This year, Scholastic launched the Scholastic Literacy Framework, a compelling, research-based narrative that grounds our team in helping to close achievement gaps, and ensure learning is equitable, and instruction is effective. Over the past few months, Scholastic experts shared their insights in the “Science of Reading in Practice” webinar series and provided educators with evidence-based strategies and best practices for implementing evidence-based strategies into their reading instruction.
In the sixth and final webinar in the series, Melissa Loftus and Lori Sappington, hosts of the popular Melissa & Lori Love Literacy podcast, and co-authors of The Literacy 50–A Q&A Handbook for Teachers, dive into key lessons from their new book to explore the questions that teachers ask the most. In this webinar, the authors offer powerful insights from their extensive interviews with expert guests, sharing practical solutions that will help guide educators in addressing common concerns about phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension.
Keep reading below to discover answers to the top questions teachers are asking today, and Melissa and Lori’s practical teaching moves that can help fill the gaps!
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Should I name and show letters when I teach phonemic awareness?
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Utilizing Elkonin boxes, or sound boxes, is an effective strategy to support phonemic awareness instruction, as they help students visualize the ways that letters work together.
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Have students use tokens or game chips to represent individual sounds, and encourage students to represent the sounds with letters by writing them or moving letters into each box for each sound.
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Letter combinations that make one sound go in one box. For example, in the word ‘match’ you would use three boxes to represent the three sounds in the word: m-a-tch.
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Introduce letters as soon as students have a solid awareness of a few phonemes, and start with the letters that most commonly represent sounds. For example, once students have awareness of the sound /K/ such as in ‘kit,’ you can introduce the letter K. Later, you can introduce the letter C,when it represents /k/, such as in picnic or the letter combination ck, such as in back.
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For more difficult letter sounds or letter combinations, try creating letter-sound anchor charts to help students learn the different ways a grapheme can be pronounced.
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How should I use decodable texts? When and how should I transition kids out of them?
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Have students read decodable texts that contain previously taught sound-spelling patterns and high frequency-words through independent, echo, choral, or buddy reading.
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Help students connect their decoding skills to meaning by modeling and practicing unknown words, high-frequency words, or vocabulary words, and encourage kids to tackle unknown or big words. This will aid in building confidence and automaticity through repeated readings of decodable texts.
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You can also teach ‘scooping,’ a practice in which you draw curved lines underneath meaningful groups of words, and have students “scoop them up” as they read.
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As students read together or independently, emphasize the text’s essential understandings, which can also help them build vocabulary and background knowledge.
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I’ve heard that fluency is the bridge between word recognition and comprehension. Why?
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Readers have a finite amount of attention to use while reading. If kids devote too much attention to decoding, they don't have enough cognitive energy left to make sense of the individual words and whole texts.
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When students recognize words accurately and automatically, they can make meaning of the text as they read.
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Be sure to model reading the text aloud before asking students to phrase or scoop text on their own. Then, as students begin to read, encourage them to read aloud marked text with scoop lines or slashes, and to try this exercise on their own.
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For instance, you can put a slash after every word, and then talk about how choppy that sounds, or you can end a scoop where it would sound awkward, (e.g. the amazon rainforest in). Make sure students know why this is important and incorrect.
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How do I teach vocabulary? What are some research-based methods?
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When teaching vocabulary, it is important to lean into explicit instruction and provide opportunities for students to learn about words through rich texts and language experiences. When teaching vocabulary, be sure to address:
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Meanings - go beyond a dictionary definition, show pictures or compare words
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Connection – Encourage students to think about and identify relationships between words.
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Usage – Pronounce and have students pronounce words frequently because it supports their ability to retrieve meaning.
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Repetition – Think about teaching vocabulary cyclically and revisit words you have already taught to help them stick.
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Collaboration - Engage students in their vocabulary work and make them an active part of learning words.
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Utilize a five step routine for teaching vocabulary: Say the word and pronounce it; Define the word and explore the meaning; Make it tangible by showing drawings or photos; Have students practice using the word; and Provide ongoing usage opportunities.
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Should I move away from using leveled texts? If so, what should I use instead?
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Rather than assigning students leveled texts at their reading level, shift to using complex texts that are aligned with topics students are studying in ELA, social studies, science, and other content areas.
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Text sets, or collections of texts that are focused on specific topics, can help students continually develop rich vocabulary and deepen their understanding.
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Engage readers with grade-level texts that provide opportunities to interact with varied sentence structures and syntax, advanced vocabulary, and intricate content.
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It’s important to introduce complex text so that students can have the chance to engage in authentic, rich literature, rather than keeping them contained to one level.
Check out the full webinar and stay tuned for more tips and strategies from our “Science of Reading in Practice” webinar series! Be sure to follow @ScholasticEdu on X for more engaging educational content.
See all of Scholastic's Foundational Reading Skills resources.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Melissa Loftus is a former middle school ELA teacher and district coach. She holds a BA in education and English and an M.Ed. with reading specialist certification and is National Board Certified. She’s co-host of the popular podcast Melissa & Lori Love Literacy and Scholastic co-author of The Literacy 50 with Lori Sappington.
Lori Sappington is a former elementary and high school ELA teacher and district coach. She holds a BA in elementary education and English, an M.Ed. with reading specialist certification, and an Advanced Leadership Certificate from Towson University. She’s co-host of the popular podcast Melissa & Lori Love Literacy and Scholastic co-author of The Literacy 50 with Melissa Loftus.
