The first month of the new year recently closed and many of us have refocused on our resolutions, here is a gentle push to keep that literacy goal going strong (or to create one, as the case may be). You might be thinking, “But I teach [fill in a non-literary-focused course here]—why do I need to teach reading?” While literacy—defined as reading and writing—has primarily been the purview of English, reading, and elementary teachers, the current decline in literacy rates and the growing needs of our students makes a focus on literacy an all-hands-on-deck necessity.
According to the National Literacy Institute, 21% of the adults in the United States are illiterate, and that costs us approximately 2.2 trillion dollars each year. Of the remaining 79% of adults in 2024, 54% read below a sixth grade reading level; 20% of them were below a fifth grade reading level. This is the trend we’ve seen for decades, and there’s a lot to say about what’s caused these numbers, but as educators, we need to focus on a solution: a robust literacy practice in all subjects at all grade levels.
This is easier said than done, but the Science of Reading (SoR) can help us address this challenge—and since 40 states have implemented laws and policies requiring an evidence-based reading curriculum as of December 2024, everyone needs to pay attention.
“Not another educational initiative that will fall out of favor before it can truly be implemented with fidelity…” I hear you, but the Science of Reading is not a flash in the pan. SoR is not an intervention, curriculum, or program; it’s decades-worth of research on how the brain learns to read and process reading and writing skills. We have used this research in literacy for a long time, but the Science of Reading brings these insights to the rest of the educational masses.
So—what is the Science of Reading, and how can we use it to benefit our students? SoR has five equally important pillars of reading instruction that build on each other. Working our way backwards, let’s look at these pillars and how we can reach them at the secondary level.
#5: Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is our bread and butter in the secondary classroom, but students often struggle with it. It’s assumed that students know how to read to comprehend, but if a reader struggles with any of the previous pillars, comprehension will not occur. This is why every teacher must understand the foundations of the Science of Reading to help students reach their full reading potential. Yes, students may struggle with that chemistry article about stoichiometry, but is it because of the material, or the act of reading as a whole? The best way to help with reading comprehension with any text is to preview the reading. There are so many strategies for this, but here are the basic steps:
- Read the title and ask questions about the text.
- Skim the text for subheadings, bold words, structure, and length.
- Highlight important/confusing vocabulary.
- Question the text and return to the questions after reading.
Teaching your students to do this with every reading (handouts, textbooks, novels, etc.) will connect them to the text and give them an area of focus. Lastly, encourage students to read the text multiple times. Getting them to read a text more than once on their own is like pulling teeth, but if you make this a common practice in your classroom, they will learn the necessity and value of rereading.
#4: Vocabulary
Vocabulary is required to understand reading. Reviewing important terms and tricky language in a reading is a great preview strategy you can use with any reading material in any subject. Let’s say you teach math and your students are learning about correlations. The term “correlations” will undoubtedly come up in the reading, but even if the reading defines and explains it, it’s still an important concept for students to master. Spend time previewing the lesson and highlight the word “correlations.” Ask students if they know what it means, or if they can guess its meaning. Define the word specifically for math and discuss the variation of the word’s meaning when not used in a content-specific way. Give examples of the word and nonexamples. Now, when students read about correlations, they have a better understanding of the term and can understand the reading to the level of comprehension.
#3: Fluency
Why is fluency important? Essentially, having strong fluency skills makes reading easier, but fluency can be tricky to assess in the secondary classroom. Students at this point either read to themselves, or volunteers read aloud while the students we need to hear from the most remain silent. Creating a class norm where everyone reads aloud in class each weak gives you several opportunities to sneak in some fluency checks. When you check in one-on-one with a student, have them read what they’re working on aloud to you for one minute. For tech-savvy classrooms, have a homework assignment that requires students to record themselves reading a passage aloud and submit it for you to assess. The more students read aloud, the easier it will become—but reading aloud isn’t enough.
Fluency is a combination of word accuracy, reading rate, and prosody. Here’s an easy way to gauge a student’s progress:
- Ask your student to read aloud for at least a minute.
- During that time, mark the words the student misreads, skips, or substitutes.
- Find their word accuracy by dividing the number of errors by the total number of words there are in the reading section. Errors / Total Words = Accuracy
- Identify their reading rate by subtracting the errors from the total words. Total Words – Errors = Words Correct Per Minute (WCPM)
- Prosody is the quality of the overall reading. Did the student pause with punctuation, add the inflection with a question, emphasize the correct words?
All of these practices develop student fluency, but one of the best ways to help students is to demonstrate for them. So when you read, put your best fluency forward!
#2: Phonics & #1: Phonemic Awareness
It’s unlikely that the average secondary teacher will need to get in the weeds of phonics and phonemic awareness, but there are practices we can put in place to support our students’ understanding of how words are structured, especially in specialized areas. Roots, prefixes, and suffixes are a great place to focus. For example, before reading that article about humpback whales, pause to review the word “echolocation” with students. Break the word to its different parts: echo-loc-ation. Ec- means sound, and echo means repeated sound; loc- means place; and –tion turns words into nouns. So, we have a noun that has something to do with repeated sound and place. This analysis helps students see that as they learn how parts of language work with one another, they can take known meanings and apply them to other words.
One exciting benefit of the Science of Reading at the secondary level is how it helps our English learners and struggling readers. If all teachers are equipped with the basics of SoR, then we can meet the needs of our students on their level. Additionally, if we continue SoR practices from K through 12, they’ll become the norm for students. We could support all students in our classrooms and continue to practice and strengthen our foundational skills.
Think of it this way: Anthony Edwards, a fantastic shooting guard, doesn’t just show up to the court and automatically score three-pointers. He trains and drills to keep his game in tip-top shape. Why would we not do this for our students? Why would we not want our students to be the reading equivalent of Ant-Man? The Science of Reading lays the foundation and gives us the tools we need to strengthen our students. We all have a part to play in our reading battle—are you game?