Transforming Literacy: The Science of Reading Revolution
Our literacy for little learners is based on the Science of Reading. This is the beginning of a series that will explain the jaw-dropping data. Click below to learn about the Mississippi Miracle!
We believe it is critical for the science of reading to be in every literacy curriculum for little learners.
We’ve looked through scores and scores of curriculum searching for one that incorporates all parts of the science of reading for young learners. We simply couldn’t find a curriculum out there – so we created our own!
Let’s take a look at a case study for the Science of Reading!
The Rise from 49th Place in Literacy 4th Grade
In 2018, Mississippi ranked 49th place among the United States for Literacy performance in 4th grade students. This had been a long standing battle for Mississippi educators to overcome.
In 2019, the Mississippi state legislature required all reading educators to be trained in the Science of Reading methodologies. Shortly after in 2020 the entire world was faced with the pandemic and educators all across the nation were struggling to teach students to learn to read virtually.
There were only three states that actually improved their literacy scores during the pandemic in 2020. Mississippi was one of those states! For the next two years Mississippi continued to work on improving their students’ literacy scores. By 2022 Mississippi students ranked 21st in the United States for student literacy scores. We call this the Mississippi Miracle, and it is the Science of Reading that empowered this miracle to occur!
Another more personal reading miracle…
Melissa’s Miracle took place in a public school classroom of 3-5th grade boys, most of whom were on the spectrum, and reading at a kindergarten level. The school district gave general ed classrooms a goal of growing their student’s reading levels by 23 points; however, Melissa’s special education classroom was not given a goal at all.
The students were encouraged to be quiet during testing with no goal for growth. The average growth of the student’s in Melissa’s classroom using the Science of Reading was 43 points; however, one star student grew by 69 points!
These were growth points in a single school year! Although Melissa is a fantastic teacher, the real power behind these numbers stems from the Science of Reading.
The Science of Reading Research
The Science of Reading is a body of research that has spanned over 50 years across a variety of disciplines of scientific study.
Why are people just getting to know about the Science of Reading if it’s been around for so many years?
We’ll answer that question in another post, but for now we want to assure you that not only is the data and researched backed, but the results we’ve shared from Mississippi and Melissa’s classroom are not a fluke. They have been repeated in many settings, with many teachers, and many students implementing the same scientific driven principles.
What we’ve learned from the Science of Reading Research:
- 5% of students grasp reading with little to no instruction. It’s somewhat magical, although we don’t truly know why these students grasp reading so easily.
- 35% of students need broad support and instruction. These need some instruction and support, but it doesn’t need to be that explicit in order for the child to achieve success in reading.
- 60% of students need explicit, systematic, detailed, daily instruction in a specific order with specific instructions in order to learn how to read.
You can learn to use the Science of Reading principals in your homeschool and in your classroom!
Here’s a few tips to help you get started:
- Systematic and Explicit instruction ensures students learn to read and understand what they have read.
- Children learn to connect letter names and sounds faster if there is no print involved.
- Once children have learned the sounds involved in making words, they can easily connect those sounds to printed letters.
- Consistency is key to building strong and confident readers.
Phonics+ or Phonics with a kick
The Science of Reading helps students take the phonics skills they know and have learned about and add to it additional skills that will ensure their mastery of reading. Teaching these in the correct order will ensure your child is best poised for success.
1. Phonemic Awareness
A student’s awareness of phonemes. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound. Students do not become of aware of phonemes through letters or writing or seeing. Phonemic awareness is built through hearing and can be developed with the use of oral games. Little Shoes Academy curriculum provides a systematic, explicit way to help students become aware of sounds that make words.
2. Phonics
Begin to add printed letters to the student’s curriculum. Since students have already developed an awareness of letter sounds and they have developed the skills to flex those sounds within the word, they will be able to apply phonics rules to the written words to find the sounds in each word.
3. Fluency
Some students struggle to sound out every word. This impacts a students comprehension of what they have read. In a systemic and explicit approach to learning reading, students are engaged with activities meant to build fluency.
4. Comprehension
Some students can read quickly. They decode multi-syllabic words with ease. Systematically and explicitly teaching comprehension ensures that students understand what they read in addition to being able to say the words out loud.
5.Vocabulary
Vocabulary is a key component of literacy instruction because it ensures that students have the ability to build mental images of the things they read by knowing the meaning of the words they have read.
The Little Shoes Academy curriculum is designed to integrate the systematic approach of Science of Reading into an easy to follow format for homeschool moms and preschool teachers. Whether you’re doing the activities at home or in your preschool classroom, our curriculum provides the perfect balance of instruction and support.
Check out our preschool curriculum today!
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