Oklahoma’s Strong Readers Act will go into effect at the start of the 2025-26 school year. Rooted in the science of reading, the new law mandates literacy instruction emphasizing phonics, vocabulary development, and comprehension. It also bans the use of “three-cueing”—a whole language approach to reading that encourages students to guess words by using context or pictures. In this article, reading scholars Sonia Cabell and C.J. Espittia describe what the science of reading is and how it can inform early literacy instruction in Oklahoma.
Reading experts have long expressed concern with the low levels of reading ability among American children, with some calling it a national crisis. Alarmingly, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) has shown considerable post-pandemic reading declines that are likely to have far-reaching social and economic ramifications.
To respond to this problem, state policy on early literacy has not been static, and in recent years, all but a few states have enacted new laws governing how reading is taught. Many of these legislative changes have been inspired by the “Science of Reading” movement. Reading scholars and advocates have promoted instruction that adheres to early literacy research, which is grounded in variety of disciplines (e.g., cognitive psychology, linguistics, education, neuroscience) and breaks with some practices, such as “three-cueing,” that have been popular in teacher preparation programs.
What is the Science of Reading?
Although the recent policy consensus around the “science of reading” marks a significant development, the term itself is somewhat ambiguous. As reading researchers, we define the science of reading as a body of knowledge about how people learn to read and how to best teach reading. This body of research has been accumulating for over half a century, encompassing thousands of studies. Although research continues to advance our understanding of reading, the following are well-established findings that characterize high quality instruction in early grades:
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Reading instruction should be explicit and systematic.
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Early readers should learn to recognize individual sounds in spoken words (phonemic awareness) and understand how letters and letter combinations represent those sounds (phonics). Phonics instruction should include spelling.
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Readers should learn to recognize words with automaticity and read with increasing fluency while reading connected text.
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Readers should develop language comprehension, which includes vocabulary, syntax, inferential language, and background knowledge. Interactive read-alouds that feature strategic classroom conversations and explicit vocabulary instruction can build language comprehension.
The Simple View of Reading is a framework for understanding the core components of reading and how they develop over time. In this framework (R = D X LC), reading comprehension is the product of automatic word recognition (decoding) and the ability to understand written language (language comprehension). Both are necessary for skilled reading comprehension, and deficiency in either area inhibits reading ability.
How Does the Science of Reading Inform Instruction?
For many decades, there have been intense debates among scholars and practitioners—often referred to as the reading wars—over how to teach reading. Yet, we know how reading develops, and we have a strong consensus among researchers on how the science informs instruction.
Decoding: Development and Instruction
Evidence suggests that direct instruction in decoding is key. Decoding is the process of recognizing letter patterns, matching them to sounds, and blending them to pronounce words. The roots of decoding can be traced to preschool when young children’s early development lays a foundation on which they can build. Early foundations of decoding typically begin when children are in the pre-alphabetic and/or partial alphabetic phases of word reading. In the pre-alphabetic phase, children have limited understanding that letters in written words map onto sounds in spoken language. They may instead be relying on visual cues. For example, it may appear that a child is reading the word “stop” on a stop sign because they have learned the red octagon means stop, but when presented “stop” in plain text, they can no longer recognize it. When children move to the partial-alphabetic phase, they grasp the alphabetic principle by merging their understanding of the sound structure of language (e.g., phonemic awareness) with their understanding about print (e.g., letters). They begin to understand that written language maps onto spoken language systematically, though their knowledge is not yet complete. Children may see both “red” and “rock” as the same word because they may be considering only the first letter of each word.
When most children transition to kindergarten and first grade, they tend to move into the full alphabetic phase. In this phase, children understand the alphabetic code more fully. They begin mapping letters (graphemes) to sounds (phonemes) in simple words, such as mat or dog. At first, children slowly sound out each letter, but with practice, soon they can read these words automatically. When sight word reading is accurate and automatic, children move into the consolidated alphabetic phase where they can chunk groups of letters into larger units (e.g., blends, digraphs, vowel teams, word families) for more efficient reading.
An evidence-based practice to teach decoding is explicit and systematic phonics instruction. Phonics instruction teaches relationships between letters and sounds and how this relationship is used to recognize words. Explicit means that phonic skills are taught directly through modeling and clear explanations instead of waiting for them to occur implicitly over time. Systematic means a planned sequence and scope of phonics instruction is used that progresses incrementally from simple to more complex skills. Meta-analyses conducted over the past 25 years have found that children who receive phonics instruction make significantly greater gains in reading compared to children who do not receive phonics instruction. Explicit and systematic phonics programs help children develop phonemic awareness of the sound segments in speech and how they link to letters (e.g., understanding that bag, bin, and bat begin with the sound /b/ which is the letter b). They also teach students how to decode words (e.g., sounding out /s/, /u/, /n/ and blending to pronounce the word sun). In addition, analyzing word parts is an important practice. Students need to understand morphology or the meaning parts of language (e.g., adding “ed” to “jump” changes its meaning from present to past tense). They also need to recognize letter patterns and how sound-letter relationships occur in both predictable and unpredictable ways.
Phonics instruction should also include spelling. When students practice spelling a word, they draw on their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, letter patterns, and word parts. Knowing the spelling of a word provides insight into how well a student knows that word. The more accurate students become in spelling a word, the easier it is for them to access the word while reading. High quality phonics instruction leads to successful orthographic mapping, which then allows for efficient word recognition.
Language Comprehension: Development and Instruction
Before children learn to decode words, they start to develop language comprehension, which is essential for eventual reading comprehension. The foundations of language comprehension begin very early in life through language exposure and a multitude of contingent, back-and-forth social interactions with family members and caregivers. Young children are hardwired to learn verbal language, so why do we need to teach it in school? The language typically learned through everyday conversations at home is informal in nature, allowing children to communicate with others, but not fully equipping them to understand what they read.
Formal language is needed to understand written language. Formal language is the academic language of books and is characterized by advanced vocabulary and complex syntactical structures. This language needs to be taught. Language comprehension includes sub-components of oral language (e.g., vocabulary, syntax, abstract/inferential language) and background knowledge (e.g., knowledge of the natural and social world). Vocabulary is developed both explicitly (i.e., pausing to define words) and implicitly (i.e., exposure to words). Syntax typically develops through exposure to complex sentence structures. Abstract and inferential language develops through back-and-forth conversations that include more cognitively challenging talk beyond the “here and now.” Typically, these types of conversations are fueled by inferential questions (i.e., Why do you think the character acted that way?). Content knowledge of science and social studies topics are also important to develop. Each of these language comprehension sub-components take time to build and are predictors of later reading comprehension. Moreover, research suggests that integrating oral language and content knowledge instruction (i.e., content-rich literacy instruction) has a greater impact on reading outcomes in K-5 than less integrated traditional approaches.
The interactive read-aloud is an evidence-based instructional practice designed to boost all areas of language comprehension simultaneously. In an interactive read-aloud, the teacher reads aloud a text and engages children in conversation before, during, and after the reading. Much research demonstrates the value of interactive read-alouds for language comprehension. There are three major considerations in the use of interactive read-alouds: 1) how to select texts, 2) how to provide vocabulary instruction, and 3) how to engage students in conversations.
Children’s learning from interactive read-alouds can be optimized by using conceptually coherent text sets, which are sets that each contain approximately four books designed to incrementally build children’s content knowledge on science or social studies topics. These text sets can vary in genre (i.e., narrative, information, dual-purpose) and generally contain more complex language than what children can read on their own, often by a few grade levels. Text sets can be sequenced to build knowledge over time, and several content-rich English Language Arts curricula feature interactive read-alouds with conceptually coherent text sets as a primary vehicle of instruction in language comprehension. For example, students might learn about the five senses in kindergarten before moving to the human body in first grade.
By virtue of learning from text sets on a particular topic, related words and concepts are repeated across texts, simultaneously broadening and deepening children’s vocabularies. This approach helps children learn words implicitly through the focus on specific topics of learning that are revisited over time in different ways. In addition, explicit defining and teaching of word meanings and discussing the relationships among words helps children’s vocabularies grow.
These extratextual conversations address not only vocabulary, but also syntax, inferential language, and content knowledge. Children’s active participation in these conversations plays a key role. Research has repeatedly shown the value of the conversations around interactive read-alouds. Focusing on teaching content area topics can also enrich conversations and elevate teachers’ use of advanced language models.
To plan for strategic conversations, the Strive-for-Five framework is a useful tool. One way to use this tool is to ask children a guiding question before reading that they will think about during the read aloud. This question is meant to be open-ended (i.e., requiring more than a one-word response) and it can encourage abstract language use. After reading, the teacher returns to the guiding question and engages students in conversations that last at least five turns (i.e., T-C-T-C-T). In a second grade unit about the human body, after a whole-class read-aloud, a conversation could look like this:
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Teacher: We just learned about the nervous system. What are other systems in our body?
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Child: A system could be like… what’s it called… the things in your stomach, the little brown things.
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Teacher: Intestines. What system includes the intestines? Is it the circulatory system or the digestive system.
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Child: Digestive system!
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Teacher: Yes, the digestive system includes the gastrointestinal tract with the esophagus, stomach, and intestines.
In this conversation, the teacher starts with an open-ended question that requires the children to expand their thinking to other body systems. In Turn 3, she gives a vocabulary word, and then uses a downward scaffold by providing a choice on the name of that system. Finally, she expands on what the child says by providing more information about the digestive system. The teacher might choose to ask the guiding question three times to three different students to engage each one in conversation. While the strategic conversational approach is beneficial, it is not standard practice in many schools.
Conclusion
Reading opens the door for all other academic learning, and those who can read well are equipped to take advantage of learning opportunities as they progress in schooling and in life. The science of reading is a significant body of research on the development and instruction of reading. Evidence-based instructional practices for both decoding and language comprehension are critical in the early grades, making their greatest contribution to reading comprehension at different time points. Earlier in development, children expend considerable cognitive effort learning to decode words. Once decoding becomes more automatic, children increasingly rely on their language comprehension to understand what they are reading. Efficient early reading development is crucial, as skills beget skills over time.
Key instructional practices in early grades include:
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Providing systematic and explicit phonics instruction
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Leading interactive read-alouds with conceptually coherent text sets
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Engaging students in back-and-forth conversations on content-rich topics
Author Bio
Sonia Cabell is the R. Keith and Patricia Sigmon Endowed Professor of reading education at Florida State University. C.J. Espittia is a doctoral student in reading education and language arts at Florida State University.
