https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb Amy Wolford, Reading Specialist & LETRS Local Facilitator, Instagram @lit_it_shine en-us 2020-06-25 23:49:01 UTC 2025-10-01 05:12:29 UTC hello@padlet.com Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/640534444 Researchers have discovered that learning to read is NOT natural.  Our brains are not hardwired to read print.  They are hardwired for language because speech is natural.  This is evident by the fact that most children learn to speak effortlessly.  Written language (print) has not been in existence long enough for our brains to have built up the pathways required for reading.  Because of this, reading should be mastered starting with speech (or sound) and then moving to print.  Four key areas of the brain used for reading are the language comprehension area (understanding of language), the phonological area (sound/language), the orthographic area (visual area/recognizing faces and objects), and the assembly or bridge area (phoneme-grapheme association).  These four areas are not connected or "wired" at birth. Skilled reading requires this new "bridge" pathway to be built between the speech (or sound) area of the brain to the visual (or print) area of the brain.  Through the process of consistently connecting sounds to spellings,  words are then stored for fast and automatic retrieval, known as orthographic mapping.  Many programs start with the visual/print and move to speech/sound, which is not conducive to building networks in the brain for skilled reading.  Dr. Stanislas Dehaene is a leading cognitive neuro-scientist on how the brain learns to read.  Watch the following 7 minute video to learn more.]]> 2020-06-25 23:50:56 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/640534444 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/643876265 Hello!  I'm a reading specialist in Virginia. I have completed Volume 1 of LETRS along with facilitator training to become a certified local LETRS facilitator.  I will be taking part in LETRS volume 2 next school year. I'm so glad you've "stopped by" my Padlet.  I have been asked by several teachers recently about the science of reading (SOR) and how they can learn more.  So, I decided to create a space for teachers to visit that highlights some of the most important concepts surrounding SOR.  The beautiful thing about educators is that we are always seeking ways to better help our students.  This space is set up in sequential order with 10 steps.  As you have time, read and visit the links for each step.  I suggest using a computer to view the material.  You can leave anytime and come back to where you left off or if you're feeling extra caffeinated, you can go through the whole padlet in one sitting.  😜

]]> 2020-06-30 11:03:56 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/643876265 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647757403 I feel it is important to share my background in teaching reading in case there are others who have had similar experiences.  

During my undergrad years, I was not taught much about how to teach reading in my education coursework.  Courses centered around theories, pedagogy, and the stages of reading, but not much in the way of actual methods in practice.  I didn't really learn the practice of teaching until student teaching and then in my own classroom.  I'm sure most of you can relate to the feeling of not really learning how to teach until you actually became a teacher!  My first year in my own 3rd grade classroom, we rotated blocks and for one block, I was given the weakest readers in the entire grade level.  I worked so hard to find ways to help them, but struggled greatly.  

I then decided to get my masters degree in reading to become a certified reading specialist.  I just knew that would solve all my struggles with teaching reading!  And it definitely helped a great deal for many of my students.  In my masters program, we learned the developmental stages of reading and methods for teaching reading.  We were taught to find reading levels, place students in text at their instructional level, and gradually move them up levels.  We were taught strategies to teach struggling readers that included things such as using the picture clues, meaning clues, and knowledge of the structure of language to decipher the text.  In my classroom, I happily used the beanie baby strategies and felt like most kids were benefiting from this type of instruction.  However, while some kids seemed to learn to read so easily on their own and others were able to grasp the strategies with instruction,  there were always some students who just didn't seem to make much progress no matter what, especially struggling students who were in 3rd grade or above.  This was often chalked up to factors such as lack of motivation, not receiving support at home, or simply just labeled a poor reader/slow learner.  *Side note:  the same masters program in reading that I completed in 2009 has now revamped their entire reading specialist curriculum to reflect SOR practices.*

After OG training, I still continued to stick mostly to the methods learned in my masters program with some OG sprinkled in and didn't quite grasp the "why" behind instruction such as OG.  I really struggled with accepting it.  I even have a picture from a text thread with a friend showing myself defending a 3 cueing strategy!  Then, I was asked if I would be willing to complete LETRS training through a VDOE sponsored cohort.  I had no idea what the training was about, but said yes.  While researching LETRS before I started the course and still skeptical, I came across the article linked below.  This article is a great starting point for learning about SOR.  I had my first "aha" moment after reading this article.  After reading this article, I decided to be more open-minded to learn about the science that I had never been taught in undergrad or graduate school.  There were many, many, many more "aha" moments (and even some feelings of grief) subsequently during the LETRS course.  LETRS, rooted in SOR, explains the WHY behind instruction such as OG and code emphasis instruction vs. traditional meaning emphasis instruction.  LETRS helped me to see the big picture and how OG instruction fits in.  Research shows that code emphasis instruction helps naturally great readers to become even stronger and weak readers to be able to access the code to become better readers.  In other words, it helps reach those weaker students without hindering the strong readers from growing.

I share my experience with you so that this space can be a NO SHAME ZONE.  If you are skeptical, I understand!  I was teaching reading the way I was taught to teach reading and there is no shame or fault in that.  I had to admit to myself that I had unfinished learning about how to teach reading.  Many of the practices we currently use can continue to be implemented and/or refined.  If you want to dip your toes in to see what SOR is about, read the following article, then come back for step #3.  ]]> 2020-07-05 17:47:17 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647757403 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647798491 Although reading is a very complex process, the simple view of reading offers a simplistic formula as a means to understand the two most important components of reading and how they lead to reading comprehension.  The Simple View of Reading (SVR) by Gough and Tunmer is a multiplication problem that emphasizes that reading comprehension is the product of printed word recognition and language comprehension.  The SVR model is:

Word Recognition X Language Comprehension =
Reading Comprehension

If you assign a 0, 0.5, or a 1 designating a student's strength in both areas, the result points to the students ability to comprehend text.  For instance, 
0 (WR) x 0 (LC) = 0 (RC) (not good!)
0 (WR) x 1 (LC) = 0 (RC) (not good!)
.5 (WR) x .5 (LC) = .25 (RC) (not good!)
1 (WR) x .5 (LC) = .5 (RC) (again, not good!)
1 (WR) x 1 (LC) = 1 (RC)  ❤

Reading comprehension is only going to be as good as the student's weakest area.  The only way to achieve a 1 for reading comprehension which indicates adequate comprehension, is for BOTH word recognition skills and language comprehension skills to be well developed.  

What do I mean by word recognition skills?  Phonological awareness, decoding, and sight recognition.  Sight words are defined as ALL words that a student knows without having to sound them out.

What do I mean by language comprehension?  Listening comprehension, oral language comprehension structures such as our background knowledge, oral vocabulary, understanding of syntax and semantics, and concepts about print. Simply put, it is our understanding of oral language.  

Watch the following 11 minute video about the Simple View of Reading.  

*There are several other important models that identify and explain the components of skilled reading that are not included in this padlet (Scarborough's Rope, Ehri's Phases, 4 Part Processing Model).*

]]> 2020-07-05 19:40:38 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647798491 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647808041 According to the 2019 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which assesses a random sample of students every two years across the nation, only 38% of Virginia's 4th grade students are reading at or above proficient levels in reading.  Nationwide, only 34% of 4th grade students scored at or above proficient in reading.  While Virginia is scoring above the national average and has shown growth over the last decade, the last 4 years for Virginia scores have been stagnant.  

So if all of this research on the science of reading is true, why have teacher preparation programs and curriculum/textbooks not aligned with SOR? 

Many of the reading methods used today can be traced back to the "Reading Wars" from the 90s.  In an effort to understand the reading problems faced in American schools, a panel of experts, called the National Reading Panel, including education professionals and scientists were convened by Congress in 2000 to study and determine the most effective approaches to quality reading instruction.  At the time, schools mostly fell into two categories in regards to the type of reading instruction provided to students.  One method was a whole language approach, which is grounded in the theory that reading is a natural process and is acquired through exposure to a variety of text.  Others were using approaches centered around explicit phonics only instruction, which is the process of teaching students to link alphabetic letters to their sounds.  The findings from the National Reading Panel showed that explicit, systematic phonics instruction was deemed most effective, but also that the areas of phonemic awareness, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension were also vital to quality reading instruction.  This opened the door for the rise of the  balanced literacy theory, which can be defined as a combination of whole language and phonics practices.  This type of instruction has since been most prevalent in our preservice teacher education systems, schools, and curriculum.

However, the typical balanced literacy curriculum has not been very "balanced" at all.  Phonemic awareness typically plays a very small part in today's curriculum and should be one of the most vital components.  Phonics, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension  instruction have simply been integrated into daily reading activities where the phonics skills and vocabulary are driven by whatever texts are being read that day.  While the idea of balanced literacy is not "wrong" as it does embrace the five critical components of reading, the definition of balanced literacy should be redefined and restructured to include more explicit and systematic approaches to each of the 5 critical components for reading.  

The following article offers some great ideas for shifting our thinking about balanced literacy.]]> 2020-07-05 20:10:41 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/647808041 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654526543 The Simple View of Reading shows us the two most important components of reading and how deficits in either area lead to difficulties with reading.  These areas can be used to identify common reading difficulties and disabilities.  Research suggests that there are 3 types of reading difficulties.  Think about struggling readers you have had in your classroom. 

1.  Phonological deficit - a problem with processing the sounds of language
2.  Fluency/Naming Speed - a problem with speed and accuracy of reading/decoding printed word recognition (word recognition component of the Simple View of Reading)
Important to note:  Problems with word recognition/decoding are most often a result of weaknesses in phonological processing.
3.  Language Comprehension deficit - a problem with the understanding of oral language, vocabulary weaknesses, making inferences, abstract reasoning, and logical thinking (language comprehension component of the Simple View of Reading)

Dyslexia is estimated to make up 5-15% of the school population.  Dyslexia is a disability that is neurobiological in origin with a core deficit in the phonological processing area of the brain.  These students have difficulty with accurate and fluent word recognition and poor decoding abilities.  It is estimated that every classroom has 1-2 students with dyslexia.  

Many students are not identified with a learning disability such as dyslexia until later in their school career and some students have reading difficulties that are not due to a learning disability.  When approaches rooted in the 3 cueing system are used, students are given a strategy that works faster and easier than decoding.  They can look at the pictures, figure out what makes sense in the context or based on the first letter, follow the predictable pattern, etc.  At first, these students may seem to be making great progress due to the ease of using these strategies in early books.  However, many of these students often get to 3rd grade and beyond and plateau.  Texts become more complex, words become longer and more difficult to guess based on context, sentence complexity increases making it more difficult to guess, and the strategies they relied on to read that allowed them to bypass decoding in easier books start failing them.  They may not show up as having reading problems until 3rd grade or above, resulting in delayed reading interventions.  

Building the foundation early on with code emphasis instruction is vital to their growth in reading.  According to Louisa Moats (2011), “A large body of research evidence shows that with appropriate, intensive instruction, all but the most severe reading disabilities can be ameliorated in the early grades and students can get on track toward academic success.” 

The following short article describes the benefits of code emphasis instruction.  

]]> 2020-07-14 21:06:09 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654526543 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654601452 Many people (myself included before LETRS training) believe that structured literacy approaches are only for those students who struggle with reading and that the percentages of those students are low.  This is simply not true.  About 60% of students require a structured literacy approach for learning to read.  The other 40% also benefit from structured approaches to instruction. This is also in line with the NAEP results that shows about 60% of 4th grade students in the United States are reading below proficient levels. 

The Ladder of Reading infographic (linked below) is a great resource for understanding that structured approaches are beneficial to ALL students.  Meaning based approaches, such as 3 cueing, mostly reach students who are already at the top of the ladder.

]]> 2020-07-14 23:36:35 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654601452 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654616193 "Phon" words such as phonological, phoneme, phonemic awareness, phonetics, etc. all deal with the SOUNDS of language.  Phonics is slightly different in that it pertains to the written symbols (letters) that correlate to sounds.  There are several levels of phonological awareness beginning with early skills such as syllables, alliteration, and rhyming before moving on to an awareness of sounds at the phonemic level such as segmenting, blending, and manipulating the smallest sounds in words.

Phonemic awareness is one of the most critical components needed for learning to read and spell but unfortunately it is one of the most neglected skills in many literacy curriculums today. There are 26 alphabetic symbols, but 44 speech sounds in English.  Since speech is a natural process for us, it is important to learn starting with speech sounds before moving to print.  Phonemic awareness is the conscious awareness of individual speech sounds in words and syllables and the ability to manipulate those sounds consciously without print.  Some people like to say that you can practice phonemic awareness in the dark because all you need is to hear the sounds.  However, being able to see mouth placement is often helpful for these tasks.  Problems with word recognition and decoding (at any age) are most often a result of weaknesses in phonemic awareness.  A free assessment tool is available online (thepasttest.com) called the PAST test that assesses phonological skills.  

The following short video explains phonemic awareness.]]> 2020-07-15 00:01:39 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654616193 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654646987 Brain scan research has shown that good readers activate the left hemisphere of their brain in the speech area, visual area, and the connecting pathway that good readers have built between these two areas.  At-risk readers have been shown to mostly activate the right hemisphere of their brain which does not correlate to skilled reading.  There have been multiple studies that show MRI brain scans of at-risk readers before intervention that have shown larger activation in the right hemisphere.  After daily systematic and explicit instruction the scans have shown higher activation of the left hemisphere, which is where skilled reading takes place.  

Teachers are able to help students rewire their brain through explicit and systematic instructional approaches.  Teaching reading is rocket science!

Explicit:  direct teaching and scaffolding (I do, we do, you do)
Systematic:  uses a scope and sequence, multisensory

Click this link for a short video about rewiring the brain.]]> 2020-07-15 00:46:39 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/654646987 Amy_Wolford https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/655289191
While this padlet only touched the surface on the "why" behind SOR instruction, it is important to understand the "why" in order to implement the "how." 

Although this padlet is not focused on the how, here are a few suggestions that could easily be implemented until you learn more.

1.  Start teaching phonological awareness every day.  There are many easy to implement resources out there (such as Heggerty or Kilpatrick). 

2.  Use a scope and sequence to teach sound/symbol correspondences explicitly each day.  The Orton Gillingham approach and lesson structure are perfect for this.  Spend an adequate amount of time on helping students map sounds (phonemes) to the corresponding spelling patterns (graphemes) in a multisensory way.  Replacing traditional word walls for sound walls are a great tool for sound/symbol instruction.Students who are above their peers can learn more advanced patterns and dive deeper into morphology and etymology.  Morphology is the study of forms of words (prefixes, roots, stems, suffixes, etc).  Etymology is the study of origins of words (why does knock have a silent k?  because it is from old english and the /k/ sound used to be included in the pronunciation but over time the pronunciation changed but the spelling remained the same). 

3.  Use decodable texts in place of leveled books for beginning reading instruction.  Students should read decodable texts that are driven by the scope and sequence used in the classroom.  Have students work on reading these fluently and accurately.  There are many options out there for decodable texts.  If you don't have any in your classroom (I didn't before last year!), Reading A-Z is a good place to start.  Leveled books, especially at the earlier grades, tend to have too many patterns that students have not yet been exposed.  Leveled books are great for students who have mastered most decoding patterns or as read alouds.  Ideally, if structured approaches to instruction are implemented with a scope and sequence beginning in Kindergarten, most students will be able to read more complex text by 3rd grade, while still including structured approaches to phonemic awareness and advanced phonics. 

4.  Continue grade level or slightly higher than grade level read alouds and discussions.  These build vocabulary and background knowledge which are essential for comprehension.  There are free curriculums online such as CKLA or Bookworms that can help you plan for read aloud instruction.

5.  Use assessments to identify specific instructional needs for struggling students such as the free PAST test (www.thepasttest.com) and the LETRS Phonics and Word Reading Survey (http://www.cityschoolsesp.net/userfiles/servers/server_152231/file/reading_diagnostic_tools.pdf).

I hope this overview helped increase your knowledge of the science of reading.  

The following graphic is a great resource to keep handy about SOR.  ]]> 2020-07-15 17:03:03 UTC https://padlet.com/amy_wolford/ok8navddm74p3gvb/wish/655289191