan: Books

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Download the KFSS

in Kindergarten

with older students who perform well below expectations on the Beginning Decoding Survey or Beginning of Year 1st Grade FSS

as a one-on-one assessment of pre-decoding and early decoding skills, including:

Functional Vocabulary

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

Letter Knowledge

Decoding

High-Frequency Word Reading

The data collected from these assessments can help you determine whether foundational reading skills are being established at an appropriate pace, pinpoint specific gaps in knowledge, and plan appropriately targeted instruction.

The results of these surveys can be plugged into our Grouping Matrix™, a free, web-based system that enables you to group students according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties.

1st Grade Foundational Skills Surveys
Download the 1FSS

as a one-on-one assessment of 1st grade foundational literacy skills, including:

Simple and complex single-syllable words (with short vowels, digraphs, blends, closed syllables, and various long vowel spellings)

Decodable two-syllable words

Optional assessments for sight words, letter-sound knowledge, and letter name knowledge

The results of these surveys can be plugged into our Grouping Matrix™, a free, web-based system that enables you to group students according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties. The Grouping Matrix can help determine what type of basic literacy instruction will prepare each student to meet the foundational skills expectations for the end of 1st grade.

2nd-12th Diagnostic Decoding Surveys Download the DDS

in 2nd grade through 12th grade

The Beginning Decoding Survey assesses a student's ability to read:

Simple and complex single-syllable words (with short vowels, digraphs, blends, and closed syllables in real and nonsense words)

Select sight words

The Advanced Decoding Survey assesses a student's ability to read:

Complex single-syllable words (with short, long, r-controlled, and variant vowels and complex consonant constructions like trigraphs and 3-sound blends in real and nonsense words)

Decodable two- and three-syllable words (real and nonsense)

The results of these surveys can be plugged into our Grouping Matrix™, a free, web-based system that enables you to group students according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties.

Response to Intervention (RTI) & the Survey - Assessments and RtI>>

The Phonological/Phonemic Awareness Survey is a complimentary assessment that is commonly used in Kindergarten and 1st grade, but it is also useful for assessing older students who perform well below expectations on basic decoding assessments. It is a one-on-one assessment of phonological awareness skills, including blending word parts, and phonemic awareness skills, including matching, identifying, blending, and segmenting phonemes in words. The data collected from this assessment can help determine the type of basic literacy instruction that will equip students with the knowledge they need for basic decoding.
Download the PAS

The Letter Knowledge Survey is a complimentary assessment that is commonly used in Kindergarten and 1st grade, but it is also useful for assessing older students who perform well below expectations on basic decoding assessments. It is a one-on-one assessment of letter knowledge, including letter sounds and letter names (both lowercase and uppercase). The data collected from this assessment can help determine the type of basic literacy instruction that will equip students with the knowledge they need for basic decoding.
Download the LPDS

The Sight Word Survey has five separate assessments for Pre-Primer, Primer, 1st, 2nd & 3rd Grade. These assessments are used to determine how well a student reads high-frequency words. Sight words are words that occur so frequently in printed text that it is most efficient for children to learn to read them automatically, by "sight," rather than by decoding or sounding them out. The words on these assessments were selected from the Dolch 220 list of high-frequency words, and the words have been leveled.(e.g., Pre-Primer, Primer, etc.) using the same Dolch list.
Download the SWS

The Advanced Decoding Survey Plus is a quick way to determine if older students have mastered the decoding skills they should have learned in grade K, 1, 2, and 3. Those using it as a screener can use it anytime after the middle of 3rd grade.If using it as a screener, you can administer it to your entire student population or to a select group of students whom you suspect may have a decoding deficit. Designed with upper elementary and adolescents in mind, Really Great Reading has three sets of lessons: HD Word , Boost , and Blitz . Additionally, for those who need additional practice and repetitions, we have HD Word Plus and Phonics Boost Plus that extend the learning for students participating in HD Word , Boost , and Blitz instruction.

Download the ADS Plus
Diagnostic Instructional Videos

Really Great Reading offers a family of complimentary diagnostic decoding assessments to help educators understand their students' word-level reading skills. In 5 to 7 minutes per student, discover whether decoding deficits are inhibiting your students' ability to read. Download complimentary copies above and watch the following informational and instructional videos:

The Grouping Matrix Live Assess Feature

As you assess, automatically add your students' scores to the Grouping Matrix.

Click here to learn how to use the Grouping Matrix's Live Assess feature>>

What is the Grouping Matrix? It is our complimentary, web-based, password-protected, secure student data management interface. It enables you to group students (K-12) according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties using data from grade-level Oral Reading Fluency passages (such as DIBELS, AIMSWeb, Six Minute Solutions, Read Naturally, EasyCBM) and our complimentary diagnostic assessments.

Pervasiveness of the Problem

Many students experience undiagnosed decoding (or word-level) difficulties that hamper their academic achievement. Just how pervasive are decoding deficits among adolescent readers?

Beginning Decoding Survey

Really Great Reading's Free Diagnostic Decoding Surveys enable quick one-on-one assessment of phonics skills. The Beginning Decoding Survey assesses a students' ability to read high-frequency words and single-syllable words with short vowels, digraphs, and blends.

Advanced Decoding Survey

The Advanced Decoding Survey assesses how well students read unfamiliar single-syllable decodable words with more advanced vowels such as long, r-controlled, and other variant vowel patterns. It also assesses a student's ability to read unfamiliar and familiar multisyllabic words.

Decoding Survey Overview

Many students struggle with reading because they don't understand sound-letter relationships and the rules that guide pronunciation. They skip and guess at words. Students with decoding issues often have comprehension and fluency problems. They underachieve in school. Our decoding surveys help educators pinpoint the cause of students' struggles.

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row][oneThird][/oneThird][twoThird] Complimentary Reading Assessments (K-12)In just 5-7 minutes, Really Great Reading's complimentary diagnostic decoding assessments answer these key questions: Which students are struggling with decoding? What types of words are they struggling with? What is the source of the underlying confusion?

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Overview and student instructional videos

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Heart Word Magic - Read and Spell High Frequency Words | Really Great Reading

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Heart Word Magic - Help Students Learn to Read and Spell High-Frequency and Sight WordsHeart Word Magic is a complimentary teaching tool designed to help students learn to read and spell high-frequency words and sight words, particularly those that aren’t very decodable. Show your students the animations, then try these fun, hands-on free Student Practice

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Countdown™ for Kindergarten

Countdown is an essential preventative supplement to any core kindergarten reading program. It's designed to be taught 15-20 minutes a day, 5 days a week. This powerful, sequential, and efficient exposure to key literacy concepts ensures that your students establish a firm foundation in the subskills that lead to strong decoding and fluent reading.

Kindergarten - Prevention

Tier 1, whole-class instruction, supplemental Instruction

Explore Countdown & Download a Sample Lesson

Countdown Classroom Setup with Virtual Components

Everything one teacher needs to teach 20 students.

1 x Countdown Teacher's Guide Lesson Plan Set (Book 1, 2, and 3)

20 x Guided Practice Student Workbooks-used with Teacher's Guide Book 3

1 x Countdown Online™ School-year subscription

10 x Countdown Student Kits (2 students share one kit)

20 Reading Playground school year licenses (student seats)

1 Virtual Implementation Teacher Training Course seat

1 x Poster Set

1 x Wall Card Set

All the lessons are built for the teacher and include a thorough explanation of the concepts, routines, and procedures. The lessons are easy to follow so they can be taught by a wide range of educators, not just seasoned literacy professionals, and phonics specialists. For those unfamiliar with teaching phonemic awareness and phonics, the guides include incremental professional development for each lesson.
Learn more about our Countdown Classroom Set-up with Virtual Component for 20 students>>

Countdown- Is Organized In Strands

Functional Vocabulary and Key Concepts For students to participate in and benefit from direct phonemic awareness and phonics instruction, they first need to understand specific vocabulary and key concepts. Initially, Countdown lessons introduce concepts and vocabulary (such as one-to-one correspondence, first-next-last, same and different, and whole-part) through playful instruction, using words and images that are familiar to most young students. Once this foundational knowledge is well established, instructors may confidently use specific terminology and apply key concepts to teaching students about the sound structure of our language.

Rhyming Recognizing and producing rhymes is an early sign that a child is developing phonological awareness (a general understanding of the sound structure of language). These skills often emerge spontaneously as young children engage in language play. Rhyming ability may indicate that a child has begun to notice global similarities in patterns of sound within words. While rhyming can be fun and engaging, and all students may benefit from some exposure to it, it is just a first step toward building strong phonological awareness.

Phonemic Awareness Beginning Sound Isolation (BSI) Blending Segmenting Addition / Deletion Phonemic awareness is the understanding that spoken words are made of individual speech sounds, or phonemes, that can be combined in different sequences to create new words. The ability to manipulate phonemes (to isolate, segment, and blend individual sounds) supports students as they master the alphabetic code and apply this sound-letter knowledge to reading and spelling. Research shows that phonemic awareness has a powerful influence on early word decoding skills.

Alphabetic Principle Decoding Encoding Letter-Sound Relationships The alphabetic principle is the understanding that spoken words are composed of individual sounds, and that printed letters represent those sounds. Recognizing that there are predictable relationships between letters and sounds and that students can learn these relationships, is critical to their decoding success.

Sight Words Some words should eventually be known "by sight," without analysis, either because they occur so frequently (high-frequency words), or because of their phoneme-grapheme (sound-letter) irregularities. In Countdown, we call these "heart words" because students should know them "by heart." While it is possible to gain some phonemic (sound) information from the letters in these words when they are first encountered ('come' starts with /k/), the ultimate goal is to read such irregular words automatically, without conscious effort.

The Kindergarten Foundational Skills Survey (KFSS) is a complimentary set of assessments that includes six informal diagnostic tools designed to help educators determine how well kindergarten students are acquiring the skills they need to become strong decoders. These Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys enable one-on-one assessment of basic literacy skills like phonemic and phonological awareness, sound-symbol correspondences, high-frequency word reading, and basic decoding skills.

There are three primary Kindergarten Foundational Skills Surveys found in this packet, each corresponding to one phase of the Kindergarten school year. Each assessment has a Form A (used for initial assessment) and a Form B (used for progress monitoring).

The three assessments are:

Beginning of Year Kindergarten (BOYK), Forms A and B

Middle of Year Kindergarten (MOYK), Forms A and B

End of Year Kindergarten (EOYK), Forms A and B

They can be used throughout the year to measure students':

Functional Vocabulary

Phonological/Phonemic Awareness

Letter Knowledge

Decoding

High-Frequency Word Reading

Once the results of the surveys are gathered and scored, the data can be used to pinpoint specific deficits, group students, and then plan effective instruction. The Foundational Skills Surveys allow teachers to:

Group students according to strengths and weaknesses

Determine which skills students have mastered and which skills they are ready to learn

Identify students that need additional assessments or support

The results of these surveys can be plugged into our Grouping Matrix™, a free, web-based system that enables you to group students according to the type and depth of their decoding difficulties.

Download now

The Sight Words Survey is a complimentary set of assessments that determine how well a student reads high-frequency English words. It is designed to be used:

at the beginning of Kindergarten through 3rd grade

and with older students who still struggle to read high-frequency sight words

One-on-one assessment of:

High-frequency sight word knowledge from the Pre-Primer through 3rd-grade levels of the Dolch 220 list

Automaticity reading sight words both in context (simple sentences) and in isolation

The data collected from these assessments can help determine the levels of sight words with which students are proficient and the levels with which they need more instruction and practice to gain automaticity.
Download now

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As educators, we understand the profound impact of effective literacy instruction. That's why we designed the One95 literacy ecosystem to empower you with the best resources to develop the strongest readers possible.

It begins with proven literacy instruction products - then the knowledge, resources, and support to make them work. With One95, you'll find:

Explicit and systematic Tier 1, 2, and 3 instruction

Professional learning and development resources

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Access to literacy experts

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Discover our 95 Phonics Core Program for Tier 1, whole class structured literacy lessons. The program integrates with any literacy curriculum.

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SIPPS is an accelerative foundational skills program for K-12 proven to help both new and struggling readers.

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Can you teach UFLI Foundations without the purchasing the manual? Certainly. We have developed free companion resources to accompany each concept, so you can create your own lesson plans to go along with them. However, we've done all the work for you in the manual, and the UFLI Foundations lesson plans are so awesome (we're not bragging - it's what we've been told by teachers who have piloted the program over the past two years), you won't want to miss out!

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UFLI Foundations Materials | UF Literacy Institute

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Can you teach UFLI Foundations without the purchasing the manual? Certainly. We have developed free companion resources to accompany each concept, so you can create your own lesson plans to go along with them.