Teachers are asked to use reading science to inform how they teach phonics and phonological awareness. As teachers look to the research base to guide their practice, some questions and concerns regarding what best practice looks like have come up. This article starts with a brief description of phonics and phonemic awareness and then discusses…

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…

Reading instruction has been the subject of significant controversy for more than five decades, and Kappan has allowed advocates of many different types of reading instruction to make their cases in the magazine's pages. Teresa Preston chronicles the history of the reading wars as they played out in Kappan. Researchers and scholars have debated…

The Ontario Human Rights Commission's (OHCR) "Right to Read Report" calls for school districts to implement early literacy interventions that have been scientifically proven to be effective for young children with reading difficulties. The acknowledgment of early intervention as an essential service for young children experiencing…

Reading is one of the most well-studied aspects of human learning. Since the 1950s, with more interest, research tools, and funding available, the body of reading research has exploded: Every year, hundreds of new scientific papers are published. However, there has been a detrimental lag in ensuring this science is understood by the people who…

Across a carefully detailed argument, the shortcomings, inconsistencies and contradictions of the government's recent "Reading Framework" are made clear in the light of a substantial body of academic research on the nature of reading and the development of literacy. The dogmatic approach taken towards these issues by government and by…

In our first article, we outlined some of the reasons for reading failure at the Early Childhood level and beyond, discussed common challenges students face, and explored essential components for quality reading instruction. We'll revisit the students you met in the first article to provide a window into how the Science of Reading can be…

Recently, the term "science of reading" has been used in public debate to promote policies and instructional practices based on research on the basic cognitive mechanisms of reading, the neural processes involved in reading, computational models of learning to read, and the like. According to those views, such data provide convincing…

The teaching of reading has been a source of contentious debate for many years. Margaret Meek Spencer contributed her passion for the importance of specific texts to help children learn to read. In addition to the kinds of texts to be used, important aspects of the debate include the relationship between national curriculum policies and robust…

This article discusses the current contradictory policies surrounding the push for phonics instruction in Texas schools. Focusing on this current iteration of the reading wars, this article seeks to help teachers develop a historical context for reading instruction, review existing research on learning to read, and turn that knowledge into…

Learning to read is an expectation rather than an exception in society today. Despite this, some children experience reading difficulties. The purpose of this article is to review recent and seminal research on reading difficulties through the lenses of three perspectives: cognitive, social and cultural and interactive. The three perspectives are…

In 2000, the National Reading Panel report identified five essential components of effective reading instruction: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension. Yet a new study of university-based teacher preparation programs finds that few cover these components, leaving teachers without research-based expertise. (Contains 2…

This article discusses whole language and phonics approaches to teaching L1 reading. It argues to bring these two perspectives together under an integrated approach to better teach second language reading. The article offers an integrated lesson plan with adaptable activities and techniques that show how to apply the integrated approach.

The National Reading Panel's report on reading instruction placed too much emphasis on systematic phonics. The effectiveness of systematic phonics is presented with a comprehensive framework so that there is a clear implication for institutional practice.

The Curriculum and Instructional Projects Team at the Florida Center for Reading Research (FCRR) developed "Guidelines for Reviewing a Reading Program" ("Guidelines") to assist reviewers in determining if a program is consistent with the scientific research on reading. Based on that work, the Center on Instruction Reading Strand developed this…