The science of reading is a body of research that incorporates insights and research from disciplines that include developmental psychology, educational psychology, cognitive science, and cognitive neuroscience. The science of reading has been documented around the world, in all languages and cultures, in studies that cost hundreds of millions of dollars. In short, the science of reading has demonstrated the methods that best help children learn to read, from the earliest steps in spoken language to being able to successfully decode unfamiliar words.
What Does the Science of Reading Say About Phonics Instruction?
One of the key elements in successful reading instruction identified in reading research is the role that phonics instruction plays in learning to read. The scientific consensus is that teaching phonics systematically, explicitly, and cumulatively is key to successful reading instruction.
Missing the Cue
Some schools still use methods of reading instruction based on “cueing” instead of, or alongside, phonics instruction. Does that term seem unfamiliar?
“Teachers may not know the term "three cueing," but they're probably familiar with "MSV." M stands for using meaning to figure out what a word is, S for using sentence structure, and V for using visual information (i.e., the letters in the words).” (APM Reports, 2019)
However, as the science of reading has developed further, “three cueing,” which also became known by the term “whole language,” was superseded. What scientific research has shown is that skilled readers can read words without relying on context, or the visual cues that were the basis for the original hypothesis about cues.
“It turns out that the ability to read words in isolation quickly and accurately is the hallmark of being a skilled reader. This is now one of the most consistent and well-replicated findings in all of the reading research.”(APM Reports, 2019)
Five Key Elements of Scientific Reading Instruction?
The National Reading Panel (NRP) report in 2000 identified these five elements that are key to reading success:
- Comprehension
- Fluency
- Vocabulary
- Phonics
- Phonemic Awareness
Let’s take a look at both phonemic awareness and phonics in more depth.
Building Phonemic Awareness
Efficient foundational literacy skillsbegin with the building blocks of words –phonemes.
A key step in developing fluent reading skills is helping children with phonemic awareness – the idea that phonemes (sounds) correspond to graphemes (letter sequences that signify sounds).
The goal in Grades K-1 is to teach students phonemic awareness so they can independently start to decode unfamiliar words using the automatic skills they have developed through the application of direct phonics instruction.
By the end of 2nd grade, students will recall 1,000-7,500 words. It's not possible to have students memorize every word or every pattern of phonemes or graphemes.Teaching foundational literacy skills in a specific way gives students the skills they need to teach themselves. This is commonly called the “Self-Teaching” model.
Three Elements of Science-Based Phonics Instruction
Based on science, the three elements you need for effective phonics instruction are:
- A hands-on approach
- Moving from presentation to practice
- Showing the direct application to reading and spelling
These three practices support effective decoding, and decoding is among the most fundamental skills for students to master when learning to read.
The key to decoding is to help students develop cognitive automaticity. This means that students know a word on sight without having to sound it out. This is commonly referred to when discussing “sight words.”
Did you know? First graders are expected to have a sight word vocabulary of over 2000 words!
The sight word memory is called the orthographic lexicon. Students develop their orthographic lexicon by successfully decoding words. When they decode words leveraging phoneme-grapheme relationships, it’s called orthographic mapping. Orthographic mapping is how individuals anchor words into their sight word memory (orthographic lexicon) and store them for accurate & effortless recognition. But, in a system that uses “whole language” or that uses cueing alongside phonics, students may not develop the automaticity needed to step beyond reading words to developing comprehension.
"They [students]sample from the letters because they're not good at sounding them out ... The three-cueing system is the way poor readers read.” - David Kilpatrick, psychology professor at SUNY Cortland
The other two key components of comprehension, vocabulary, and fluency can be developed through reading aloud. Reading aloud is a way to build language comprehension skills as well as decoding skills at the same time. These two skills work together to produce reading comprehension.
As Emily Hanford noted at AMP Reports,"This comes straight from the scientific research, which shows that reading comprehension is the product of two things. First, a child needs to be able to sound out a word. Second, the child needs to know the meaning of the word she just sounded out. So, in a first-grade classroom that's following the research, you will see explicit phonics instruction and also lessons that build oral vocabulary and background knowledge. And you will see kids practicing what they've been taught."
