Research has demonstrated the positive effects of systematically teaching phonemic awareness and phonics in kindergarten and first grade, but many commonly used reading curricula do not adequately incorporate these foundational skills. In this study, we examined the efficacy of an instructional program ("UFLI Foundations") in…

Ohio elementary schools are moving to the Science of Reading, an approach that emphasizes phonics along with vocabulary- and knowledge-rich content. Keen on learning what this transition looks like inside classrooms, the Thomas B. Fordham Institute asked Ellen Belcher, a former journalist with the Dayton Daily News, to visit Margaretta Local…

Young children of Color from minoritized communities can co-author decodable stories using phonics skills they have been taught, their lived experiences, and home languages, including nondominant English languages, to develop decoding skills using student-generated decodable readers. While traditional and curricular decodable readers are used…

Across the nation the average allotted time, per school day for phonics instruction is 20-30 minutes for elementary students (Shanahan, 2019). Although this is an average, the aforementioned amount of time is not an adequate amount of time to include all of the necessary components of effective phonics instruction (Shanahan, 2019). Furthermore,…

When young children of Color from minoritized communities read decodable readers mandated by their school districts, children approach reading the texts with the expectation that the texts will make sense. While decodable readers allow children to apply their knowledge of phonics skills in context to support their word recognition, they tend to…

The current study compared the reading growth of (a) students who received targeted interventions, (b) students who received typical school interventions, and (c) students who were proficient readers at the study's onset. The participants were 1,513 students in first through fifth grades who attended one of three treatment schools or one of three…

Visual Phonics is a multisensory teaching tool that has the potential to improve reading outcomes. The purpose of this systematic review is to examine studies on Visual Phonics to provide a comprehensive understanding of the effects on code-related skills. Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The results demonstrate that Visual Phonics can…

This study focused on the effect of fifteen minutes of direct phonics instruction three days per week on student achievement, of Winter MAP goals, during the Response to Intervention block, during English language arts class. The literature suggests the use of both systematic and word-based strategies for instructional strategies, more scientific…

The purpose of this research was to analyze the performance of pupils (N = 6,023) who took part in Reading Recovery (RR) in England on a decoding test, the Phonics Screening Check (PSC), administered at the end of Year 1 when children are approximately 5 to 6 years of age. The data cover two academic years (2015/2016 and 2016/2017) and include…

Students reading below grade level proficiency lack word recognition and comprehension skills. The problem addressed in this quantitative study was that third-grade students in a Title I school in South Carolina are reading below grade-level proficiency, lacking grade-level appropriate word recognition and reading comprehension skills, as…

On average, English language learners (ELLs) do not demonstrate the same academic achievement as their native English-speaking peers. The number of ELLs in U.S. schools has increased over the last several decades, as has the scholarly debate on how to best support ELLs in building foundational reading skills. The purpose of this study was to…

Activities that teach PreK-1 students the six components of emergent literacy and beginning reading and word study are presented for classroom settings. These activities are adaptable developmentally and they highlight four important aspects of teaching phonics, spelling and word knowledge that are often overlooked: the rhythm of literacy, Concept…

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore how K-2 teachers perceive the effectiveness of multi-sensory phonics methods used in conjunction with a standards-based reading curriculum on students' reading acquisition skills, students' decoding abilities, and student engagement in an inclusive classroom at a public charter school in…

The essential guide to the science behind reading and its practical implications for classroom teaching in primary schools. Teaching children to read is one of the most important tasks in primary education and classroom practice needs to be underpinned by a secure foundation of knowledge. Teachers need to know what reading entails, how children…

This action research study aimed to improve reading with understanding in a lower primary classroom in Fiji. Five emergent readers were selected through an examination of class running records. Peer observation, student worksheets, and class running records were utilized to collect data. The data analysis revealed that when teachers implement…