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North Shore Schools Parent university

The science of reading

November 14, 2023

Dr. Carol Smyth, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Ms. Katie Webber, Literacy Coach K-2

Ms. Julie Ritter, Director of ELA, Library, and Literacy Dr. Caron Cesa, Literacy Coach 3-5

Presented by:

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Part One: Introduction

Part Two: What the Science tells us

Part Three: What the District is Doing

Part Four: What Families Can Do to Support Literacy at Home

Part Five: Closing Thoughts

AGENDA

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Part ONE

introduction

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The science of reading: A Definition

The science of reading is a vast, interdisciplinary body of

scientifically-based research about reading and issues related to

reading and writing. This research has been conducted over the

last five decades across the world, and it is derived from

thousands of studies conducted in multiple languages. The

science of reading has culminated in a preponderance of evidence

to inform how proficient reading and writing develop; why some

have difficulty; and how we can most effectively assess and teach

and, therefore, improve student outcomes through prevention of

and intervention for reading difficulties.

Defining Guide Ebook.” The Reading League, 3 Nov. 2023 www.thereadingleague.org/what-is-the-science-of-reading/defining-guide-ebook/.

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what it is

An ideology or philosophy

A fad, trend, new idea, or pendulum swing

A political agenda

A one-size-fits-all approach

A program of instruction

A single, specific component of instruction, such as phonics

Defining Guide Ebook.” The Reading League, 3 Nov. 2023, www.thereadingleague.org/what-is-the-science-of-reading/defining-guide-ebook/.

IT IS DERIVED FROM Researchers in Multiple Fields

Cognitive Psychology

Communication Sciences

Developmental Psychology

Education

Special Education

Implementation Science

Linguistics

Neuroscience

School Psychology

“

what it isN’t

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The Background

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The reading wars

19th C-Present

phonics

The reading wars

Balanced literacy

NAEP

The national Reading Panel

2000

Whole language

1955 1955

2019

2022

In order to provide some context to this evening’s program, it helps to understand a little bit of the background of literacy education. You might heard of the term Reading Wars. Our profession has debated about how to teach reading for over 100 yrs . Some people say the Reading Wars started with Horace Mann. Remember him? Well, he’s aptly called the father of public education and we are very grateful for him. However, in the 1880’s, Horace Mann challenged the literacy instruction of the time by condemning the teaching of alphabetics and claiming that people read whole words, rather than individual letters.

Other people say the catalyst of the Reading Wars was the 1955 publication of Why Johnny Can’t Read. You might have heard of that, too. Well, that book railed against Mann’s whole-language practice and advocated fiercely for phonics instruction. Since then, minor battles regarding reading instruction would flare up now and then, and then kind of disappear for a while -- until recently. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly when, but now people are beginning to take notice of this growing body of scientific research.

From the biennial NAEP scores -- the National Assessment of Educational Progress -- which revealed that in 2022 only 33% of 4th graders met basic literacy skills, to Emily Hanford’s provocative podcast Sold a Story, the current developments have caught people’s attention.

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In 2022, 99% of North Shore 11th graders

passed the NYS ELA Regents, and over five

years of data from the NYS 3-8 ELA

Assessments show that North Shore

School’s elementary students consistently

outperform their regional counterparts by

over 20%.

The

foreground

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Semper ad Meliora -- ALWAYS TOWARDS THE BETTER

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Part two

WHAT THE SCIENCE TELLS US

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The Challenges of �Learning to Read

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COMPLEXITY

Phonics

Phonemic Awareness

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

Background Knowledge

Oral Language

Attention

Working Memory

Executive Function

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Deep Orthography

English is the trickiest language to learn to read and write!

44 sounds (phonemes)
250 symbols (graphemes)

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Deep Orthography

compress, compression

native, national, nativity

These words share a consistently spelled root or meaningful part (morpheme) but have different pronunciations of the root.

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WE ARE NOT WIRED FOR IT!

Ground Yourself in the Mind of a Child…

Notice: What is your mind doing as you are reading this? What is preventing you from understanding this?

In order to read, we need to understand the alphabetic principle which involves learning to map graphic symbols to spoken speech units.

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WE ARE NOT WIRED FOR IT!

I LOVE YOU

We have only been reading and writing for about 5,000 years

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Humans have been speaking for 50,000 years.

WE AREN’T WIRED TO UNDERSTAND WRITTEN CODE. WE ARE WIRED FOR SPOKEN LANGUAGE

Remember

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WE ARE NOT WIRED FOR IT!

We need to build a new system in our brains in order to learn how to read.

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—SOMEONE FAMOUS

“READING is ROCKET SCIENCE!”

-Louisa C. Moats, 2020

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—SOMEONE FAMOUS

The translation of alphabetic symbols into spoken words is only one aspect of reading…

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The Simple View of Reading

Reading Comprehension is the product of word recognition

and language comprehension.

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Connections Between Language and Literacy

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—SOMEONE FAMOUS

Reading and WRiting Depend on Language Abilities

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Connections Between Language and Literacy

Listening comprehension may exceed reading comprehension, but the reverse is not true. One cannot understand by reading what one cannot understand by listening.

Oral language development, vocabulary enrichment, and verbal-reasoning skills are critical components of classroom literacy instruction from the onset.

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How the Brain learns to read

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How the Brain Learns to Read

When we read, how do we process text?

1.

2.

3.

Letter by letter

Word by word

Sampling words

Although we may not be aware of it, we do not skip over words, read print selectively, or recognize words by sampling a few letters of the print, as whole language theorists once proposed.

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How the Brain Learns to Read

Fluent readers do perceive each and every letter of print.

Casual … causal

grill…girl

conversation…conservation

Better readers process the internal details of printed words and match them to the individual speech sounds that combine to make words.

Printed word recognition depends on fast, accurate orthographic mapping-or matching of letters and letter sequences with the sounds of spoken word.

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Skilled Readers are Made

Our children’s brains come with visual regions for recognizing faces and objects- NOT LETTERS & WORDS

Objects

Faces

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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Skilled Readers are Made

We are Brain-Builders!

Objects

Faces

Objects

Faces

Visual word form area (letterbox)

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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How Words are Processed

Words are processed in the brain in three ways

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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The Goal

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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PHase 1

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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Phase 2

Develop sound sensitivity (phonemic awareness)- the ability to perceive and play with the tiniest speech sound in words.

2. Retrain neurons used to recognize objects and faces to identify specific letters.

3. Build strong ‘mappings’ between individual letters and speech sounds. Mapping is key.

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

The very first thing we need to do… #1, being able to perceive sounds in words and play with speech sounds in word. Huge predictor in learning to read. These kids tend to read earlier and become stronger readers.

Segmentation b/a/t allows us to refine sound city. You may have activities like read alouds with alliteration etc.

#2 train neurons to be visually tuned to letter that are usually for objects and faces for specific letters

#3 We’re making a mapping between the letters with their sounds. Oh, this line and this circle means a /b/, this line and this circle mean /a/ this is a mapping we are not wired for but is a mapping we need in order to read. The only way we can learn to read and get to meaning mountains without first going through sound city. What do these letters represent? Sounds. They have to go through SC. there is no way you can just memorize words, it is not a visual memorization process. We proces every letter and convert them into sounds.

Once the mapping is there, that is the key. In E we face a challenge and it is called mirror invariance. There is an example. Any way you put this chair, it is a chair. You wouldn’t call it a different name. We have the same thing for faces. We have to unlearn mirror invariance when we learned to read. See the examples with letters. This is a property of our vision system that we are born with that we have to unlearn to read. That is why we see… (student examples) It doesn’t mean that a child is dyslexic, they are in the process of overcoming this aspect of their vision system. This is a challenge in learning to map.

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Phase 2

5. Find words in spoken language

4. Build capacity to blend speech and sounds together

(Blending)

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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Phase 3

CCVC, CVCC,

Letter-Box

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

Back to our brain model, we have these connections and this phonological route. We grow our abilities to group letters and match them to sounds and link to meaning.

After this stage, from CVC we move to four letter words etc. Instead of bat, we can read words lit bath (digraph), read words like nest (not just cvc) we are doing this through the phonological route.

You begin to build up into larger units (6 syllable types)

What begins to happen, the brain’s letter box begins to develop. There is now a specialized area of vision villages that is specialized for these words. One a brain has seen a word 4 times, 40 times, this area begins to specialize for that letter string and activates spoken language. The brain has now stored this image and the site activates the sound and the meaning and goes on a faster neural pathway called the elxical route, reading byb site. This is muscle memory for your reader. This is what separates readers and nonreaders. This develops over many many years.

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Phase 4

Multisyllabic

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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Our Reading Brain

Letter-Sound Associations

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Proficient Readers

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Part three

WHAT THE district is doing

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Comprehensive review and revision of our literacy program

Use a systematic, well-considered, and methodical approach

Examine the broad systems-wide influences on literacy.

Plan and execute short-term and long-term actions.

Maintain the stability of our current instruction, assessments, and curriculum while the new infrastructures are being planned and built.

Honor and support teachers’ differentiated shifts.

2 min. Currently, we are undergoing a comprehensive review and revision or our elementary literacy program.

#1 --the most important thing to highlight is that we are not jumping to conclusions, we are not stabbing in the dark, and we are not applying quick-fix band aids to complex problems. Instead, we are….[read]

#2 -- [read] Instead of limiting ourselves to a narrow scope, we are looking at the multi-faceted structures that affect our literacy program.

#3 --[read] Reviewing and revising our literacy program will take several years. In a few minutes, we’ll show you a graphic that outlines our implementation outcomes.

#4 -- [read] This is another key part of our plan. We are committed to maintaining stability for our students and teachers. Many of you have probably heard of the 3-legged stool rule -- well, the 3 -legged stool rule says to never remove a leg of the stool unless you have another one set firmly in its place. We are extremely mindful of that bc we know that trying to enforce change before we are ready to support it can severely undermine our efforts.

And #5 [read]

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The district’s two-pronged plaN

Deepen Science of Reading Knowledge

Employ a Broad Systems-Wide

Approach

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The district’s two-pronged plaN

Deepen Science of Reading Knowledge

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Deepen and reinforce knowledge of Science of reading

Mark Weakland

Science of reading Pd

Fall SY2223

Continued In-house and expert PD

SY2324

Enrollment in LETRS training SY2324

Reading instruction study group Winter/spring

SY2223

As you saw from just dipping your toes in the Science of Reading, its vast content is rigorous and cannot be appropriately processed with a one-and-done approach. Teachers need repeated and ongoing PD to deepen and reinforce their understanding. In the fall of last year, Mark Weakland, author of How to Prevent Reading Difficulties, conducted on-site PD workshops for our elementary teachers. Then, in the winter and spring of last year, we led a 40-person group of teachers and administrators, including representatives from K-12 classrooms, ENL, and sped, and took a deep dive into the research. We read and analyzed the 450 page National Reading Panel report, several scholarly meta-analyses, and book excerpts from the leading voices in the Science of Reading research. This year, we have enrolled staff-members in LETRS training, which I’ll discuss in depth in the following slides, and are continuing in-house and expert PD, including last week’s 100-person SCD workshop led by Katie and Caron, and events like this Parent University.

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Deepen and Reinforce Knowledge

A two-year,

program-agnostic, graduate-level Professional Development

course

LETRS

Language

Essentials for

Teachers of reading and spelling

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Deepen and Reinforce Knowledge

Providing knowledge and tools that teachers can use with any good reading

program:

In-depth knowledge of research-based information related to language skills

Ways to assess student language development for prevention and intervention

Guidance on how to plan and balance word recognition and comprehension instruction

Information on differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all students

(Moats and Tolman xv)

The GOAL of LETRS

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Letrs topics

VOLUME ONE:

WORD RECOGNITION

The Challenge of Learning to Read

The Speech Sounds of English

Teaching Beginning Phonics, Word Recognition, and Spelling

Advanced Decoding, Spelling, and Word Recognition

VOLUME TWO:

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION

Oral Language and Vocabulary

Understanding Reading Comprehension

Text-Driven Comprehension Instruction

The Reading-Writing Connection

(Moats and Tolman xvi-xix)

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The district’s two-pronged plaN

Employ a Systems-Wide

Approach

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Employ a systems-wide approach

Letrs for administrators

SY2324

HERE

District literacy team

SY2324

HERE

We have constructed two vehicles for our systems-wide approach. One tool is our enrollment in a LETRS for Admin course -- in addition to the LETRS for teachers one. The LETRS for Admin course is helping us support teachers as they work to implement Science of Reading-aligned practices in their classrooms by enacting the systems and infrastructure needed for implementation. [show link and read]. The other tool for employing a systems-wide approach is the creation of our District Literacy Team to oversee the evaluation and revision process. The 15-person DLT is comprised of the four of us, the three principals, the Asst. Dir. of SPED, and 7 elementary school teachers representing classroom, reading, ENL, and SPED. We meet for a full day each month to work on the seven components of a schoolwide literacy system. [open link and read]

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Part four

WHAT families can do

At home to support literacy

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Ways to Support ORAL Language and Vocabulary

development at home

Treat children as if they are conversationalists, even if they are not yet talking. Children learn very early about how conversations work (taking turns, looking attentively, using facial experiences with conversing adults.

Encourage interaction among children. Peer learning is an important part of language development, especially in mixed-age groups.

Encourage children to storytell.

Dramatic Play

Read aloud to your child in younger grades. In older grades, talk about texts you’ve both read.

Phonological and phonemic awareness: Activities for your kindergartener. Reading Rockets. (n.d.). https://www.readingrockets.org/literacy-home/reading-101-guide-parents/your-kindergartener/phonological-and-phonemic-awareness

Board Games

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WAYS our curriculum supports language development

Heggerty is used to develop our students’ phonological awareness and phonemic awareness skills in K and 1.

Fundations is used to develop our students’ decoding and encoding skills in grades K-3 and takes a systematic, multisensory approach to instruction.

HEGGERTY

Parent Resources

FUNDATIONS

Words Their Way is used to develop our students’ vocabulary growth and spelling development in grades 4 and 5.

WORDS THEIR WAY

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Ways to Support Sound Development

Books

Advancing science of reading in the early years - K–5 Literacy Program & Curriculum | amplify CKLA (2022) YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ozikJR3oY8 (Accessed: 13 November 2023).

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Ways to Support Sound development Continued

RHYME TIME

“I am thinking of an animal that rhymes with big.

What’s the animal?” Answer: pig.

What else rhymes with big? (dig, fig, wig)

SILLY TONGUE TWISTERS

Sing songs and say silly tongue twisters. These help your child become sensitive to the sounds in words.

SOUND SCAVENGER HUNT

Choose a letter sound, then have your child find things around your house that start with the same sound. “Can you find something in our house that starts with the letter “p” pppppp sound? Picture, pencil, pear”

SYLLABLE SHOPPING

While at the grocery store, have your child tell you the syllables in different food names. Have them hold up a finger for each word part. Eggplant = egg-plant, two syllables. Pineapple = pine-ap-ple, three syllables. Show your child the sign for each and ask her to say the word.

TONGUE TICKLERS

Alliteration or “tongue ticklers” — where the s

ound you’re focusing on is repeated over and over again — can be a fun way to provide practice with a speech sound. Try these:

For M: Miss Mouse makes marvelous meatballs!
For S: Silly Sally sings songs about snakes and snails.
For F: Freddy finds fireflies with a flashlight.

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Alphabetic Principle

Phonics = The study of the relationships between letters and the sounds they represent ~LETRS, 2019

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Letter-Sound Correspondence

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Sight Words

Fundations

Trick words

said it

to

The Heart-Word Method

A way to help students learn to read and spell high-frequency words, particularly those that are irregular and not very decodable.

“Highlight the tricky to make it sticky”

“Heart Parts”

“A student’s bank of words that are instantly and effortlessly recognized; includes both regularly spelled and irregularly spelled words.” ~LETRS, 2019

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Ways to Support Decoding/Encoding

Fundations practice at home

Letter formation
Fluency
Dictation
Additional practice pages on concepts learned
Decodable phrases/sentences/texts

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Ways to Support COMPREHENSION development

Just ask 3!

1

(Before Reading)

What do you think this book will be about?

2

(After a little bit of reading)

What have you read about so far?

Qin W, Kingston HC, Kim JS. “What does reading “tell” about Children's reading proficiency?” First Language. 2019;39 (2): 177-199.

3

(At the end of the reading season)

What did you read about?

Encourage your child to read books from the same series, and read about their interests and hobbies.

Join student books clubs at the library or start your own with friends!

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We can all Encourage our Learners to…

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Part five

Closing thoughts

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The parent-school partnership: Literacy at home

Down-time is found time

Schedule and prioritize

Make it a habit

Leverage transitions

Limit screen time

Visit the library!

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“You are allowed to be

both a masterpiece and

a work in progress,

simultaneously”

~ Sophia Bush

North Shore literacy program

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QUestions

And Comments

Dr. Carol Smyth, Superintendent for Instruction Ms. Katie Webber, Literacy Coach K-2

Ms. Julie Ritter, Director of ELA, Library, and Literacy Dr. Caron Cesa, Literacy Coach 3-5

North Shore literacy program

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