What Teachers Need to Know about the Science of Reading

Are you an elementary school teacher looking for a comprehensive overview of the science of reading? No matter your level of experience in teaching reading, understanding where the Science of Reading came from and its five components can have a positive impact on your classroom reading instruction. In this post, we’ll take a look at how the new Science of Reading came to be and each of its components—phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension.

Research on How to Teach Reading to Children

There have been countless studies conducted over the years to understand how best to teach reading. The new Science of Reading is based on these studies and uses them as a foundation for further research.

National Reading Panel Report from 2000

Research on how children learn to read is not new. In the late 1990s, researchers gathered together and created the National Reading Panel Report. This report focused on many of the components of the new Science of Reading (SoR).

The National Reading Panel Report from 2000 outlined five key components that are essential for successful reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension. All these components must be taught in an effective manner to ensure students move beyond initial recognition and develop proficiency in understanding what they read. The report also made recommendations on how best to apply these components when teaching reading skills. These are the same core recommendation in the Science of Reading.

What is the new Science of Reading (SoR)?

The Science of Reading (SoR) is the research conducted on how children become proficient readers. It is a field that has been studied by cognitive scientists over the past two decades. Researchers from many different disciplines came together to grow our knowledge base about how children learn to read.

The Science of Reading provides evidence-based guidance on how to teach reading effectively by focusing on the foundations of language, including phonics. It is the converging evidence of what matters and what works in literacy instruction.

For more information about the research behind the science of reading, check out these resources:

The National Reading Panel Report highlighted above is a part of the Science of Reading. One thing to keep in mind is that the National Reading Panel Report is two decades old. In the past twenty years, research has expanded. We know more now about teaching reading than we did in 2000. The Science of Reading takes the foundation of the National Reading Panel Report and moves it forward with new research.

Our knowledge about how kids learn to read is always growing and expanding as research in the field continues.

What the Science of Reading is Not

Before an in-depth discussion about the components of the science of reading, let’s take a look at what the science of reading is not.

The Science of Reading is not a singular method or strategy for teaching reading.

It is a synthesis of evidence-based methods that draw upon the knowledge and research of different disciplines, such as cognitive science and linguistics. The science of reading does not simply rely on memorization but rather encourages a holistic approach to learning by emphasizing the importance of phonological awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension.

It is not just phonics instruction or just orthographic mapping. Phonics is not the only component a student needs. Children need instruction in all five areas. Students must make a connection between the words, phrases, and texts they read in order to understand their meanings.

The Science of Reading is not a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching reading

The Science of Reading recognizes that each student has unique needs and abilities. By understanding the five components of the Science of Reading (SoR), teachers can better equip their students to move from initial recognition to proficient comprehension. Teachers can use research-based methods to assess where students are at in their reading journey and provide them with instruction in the next step in the process of learning to read.

Instructors must learn how to effectively respond to the various educational requirements of English learners, disabled students, and those with dyslexia when teaching Science of Reading fundamentals. Every student has unique needs that necessitate an individualized approach for successful learning outcomes.

The science of reading is not a new fad, idea, or swing in the reading wars

It is based on decades of research and evidence from numerous disciplines such as cognitive science and linguistics. The science of reading has been developed over the past two decades to better understand how children learn to read. It builds on a solid research foundation from 2000.

The science of reading is not a reading program or set of instructional materials

Rather, it is an evidence-based approach to teaching reading that helps teachers better understand how their students learn and make more informed decisions about how to effectively teach them.

Teachers can use any set of instructional materials that meets the needs of their students. For this reason, teachers need to understand each of the components of the Science of Reading to determine how the teaching resources can meet the needs of their students.

This is a great article that goes more in-depth about some of these ideas.

What are the Five Components of the Science of Reading?

The Science of Reading identifies five components of effective instruction that should form the basis of all reading programs: phonemic awareness, phonics, vocabulary development, fluency, and comprehension. These are the same components in the National Reading Panel Report from 2000.

Phonemic Awareness

One of these components, phonemic awareness, is the idea that words are made up of individual sounds called phonemes. These phonemes should be blended together while reading.

Phonemic Awareness is an understanding of how spoken language is divided into smaller sections to make sounds in words. It requires teachers to assist students in recognizing and producing individual sounds within a word.

Phonics

Phonics is the understanding of letter-sound relationships. Knowing how to read phonetically is an important part of learning to read. Phonics is one of five components in the science of reading. This fundamental aspect of literacy involves decoding printed words by their individual sounds and then blending sounds together to form a word. Being able to recognize letters quickly and link them with sound is essential for readers as they sound out unknown words or decode unfamiliar language.

Structural Analysis

Structural Analysis is an important component of phonics instruction, focusing on the analysis of phonemes and graphemes which are the smallest units of sound and writing respectively. It looks closely at how each word breaks down into its individual parts, such as prefixes, suffixes, and root words, helping readers understand the connections between sounds, spelling, and meaning. By understanding the meaning and function of these word parts, students can more easily recognize and read unfamiliar words.

This allows learners to recognize patterns in words they have seen before and make informed decisions on unfamiliar words. Practices like multisyllabic decoding also help readers analyze longer words effectively. Structural Analysis is key in demystifying longer or more complex words – aiding comprehension and boosting confidence levels!

Fluency

Fluency is the ability to read words accurately and quickly. Fluency is an essential element of reading mastery, as it helps readers quickly recognize and comprehend written words. This critical task involves the efficient and accurate interpretation of symbols on a page. In particular, fluency reflects a reader’s understanding of word processing skills, letter-sound connections, phonemic awareness, phonics principles, and structural analysis.

In other words, in order to become fluent readers, children need to first understand how the symbols on a page are connected with speech sounds. Once they have grasped this concept, they can begin developing skills related to accurately identifying those symbol/sound connections and applying them when interpreting written material quickly and efficiently. With strong fluency skills, readers can unlock new levels of knowledge from written material.

The components of fluency include automaticity, accuracy, and prosody (expression).

Vocabulary Development

Vocabulary Development involves learning words both through direct explicit instruction as well as by reading extensively. Students must learn new words through conversation, listening, and meaningful reading experiences.

Vocabulary is an important component of reading fluency and comprehension. To help students build up their vocabulary. It is essential to provide engaging activities that introduce new words to students and encourage them to practice using them.

Some examples of vocabulary instruction include activities such as sentence completion or creating comic strips or stories that can help students gain an understanding of new words while having fun. Teaching students about synonyms and homophones will also allow them to increase their word knowledge as they learn how words are connected in context.

Comprehension

Comprehension is the ability to understand what has been read. It requires teachers to guide students in making connections between text and prior knowledge; asking questions before, during, and after reading; using mental pictures to better understand the text; and making predictions.

Comprehension also involves the ability to think critically and make inferences. Critical thinking involves considering various angles of a text in order to fully understand it. Making inferences requires readers to go beyond the literal meaning of words by relating texts to prior knowledge, experiences, and evidence from the text.

Summary of the Five Components of the Science of Reading

The five components of reading are essential for students to develop strong literacy skills. By combining phonemic awareness, phonics instruction, fluency development, vocabulary development, and comprehension strategies, teachers can help their students grow into confident readers who continue to strive for higher achievement.

Phonemic awareness refers to the understanding of how sounds correspond with written language. It helps us break down individual words into their component sounds. Phonics is the ability to recognize letter-sound combinations and blend them together quickly and accurately. Fluency supports comprehension because it helps readers read more smoothly by recognizing more words instantly and accurately. Next, vocabulary helps readers understand new words they come across as they read. To be a successful reader we must also be able to comprehend what we read; this is accomplished through making connections between prior knowledge and experiences and what is actually written in the text. When combined together in an effective manner, these five components form the keys to successful reading for any learner!

All of these areas together create the foundation for being able to truly understand what is being read. This pathway doesn’t just allow us to read words, but rather gives us knowledge of how those words come together in complete strings that become sentences, which then become paragraphs, and so on.