Eighteen Years Later: I Finally Understand How to Teach Reading (It's Explicitly!)
I can remember being in college as an elementary education student thinking, “When do we teach phonics, letter sound relationships, and blending?” I was told that the students would pick all of that up as they learned to love reading. At that time I felt confident that the experts must have known what they were talking about… I was just a 20 year old college student whose only classroom experience up to that point had been as a student and some limited volunteer time.
When I was hired to teach 2nd grade I wondered the same thing again… when am I teaching students the skills that they need to decode words? I was again told, by the reading specialist, that they will pick that up while cozying up to a good book in our reading corner of the classroom. Again, I remember thinking that the reading specialist must know more than me. For some students the book nook was a great place to read and lose themselves in the books of their choice.
We spent time working with the students in “Reading Workshops,” teaching them how to make connections, inferences, and predictions, but never how to decode what they were reading. As a new and young teacher I kept teaching in a way that I was asked to teach by the district I was working in. As a district all teachers listened to their students read material that was at their “level.” It was a challenge to get a feeling if students truly comprehended what they were reading.
Fast forward 18 years. I am now working at The Compass School, a charter school in Rhode Island, learning about the science of reading under the Right to Read Act. I was offered the opportunity as a classroom Teaching Assistant to participate in weekend sessions with Heather Ballantine of Root Literacy Design to learn about the science of reading. During the first Saturday session it was recommended that we listen to the podcast, Sold a Story. I started the next day and something that really resonated with me was when teachers kept asking the same question that had plagued me years earlier… When do we teach the students HOW to read? When do they learn letter/sound correlation? Letter formation? I finally felt that I wasn’t the only one out there with these thoughts.
Through the Root Literacy Design sessions I learned how the brain learns to read and learned about orthographic mapping in the brain. I also learned that one third of students will learn to read on their own, but the other two thirds will require explicit instruction in reading. Many of those students will require multiple exposures to the instruction.
Becoming Part of the Solution: The Power of the Science of Reading in Action
Through work with my teaching team and coaching from Heather at Root Literacy Design, I became a Proficient Practitioner and began working with small RTI groups in my role as a Teaching Assistant (TA). Seeing the pride on our students’ faces was life altering. Knowing that I had a small part in that was humbling.
Many schools don’t offer Teaching Assistants the opportunity to participate in the training that teachers are able to take advantage of. I feel so blessed to have been given that opportunity at The Compass School. By utilizing a classroom TA, our school is able to help more students learn to read. I now feel like part of the solution instead of being part of the problem.
One of my greatest joys is knowing that the skills that I have acquired through my Root Literacy Design work are helping students learn to read and write. Helping students focus on isolating sounds in words so that they can attach the letters and learn spelling rules gives me such a feeling of accomplishment.
My only regret is that I was not able to give my students the same learning experience 18 years ago that I am equipped to give my students now.
