I never learned how to teach reading. When I went to college, at James Madison University, I knew I wanted to be a teacher. In order to get a teaching credential, you had to have a content major and an education minor. I majored in Spanish (the only subject I didn’t hate in high school!) and Middle Education. I graduated with a credential to teach 4th-8th grade all subjects as well as Spanish K-12. I didn’t feel prepared to teach 8th grade Algebra any more than I felt prepared to teach reading. When I moved to California that didn’t all translate and I ended up teaching middle school.

When I found myself teaching 8th graders who were reading at the 3rd grade level, I didn’t know what to do. At the time, our district was just rolling out a significant professional development plan that included support from consultants who taught us about “Balanced Literacy”. I read books by Fountas and Pinnell and Lucy Calkins. I even went to Calkins’ Teacher’s College Reading and Writing Project. I loved all of the deep professional learning I participated in. My partner teacher and I thrived in a coaching environment surrounded by literacy discussions. My students did make progress, as measured by a variety of assessments we were using at the time, but our school wasn’t closing the gaps fast enough for the number of kids who were struggling.

If you’ve followed anything in the “reading wars” over the last few decades, or the more recent uptick in The Science of Reading discussions, you know that Fountas and Pinnell and Calkins are often used as negative examples. In fact, they are spoken of as if they are villains. There are criticisms of the “research” that their programs are based on, and the huge money-making programs they created. While I loved what I learned back in the day, I have learned so much more now and I see things with fresh eyes.

Ironically, I recently reconnected with one of the best consultants I worked with (literally 20 years ago) when I was a teacher. Dr. Katherine Casey Spengler was a coach and a leader of the work we were doing in balanced literacy two decades ago. However, after her own personal experiences, she dove deep into dyslexia research, getting advanced degrees and certifications in reading that go in a different direction than where we were 20 years ago. After we reconnected, I invited Dr. Spengler to my current district to provide a professional learning day for our principals centered on the current research around “the science of reading”. Dr. Spengler is so knowledgeable and able to break down intense research into meaningful parts for school leaders. We had an incredible day of learning!

I was then able to attend a week long intensive training by IMSE, using the Orton-Gillinham (OG) approach to teaching reading. During this week I truly learned how to teach the foundational skills of reading, or how to help learners break the code. I felt so empowered after this training. I realized how little I knew about teaching reading to young learners or about the rules of English. We are so blessed that we were able to provide this level of training to many of our K-2nd grade teachers as well as our Special Educators, as we now have great momentum moving forward to better address student needs.

At the same time, I have slowly been making my way through a very dense book, Overcoming Dyslexia: The Essential Program for Reading Problems at Any Level by Sally E. Shaywitz, M.D. This book was recommended to me by a friend, whose child was diagnosed with dyslexia after she sought out testing outside of his school. My friend then paid a significant amount of money to enroll her child in a private reading program that uses the OG approaches to help close the gaps and help her child fully break the code.

After all of these experiences I realize how little most teachers know about dyslexia and about teaching the foundational skills of reading systematically and explicitly. The uprise in podcasts related to this topic tells us that parents are seeking more information to help their children and educators are seeking more information to help their students. I hope that our teaching credential programs catch up and work to better prepare future educators. My learning journey continues…

If you are an educator, where are you in your journey regarding the science of reading? What is your school or district doing to screen and progress monitor young students? What curricular resources, assessments and approaches are you using with students?

This post is part of a series called Explorations in Instructional Leadership. I plan to use this series to dive into some of the topics that are rising to the surface in my work, topics that I am researching for future study, and topics that impact student learning and pedagogy.

Introduction to Explorations in Instructional Leadership

The Science of Reading

Scope and Sequence