From string cheese and spandex to cell phones and satellites, science has given us a lot, including more than 100 years of research into what reading is, how it came to be, and how we can best teach it. Archeologists have uncovered artifacts that tell the story of ingenious humans developing reading over the course of 6,000 years, working their way from Sumerian tokens to Latin letters. Neurobiologists have trained intricate imaging devices on the brain itself, observing how specific processing regions energize, interact, and connect during the act of reading. In the pursuit of explaining dyslexia, neurolinguists and computer scientists have written sophisticated computer code that mimics the neural circuitry of the reading brain. And cognitive psychologists have conducted clever experiments that illuminate the mental processes that support reading, including decoding, predicting, and attending to tasks.
Thanks to all this science, it’s a great time to be a reading teacher. Science has put us in an excellent position to teach reading to all students. The word “all” is important here because science tells us that, to become readers, students must learn certain skills and information. And while for some, mastering the fundamentals is relatively easy, for many, it’s not.Students who struggle the most require specific types of instruction from teachers, possibly for significant periods of time.
A critique of this type of instruction that is direct, explicit, repeated, and systematic might be that it is uninteresting and inauthentic. Yet I know teachers who regularly present lessons that are explicit yet appealing, systematic yet authentic, full of repetition yet still interesting and engaging. These teachers use activities that work for all students and are especially helpful to those who struggle the most. Let’s consider three classroom practices—phonology, sound-letter associations, and language comprehension—that give students who struggle the essential skills they need to become readers.
Authentic, Engaging Practices for Struggling Readers
Teaching has always been and continues to be a science and an art. Thus, the most effective teachers are those who can skillfully meld the two: providing practices that are grounded in science and brought to life in artful ways that are varied and engaging. To narrow the broad topic of teaching reading, we’ll focus on activities that teach phonology and sound-letter associations (beneficial to students who have or may have dyslexia) and language comprehension (helpful for students who struggle to understand text).
It’s a great time to be a reading teacher—and science has put us in an excellent position to teach reading to all students.
1. Phonology
To learn to read within an alphabetic system such as English, children must be able to identify the discrete sounds that make up a word (phonemes) (Ozernov-Palchik et al., 2017). This sound awareness—specifically phonemic awareness—is only a means to an end; the ultimate goal is to learn sound-letter associations that are then used to develop reading and spelling skills (Seidenberg, 2024).
Multisensory activities are one way to teach the sound discrimination skills that all soon-to-be-readers need. They’re engaging because they feel good in the body, and they’re especially helpful to struggling learners (such as those who may have dyslexia) because they can provide the extra repetitions those learners need and help to build reading circuitry via alternate brain pathways (i.e., touch, movement, and emotion) (Okray et al., 2023). The following multisensory activity can help students develop phonemic awareness through movement and touch:
- Say words slowly to stretch out the sounds. First, say a word like “flash” or “slim” out loud. Then say the word slowly, stretching out each sound so students can hear the individual phonemes. Add hand movements, stretching the word as if it were a rubber band or Slinky. Finally, blend the phonemes back together, saying the word quickly and letting the “rubber band” snap back. Have students do the activity with you. After you practice words with many continuants, move to words that have “stop” sounds, such as “tip,” “bad,” and “stick.”
- Tap out and then zap out the phonemes of a word. For each sound, tap a finger against your thumb. For a word like “cat,” tap pinky to thumb, ring finger to thumb, and middle finger to thumb. Finally, bring all three fingers to your thumb, blending the three sounds back into one word. Have students do the activity with you. For zapping, form your hand into a fist. Say the word, such as “dog,” and pump your fist down. Then thrust your hand forward and throw out a finger for each sound: pointer finger for /d/, middle finger for /o/, and ring finger for /g/. If the word has four phonemes, such as frog, use the pinky to zap out the fourth sound. When all the sounds are out and all the fingers are extended, say the whole word and you pull your fingers back into a fist (blending the phonemes back into a word).
- Combine all three into one. Say a word, stretch it out slowly, say it fast (blend it), tap out the phonemes and blend them back together into the word, and finally zap out the phonemes and blend them back together.
See It in Action
In this video demonstration, Mark Weakland uses the words “shake” and “slime” to illustrate how the Stretch It, Tap It, Zap It multisensory activities can be combined into one quick but powerful routine that teaches phonemic awareness.
2. Sound-Letter Associations
In an alphabetic reading system, symbols (letters or graphemes) represent distinct language sounds (phonemes). Because we can look at a string of letters (or letter patterns) and read it as a word, we don’t need to memorize the look of thousands of whole words.
As students become fluent readers, they increasingly read via the automatic recognition of words. But when students are first learning, they may need to break a word apart and decode it. Because encoding and decoding are two sides of the same coin, the opposite is also true: When students can’t automatically “find” a word’s spelling in their “brain dictionary,” they can sound it out in their head (or speak it out loud) and then write down letters that represent the word’s sounds (Ehri, 2000).
While some students will need only a handful of repetitions to make one sound-letter association, others will require dozens. Thus, it is beneficial to know a variety of ways to repeatedly teach these associations.
- Use a combination of activities that directly and explicitly teach each letter’s name, look (formation), and associated sound. Once the target letter is taught (e.g., the letter T/t), reinforce the teaching with a routine that includes sorting uppercase and lowercase letters, finding the target letter within words, tracing the letter, and writing the letter (and saying its sound). When it comes to tracing the letter, consider a multisensory activity such as using a pointer finger to trace over a sandpaper letter. Before tracing, say the name of the letter. Then as you trace, make the sound of the letter.
- Teach using a sound wall. Systematically and directly teach and then post sound-letter cards. Pay special attention to the vowel sounds and their spellings. Each sound wall card presents a phoneme (e.g., the long A sound) and its spellings (e.g., A, AI, AY, and EIGH). Many sound wall cards also present a picture of a mouth producing the phoneme, which helps students to correctly produce the sound and feel it in their bodies (Bottari, 2000).
- Use a word mapping template (see fig. 1, Word Mapping) that guides a student through this sequence: Hear the word, say the word, tap out the sounds of the word (and blend it back together). Next, use a spelling grid to write in the letter or letters that represent each sound (one box is one sound). Swipe your finger under the grid and read the word. Next, write the word on a line (without the boxes), and finally read the word one last time.
- Write, write, write! My mother, a masterful 1st grade teacher, spoke these words daily to students in her classroom as she taught them writing and spelling via Writer’s Workshop, an instructional approach in which students spend most of their time writing about subjects that are important to them. Writer’s Workshop-style instruction engages children by letting them use their language, draw on their background knowledge, and choose their writing topics. It also easily incorporates the direct, explicit, and systematic instruction on phonology, spelling, phonics, letter formation, and grammar that many struggling readers, writers, and spellers need.
Science points the way, but it is the dedicated actions of teachers that move struggling students to the point of fluent reading.
3. Language Comprehension
To become fluent readers, students need more than automatic word recognition—they need strong language comprehension. Reading means understanding written text, not just recognizing it.
Language comprehension is an umbrella term that covers many subcomponents, such as background knowledge, vocabulary, and thinking (metacognition) strategies. Why might students lack these areas of knowledge? Perhaps some are multilanguage learners, with solid word comprehension within their native tongue but little understanding of English words. Maybe others have a biology-based condition, such as autism or an intellectual disability that impacts their ability to infer or to understand nuance and context. Still others might live in a
home in which busy parents don’t have the time and/or the resources to provide lots of books, regular conversation, or both. Here are some ways teachers can help these struggling learners:
- Directly and explicitly teach metacognition strategies. Three particularly effective strategies are (1) activating prior knowledge while reading (O’Reilly, Wang, & Sabatini, 2019); (2) asking and answering questions before, during, and after reading (Castells et al., 2021); and (3) summarizing an article, chapter, or book after reading (Marzano, 2010). Regarding the last two, teach these strategies directly and explicitly and provide plenty of teacher modeling. Then gradually release control to the students as you guide and monitor them in whole groupand small group settings.
- Build background knowledge. It’s a given that many students don’t have background knowledge. Thus, we have to provide routines, activities, and materials that build it. Classroom discussions and interactive read alouds that draw out more sophisticated vocabulary generally help the cause. But the best way to build background knowledge is to set up your classroom so students engage in a wide range of reading for extended amountsof time. While science has identified no specific magic number of minutes, it has clearly shown that the best way to build vocabulary and background knowledge is to read (Reppen, 2025)! So, check out the next bullet.
A trio of on-task 3rd graders reads a big book during independent practice time. Photo courtesy of Mark Weakland.
- Set up your classroom in support of this mantra: read, read, read! The most effective way to build knowledge of all types (background, topical, vocabulary) is not through YouTube and TikTok viewing but through reading. While whole group and small group instruction can give students time to digest some amount of connected text, the best classroom practice for encountering multitudes of words is supported independent reading. The word “supported” is key here because support helps to ensure that students remain engaged while reading. The following practices can lead to higher engagement during independent reading time:
- Explicitly teach expectations such as quiet reading, staying on task, and cooperation when buddy reading. Model and reinforce these positive reading behaviors.
- Build a kick-butt classroom library, with hundreds of books written on multiple levels, of multiple genres, full of characters and information that reflect the diversity of your students.
- Organize books in non-leveled book bins arranged by categories such as sports, adventure, space, mystery, animals, featured author, and so on. Include graphic novels and hi-lo readers that can appeal to reluctant readers.
- Provide special places to read: a comfy chair in a cozy corner, a reading hammock, a beanbag under a fake palm tree (let them wear sunglasses while there). Special places can be (but don’t have to be) an earned privilege for positive classroom behaviors.
- Provide an organizational structure that allows for choice. For example, from an “I Can . . .” list, students choose from independent reading possibilities such as: read with a buddy, reread my favorite book, practice poetry for the poetry slam, work on writing my own book.
Students manage their independent practice time by placing clips on reading activities of their choosing in an “I Can . . .” list set up in a 3rd grade class designed to boost low-achieving readers. Photo courtesy of Mark Weakland.
From Struggling Learners to Fluent Readers
As teacher, psychologist, and researcher Louisa Moats once said, “Teaching reading is rocket science” (2020). But this is in no way bad news. Just as science accurately guides rockets and their payloads to moons and planets millions of miles away, science can guide teachers as they craft lessons that effectively deliver skills to millions of students. Today, even students who struggle the most can reach the destination of fluent reading. Science points the way, but it is the dedicated actions of teachers that move struggling students to the point of fluent reading. Across the United States, many teachers understand reading instruction at a deep and nuanced level and are capable of giving instruction that combines the authentic and the systematic, the engaging and the explicit. This type of instruction gives all students the reading skills they need, even those who struggle the most. That’s the best news of all, and it’s the reason we can say, “It’s a great time to be a reading teacher.”
Reflect & Discuss
How do you currently balance the “science” and “art” of teaching reading in your own instruction?
How might your school or team make evidence-based literacy practices more enjoyable, engaging, and sustainable for both teachers and students?
