08/10/2023
Why Is The Science of Reading Important?
There are at least three camps of reading instruction that your school district and/or school might find themselves in. First, there's the Whole Language approach which comes from the philosophy that cognition, thinking while reading a piece of text helps children learn how to read. In other words, the expectation is that while the child is reading, they are involved in several cognitive skills, such as, asking questions to support their comprehension and decoding words to help them fluently read correctly. Then, there's the balanced literacy approach. This came from the camp of thought that perhaps a balance of somewhere between that of Whole Language and the Science of Reading could be struck. And finally, we have the third literacy approach to learning how to read and it is...as you guessed it...The Science of Reading. The Science of Reading really isn't new. As a matter of fact, it's what most parents, if not how all parents and adults were taught how to read during their elementary school experiences. It supports the following components very carefully, such as, phonemic and phonological awareness (phonics), reading fluency, word recognition, vocabulary, comprehension, etc. I've worked in two school districts and schools who use Whole Language for reading instruction and it exclusively relies on the child employing a great deal of cognitive thinking while attempting to make sense, which is not a very structured practice to begin with because it requires deep thinking and making sense skills that unfortunately, many children don't have. For example, Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and English Language Learners (ELLs) often struggle with these skills because they are not only sophisticated in nature, but skills such as these are often difficult to master because of their complicated. However, let's look at a deeper problem with Whole Language by facing cold hard facts and reality that many children struggle with oral fluency because they don't have the phonemic/phonological skills to properly decode text correctly while engaged with fluent reading. This is the biggest problem with Whole Language instruction because there's absolutely no emphasis on phonics or phonics development, which we all know is the basic DNA or foundational piece to reading fluently. Before children can learn how to orally read, they must first know the individual sounds that each letter makes and once that's been achieved, they can begin to work on phonological awareness and decoding. This, in and of itself is the gateway to fluency and without fluency, it's nearly next to impossible to comprehend what is being read.
This is why Science of Reading is crucial to your child's reading achievement. Not only that, but children are often not exposed to comprehension strategies, like, thinking maps and graphic organizers that could help them better understand passages and text in which they are reading. Another problem with Whole Language are the reading fluency materials used with this reading approach have been controversial, such as, Fountas and Pinnell.
At Titan Tutoring Solutions, I focus on the Science of Reading. As a Science of Reading tutor, I will get under the hood, if you will, and see where your child's reading progress stands at. This means, doing diagnostic testing, such as, phonemic and phonological testing, fluency testing, and comprehension and vocabulary work. This is the meat and potatoes folks! Once I have an understanding of where your child is at, I can begin focusing on a plan to help improve your child's reading achievement. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out and ask me anything you would like!
https://www.unr.edu/nevada-today/news/2021/atp-science-of-reading
