In an era where humans have managed to create an artificial intelligence tool sophisticated enough to churn out an essay on Shakespeare, it seems unlikely that there would still be ambiguity about how best to teach kids how to read. But the 鈥渞eading wars鈥� continue to incite differences of opinion in various forums, from school board meetings to legislative sessions.
Recently, literacy curriculums that include systematic attention to phonics鈥攖he most contested of the strategies, but one that has been affirmed by decades of research鈥攈ave again emerged as a best practice. (Phonics and sound-letter correspondence aren鈥檛 the only pieces of evidence-based literacy, of course; so are building students鈥� vocabulary, knowledge of sentence structure, and content.)
Lofty curriculum decisions such as these are often made at levels far removed from classrooms. Between 2013 and July of this year, 32 states and the District of Columbia have passed laws or implemented new policies related to evidence-based reading instruction. It鈥檚 teachers who must implement them, sometimes after years of using very different instructional approaches. It鈥檚 an inordinately challenging task.
Education Week interviewed longtime reading teachers caught in the evolving landscape of literacy instruction to ask what it was like for them to move from a familiar strategy for teaching reading to 鈥渟cience of reading"-based approaches to instruction. They described being handed a mashup of literacy curriculums over the years ranging from methods heavy on balanced literacy heavy to a 鈥渉odgepodge鈥� of strategies that left them feeling insecure about their instructional ability and uncomfortable about students who left their classrooms without a strong reading foundation.
They also revealed how, after years of teaching reading, they鈥檝e recently embraced a more systematic and explicit method of instruction that finally has them feeling confident in their teaching roles.
Feeling ill-prepared to teach reading
JoLynn Aldinger has taught kindergarten through 2nd grade for 20 years. But for much of that time, she hasn鈥檛 felt adequately prepared to teach reading.
鈥淚 took a phonics course. That was about it. I didn鈥檛 really have any preparation beyond that for teaching reading,鈥� said Aldinger, currently a 1st grade teacher at Idaho鈥檚 Meridian school district, who recalled hesitating to accept the first job offered to her. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 want to teach 1st grade because I didn鈥檛 know how to teach reading, and it felt like a lot of pressure.鈥�
She ended up taking the job. 鈥淚 used whatever basal reader they had,鈥� Aldinger said. 鈥淚 just basically followed that. It was what I now know was balanced literacy. I kept chugging along using the district-provided curriculum, trying to find my way.鈥�
Aldinger said she assumed that when she returned to school to earn her master鈥檚 degree in elementary reading and writing, she鈥檇 develop the mastery she felt was missing. It didn鈥檛 happen. She recalls learning a spelling program while earning her degree that, she said, had many 鈥渉oles鈥� in it.
鈥淚 never learned about the syllable types,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 didn鈥檛 get an understanding of all the phonics rules.鈥�
Betty Jane Mitchell, a teacher at South Hancock Elementary in Hawesville, Ky., had a similar experience. Despite earning a teaching certificate and a master鈥檚 degree in education, she took only one course in reading instruction.
Mitchell describes the literacy instruction she was expected to teach at the beginning of her decade-long career as leaning toward the balanced approach, with students encouraged to use context to figure out words and read for meaning.
鈥淚t was a hodgepodge of methods, Mitchell said. 鈥淚 did my best for three or four years, then stopped teaching reading for a few years because I didn鈥檛 feel confident.鈥�
Delays in reading and in recognizing it
Aldinger explains why the shortcomings of a less systematic literacy program aren鈥檛 always immediately evident.
鈥淚n the primary grades, when you鈥檙e learning to read, there are a lot of pictures and supports hanging up in the classroom to refresh their memory,鈥� she explained. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e reading a book about the life cycle of a sunflower, you can look at the picture if you don鈥檛 know how to sound it out.鈥�
But when students get into 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades, she explained, there are no more pictures. That鈥檚 when reading struggles become apparent. 鈥淚f students don鈥檛 have the skills to decode words, there鈥檚 so much guessing, so much confusion,鈥� Aldinger said.
For these reasons, it鈥檚 common for teachers not to recognize reading delays until students get beyond 2nd or 3rd grade鈥攗nless a child presents with a severe lag in learning to read, Aldinger explained.
Aldinger saw it happen in her class. 鈥淭wo years ago, I had a student in my classroom who I couldn鈥檛 teach how to read no matter what I did,鈥� she said. 鈥淣othing in my bag of tricks was working.鈥�
At the time, her school district was using a balanced literacy program. By chance, she saw a post on Facebook by an acquaintance who had a daughter with dyslexia. Aldinger joined a 鈥淪cience of 69传媒鈥� Facebook group to which the woman belonged, where she learned about a literacy-training program offered through the (IMSE), centered on Orton-Gillingham鈥攁n evidence-based, multisensory approach that relies on a systematic and explicit method to teach sounds and the relationship of sounds to letters, eventually progressing through complex word and text structures.
Finding success
Aldinger applied for, and received, a grant that would pay for the training.
鈥淚t blew my mind,鈥� she said. 鈥淟ast year, I used IMSE training with fidelity in my classroom. It was a wild success. I had kids spelling words they would never have used before.鈥�
Her experience was similar to that of Briana Pulliam, a literacy coach/interventionist for Hancock County public schools in Kentucky who spent more than two decades teaching in primary grades. Despite feeling as though she had a fairly strong background in phonics, she said her school didn鈥檛 place a heavy emphasis on it. Then a few years ago, the district hired a new superintendent, whose son had dyslexia. After paying for private tutoring for his own child, he made a commitment to families in his new school community that they wouldn鈥檛 be forced to do the same for their children with reading struggles.
The new superintendent used federal pandemic-relief funds to pay for district educators like Pulliam, then a classroom teacher, to receive instruction in IMSE and LETRS (short for Language Essentials for Teachers of 69传媒 and Spelling). It instructs teachers in what literacy skills need to be taught, why, and how to plan to teach them (though it does not supply a curriculum). And it delves into the research base behind these recommendations.
鈥淚 literally cried [after the training]. I knew I had let some kids slip through my fingers,鈥� Pulliam said. 鈥淣ow I realized the holes, and what they were.鈥�
Pulliam has since become a literacy coach/interventionist for the district. She supports district teachers newly trained in IMSE, like Mitchell, who reports finally feeling confident about her students鈥� ability to learn how to read.
Not all educators are convinced that literacy instruction needs to change, as evidenced by comments such as one in response to an Education Week article this month on the dismantling of the Teachers College 69传媒 and Writing Project, the instructional consultancy founded by literacy icon Lucy Calkins, whose workshop-style curriculum prioritized student choice and independent learning:
鈥淐an we stop jumping on all these new bandwagons and just stay with the tried and true?,鈥� the commenter wrote. 鈥淭here鈥檚 nothing wrong with the good ole curriculum that I was raised on 30-plus years ago. Why do we continuously have to find new stuff?鈥�
Then there are educators like Aldinger who, after teaching reading for years, has embraced this more systematic method of teaching reading but recognizes that some of her teaching colleagues may find the transition challenging. Said Aldinger: 鈥淚 just hope that teachers who are still hanging on to their old way of teaching reading someday get a student like I had, who makes them question why they鈥檙e not learning and helps them have an aha moment.鈥�
