Literacy Corner: Yes, we know that Literacy is Structured

by Carrie Cannella

Finally! Have you noticed that an end to the “whole language” versus phonics approach to teaching reading may be in sight? Again, the country is embracing a not-really-so-new approach called “structured literacy” based on the “science of reading.” If you are a Baby Boomer, you probably remember learning phonics. If you trained as a K-12 teacher decades ago, you probably had to write a paper on this war (I did). We have been talking about this for so long, but I am hopeful that we have now passed the ‘this or that’ phenomenon. Students need all the components of literacy to read well, period. The ability to distinguish sounds and associate them with written letters, however, is particularly crucial for students with reading disabilities.

The emphasis on the science of reading comes as more and more evidence supports the explicit teaching of the various parts of reading, as more and more American children struggle with reading. This is a positive development for the future of reading and students’ success in general, which so often depends on reading. [Yet, it is important to keep in mind that the “science of reading” is nowhere near set in stone. There is much we still need to learn about the reading brain. (See some “fact-checking” here.)]

In the past five years, 45 states and Washington, D.C. have passed legislation to break from “whole language” and “balanced literacy” methods (like three-cueing, with some going so far as to ban it) that, according to Lexia of the Cambium Learning Group (who created the LETRS program that the New Mexico Public Education system is using), only teach 33% of students to read. We live in one of these states, as you may have noticed with the state’s Summer Reading Program or Governor Lujan Grisham’s focus on a Literacy Institute. 

Keep reading here to see some of the key research

Again, according to Lexia, a whopping 95% of students learn to read with structured literacy instruction. Focusing on evidenced-based practices (naturally) works for just about everyone while it is absolutely essential for those with reading disabilities such as dyslexia.

So, what is it? We who have been working in adult literacy have always understood that our students who did not learn to read well in school need structured approaches—think Laubach Way to Reading and Focus on Phonics. The term “structured literacy” comes from the International Dyslexia Foundation (IDF), who started using it in 2016 to identify evidence-based programs (of which there are many), and it focuses on what we already know: students need explicit, systematic, cumulative, diagnostic, and multisensory approaches to reading. This doesn’t mean that we ignore other facets of literacy beyond decoding, but it does mean that schools must stop ignoring decoding (and grammar!), and it means that we must utilize these approaches for all the components of reading.

There are various names for these elements of reading. The IDF refers to them as phonology, sound-symbol, syllables, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Lexia looks at them in this way:

From Suzanne Carreker, Ph.D., Lexia Learning

Regardless of naming, the job of a teacher or tutor is to find out where a student’s reading gaps are and then build from there. And, if the chart above is not clear, reading is not an isolated set of skills. Both writing and communication are a part of overall reading comprehension as well, so teaching them together is important.

 Here are some of the key science of reading findings, as reported by Suzanne Carreker:

• “The ability to detect, think about, and manipulate phonemes is particularly predictive of reading success (Bradley & Bryant, 1983; Liberman & Liberman, 1990; NICHD, 2000).”
• “Instruction that matches sounds to letters or groups of letters (i.e., phonics) develops accurate decoding and spelling skills (Ehri, 2014; NICHD, 2000; Tremain, 2018).”
• “In addition to letter-sound patterns, instruction that aids students in determining where long words divide into syllables and how vowels in syllables are pronounced is beneficial to fluent reading. When reading is effortless, cognitive resources are available for the reader to focus on meaning (Perfetti, 1985).”
• “The more a reader knows about morphemes, the easier it is to instantly recognize and comprehend the long words that comprise increasingly complex text (Goodwin & Ahn, 2013; Henry, 2018).”
• “Effective vocabulary instruction focuses on grade appropriate Tier 2 words because these have the greatest utility across the curriculum (Beck, McKeown, & Kucan, 2013).”
• “When taught explicitly and systematically, pragmatics facilitates the social use of language, fluent reading, and comprehension.”
• “A reader’s knowledge of pronoun references, verb tenses, and subject verb agreement is predictive of reading comprehension (Foorman, Herrera, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015; Foorman, Koon, Petscher, Mitchell, & Truckenmiller, 2015).”
• “Success with complex texts is dependent on a reader’s understanding of sentences with multiple clauses, and particularly of the connective words that signal the relationships of clauses within and across complex sentences (Foorman, Koon, et al, 2015.; Friedberg, Mitchell, & Brooke, 2017).”
• “Because developing a deep understanding of complex texts requires relating what is being read to what is already known, it is also important to spend instructional time boosting students’ background knowledge through listening, reading, discussion, and writing (Adams, 1990; Willingham, 2006).”
• “The ability to make inferences that are implied by a text best differentiates students with good comprehension from students with poor comprehension at all ages (Cain & Oakhill, 1999) and can be taught explicitly (Oakhill & Cain, 2007; Yuill & Oakhill, 1988).”

It is clear from the above that reading is not just one skill. Let us take this moment of national reckoning about the necessity of utilizing the science of reading to continue to serve our students and their families in the ways that we know actually work for all. 

Resources

Find Lexia’s full guide here: Structured Literacy: Applying the Science of Reading in the Classroom | Lexia (lexialearning.com)

Read more on structured literacy here: https://dyslexiaida.org/structuredliteracy/ 

Listen to Emily Hanford’s podcast “Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong” about the failed whole-language-to-the-detriment-of-phonics approach here: https://www.thereadingleague.org/resources/ or https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/ 

Structured Literacy Primer, Elements and Principles:

From the International Dyslexia Foundation