The Science of Reading
Our Promise to You
In everything we do, we have always, will always, aim to support readers while following the Science of Reading. We want teachers to teach EVERY COMPONENT, EVERYDAY! And to teach them WELL!
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The Science of Reading has been a topic of discussion for decades. It refutes the theory that reading is learned naturally, but rather is a learned process that includes teaching all of the components of reading which work together to facilitate comprehensive readers.
Studies have concluded that there are critical reading components and elements that must be explicitly taught.
The five critical components (phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension) have effective instructional techniques, practice opportunities, and much research regarding their importance.
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In 2000, the National Reading Panel (NRP) provided a report that included the five most critical elements of learning to read based on massive amounts of research conducted up to that time. These five components are: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension.
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Over time, the five critical components found by the NRP have been described in different ways. Scarborough (2001) has provided a reading rope visual (see below) that best represents all the areas included in the NRP report, as well as parsed out more description and detail on a few of those components.
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Simply put, teach EVERY COMPONENT, EVERY DAY!
Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Fluency, Vocabulary, and Comprehension are the five components that provide the road to skilled readers, so it is imperative that they are taught systematically and explicitly every day.
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Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/