Meet Dr. Julia B. Lindsey

Julia B. Lindsey, Ph.D., is a foundational literacy expert and consultant. She is the author of the newly released book, Reading Above the Fray: Research-based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills. Julia is also the creator of a framework for research-tested, content-rich decodable texts used by districts, curriculum developers, and tens of thousands of teachers across the globe. Her work focuses on ensuring all children have access to the highest quality instruction to become empowered young readers.

From training teachers and district leaders to developing and evaluating curriculum to engaging in research, Julia partners with countless others to help close the research-practice gap in reading. Julia holds a BS in Psychology from Davidson College, a MAT from Relay Graduate School of Education, and a Ph.D. in Educational Studies, specializing in Literacy, Language, and Culture, from the University of Michigan. She is a proud former elementary school teacher.

AUTHOR • SCHOLAR • EDUCATOR • INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER • AUTHOR • SCHOLAR • EDUCATOR • INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER • AUTHOR • SCHOLAR • EDUCATOR • INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER • AUTHOR • SCHOLAR • EDUCATOR • INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER • AUTHOR • SCHOLAR • EDUCATOR • INTERNATIONAL SPEAKER • AUTHOR •

Event Alert! Open to all, February 6!⁠
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Curious to learn more about what research tells us about teaching reading? This event is designed for just that! We'll talk reading research K5 by busting myths and, more importantly, talking about what to do about it in your classrooms. We'll touch on content in both my books and up-to-date research findings. This event is sponsored by the Alberta Professional Learning Consortium (Canada). Scan the QR code to find out mre.

This is my mission: To support high-impact, evidence-based instruction so that every teacher can ensure every child becomes a better reader every day.⁠
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All students can become successful, empowered young readers. It's our job to get them there. ⁠

Event Alert! Free and open to all. ⁠
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On February 3rd, I'll be launching a book study with The Reading League NC about my new book Small Groups, Big Results.⁠
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If you've ever thought, ⁠
"What am I going to do in small groups tomorrow?" ⁠
"Small group instruction is a waste of time." ⁠
"Planning for small groups is running my weekend."⁠
"The only way to do small group instruction is [fill in the blank]."⁠
⁠
...then this book is for you! The book offers a research-backed framework for thinking differently about the purpose of small group instruction along with clear, ready-to-use ideas to support everything from alphabet learning to comprehension. ⁠
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Join us here: bit.ly/NC_BIGRESULTS⁠
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Want more resources for supporting your small groups? Let me know what you need in the comments below.

2025… What a year. A tough year, but one I am so proud of.

📚Published my second book, Small Groups, Big Results. Grab it for a new way to think about small groups K5 with tons of ready-to-use evidence-based routines.
❤️Did the thing I love best over and over: helped educators actually change the trajectory of children’s reading lives! Excited to share some data with you showing that, yes, evidence-based instruction DOES WORK and IS POSSIBLE.
👯‍♀️Had the honor of working with and engaging with so many incredible educators across the globe.

Cheers to 2025! I can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store!

What are you proud of about this year?

Let’s bust some myths! Small group instruction doesn’t need to be like this — it’s time for some new ways of thinking about and creating small groups that have a new impact. Tell me: what myths should we bust next?

New study alert: Writing on Lined vs Blank Paper

Now, I know this might seem like such a TINY thing to study in research, but it highlights something so important: small choices in our instruction and materials can make a big difference.

The study: The use of lined paper in child education: impact of line presence on handwriting quality (Guilbert & Fernandez, 2025)

What they asked: Does writing on lined versus blank paper change the legibility and fluency of French 3rd graders’ writing?

The findings: Yes! Lined paper led to more legible (but not more fluent) handwriting. This was true even for children with fine motor challenges.

The caveats: This does contrast with at least one previous finding — the authors think it is because these children were more familiar with writing on lined paper. So, make sure you use lined paper all the time for this impact!

Today’s the day!! Small Groups, Big Results is available now. I can’t wait for you to get this in your hands! Order anywhere books are sold or follow the link in my bio to Amazon.

I’m so honored to release my second book in @scholasticteachers Science of Reading in Practice line! My first book, Reading Above the Fray, started this line and now my second book, Small Groups, Big Results comes in at #9. I love this line for a lot of reasons: each book is backed up by clear research, all of the authors are incredible people with so much expertise to offer, and the books are designed for busy teachers. I have read every single one of these books and know each offers a solution that you might need:

Research + reading foundations —> Reading Above the Fray
Real classroom strategies across reading K3 —> 7 Mighty Moves
A clear framework for improving language in the early years —> Strive for Five
Morphology instruction K5 —> Big Words
A new way to think about comprehension —> Know Better, Do Better Comprehension
Answers to your burning questions across literacy —> The Literacy 50
More about orthographic mapping & a routine for K5 —> Making Words Stick
Getting inside the head of an expert teacher to plan your literacy block —> Rock Your Literacy Block
A new way to think about small groups + over 20 clear routines to boast reading —> Small Groups, Big Results

Wow this one is cool!! Want an approach to writing that is proven in multiple studies? Check out this new study, Long-term effects of an SRSD writing intervention for elementary school children by Salas and colleagues, that finds the impact of an SRSD approach can last for 18 months after instruction 🤯🤯

And guess what? This study is open access so you can read it yourself! Grab the link in my bio!

Eek! Getting my hands on Small Groups, Big Results today!! It will be in your hands soon! 🤩🤩🤩

Let’s talk about small group instruction — and first, let’s focus on what makes small group instruction purposeful and effective.
-Targeting specific needs based on data.
-Differentiating instruction to meet these needs.
-Focusing on student practice and clear, immediate teacher feedback.
-Deeply connecting the experience to whole class, grade-level content.

I’m curious: what is your number one question about small group instruction?

More coming soon in Small Groups, Big Results: Evidence-based Routines to Get Every Child Reading!

Beyond honored by the endorsements of Small Groups, Big Results. From teacher leaders, like Sarah Paul and Celestina Lee, to researchers like Dr. Laura Tortorelli and Dr. Devin Kearns. I’m thrilled to share a book that is backed by an extraordinary amount of research AND is practical!

T-7 days until the “official” Nov 10 launch date! It may take a bit longer to get into your hands but should ship by Nov 18 if you preorder.📚📚📚

What’s the evidence? Handwriting instruction!

Yep, it matters! Early handwriting predicts spelling and writing quality outcomes (Pritchard et al., 2020; Santangelo & Graham,
2016). It is key for developing strong writers!

The best handwriting instruction is explicit and includes practice with (Berninger et al., 2006 Mathwin et al., 2022; López-Escribano et al., 2022):
-lined paper
-letter formation arrows
-practice tracing, copying, and from memory
-immediate, corrective feedback

Want a targeted routine for supporting handwriting needs? Check out my new book Small Groups, Big Results.

Want research-based tips to practice letter formation? Try this tiny addition to letter formation practice!

After tracing & copying, make sure children practice from memory & then check to see if they formed the letter correctly.

Follow these steps during letter formation practice:
1. Explicitly teach letter strokes/formation.
2. Trace with letter formation arrows.
3. Trace with dotted lines.
4. Copy while looking at letter.
5. Cover & write from memory —> then check formation.

Be sure to give clear feedback to children about how close they got!

Berninger et al., 2006; López-Escribano et al., 2022; Mathwin et al., 2022

Another free resource I love for making phonics instruction even better!

These selections are from a phoneme-grapheme (sound letter) correspondence chart created by The Literacy Bug. This resource is a goldmine for quickly checking how common different correspondences are and increasing your teacher knowledge!

Please note, the author is an American living in Australia, so some information may be different depending on dialect.

***I haven’t had the chance to look at all the resources on this website, so I cannot speak to/express an option about every resource.

Teaching kindergarten? How should you start the year out with the alphabet? Check out these three research-based tips!

Put your alphabet questions below ⬇️⬇️⬇️

Big Announcement 📣📢

My second book is coming this fall!

Small Groups, Big Results is all about understanding the purpose of small group instruction — and how to do it! It is full of evidence-based routines to get all kids reading!

I can’t wait to share more about this book. If you want to grab it now, you can! It is available for presale via the link in my bio or anywhere books are sold.

Back to school season is in full swing!! Here are two data tips for being ready for your readers this year:

Make a plan to COLLECT clear data on children’s decoding. This often means going beyond your screener (but not always!) and starting with these data points:
🍎K = alphabet and phonemic awareness
🍎1st = decoding skills
🍎2nd = decoding skills through multisyllabic words
🍎3+ = oral reading fluency

Make a plan to RESPOND to your data. Data is just a bunch of random numbers in a spreadsheet unless we do something with it. Start with these questions:
❓Do 50% or more of students need something different than what your phonics scope and sequence says? —> Start they year where they are and carefully accelerate back to grade level.
❓What skills and needs do individual students have? —> Consider how targeted small group instruction can bolster your impact on readers.

Don’t forget: You’ve got this!!! You’re going to change so many readers lives this year!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Spelling vs Encoding: What’s the difference?

Just like “decoding a word” is a more precise, specific idea compared to “read a word,” encoding is a precise, specific way to talk about representing sounds with spellings. It isn’t just spelling out a word in any way, it is spelling the individual phonemes in a word with individual spellings (these spellings can be more than 1 letter). In the early stages of learning to read and spell, children may encode a word accurately (kat - the sounds are all represented by reasonable spellings) without spelling it conventionally (cat).

Why does this matter? Well, if there’s a magic bullet for helping children become great readers AND spellers, it is getting them more encoding practice! Encoding practice supports phonemic awareness, spelling, and reading. Some examples of encoding practice are word building, word chains, word ladders, and other activities that ensure children are focuses on representing sounds with spellings.

Let me know if you want more ideas for encoding practice!

PS- there is no need to tell kids about this distinction! This is about how we teach & how we want to ask kids to practice, not about teaching “encoding” as a vocab word ♥️

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

How to teach high frequency words (the basics!) 🍎

(In response to questions on my recent reel about a new HFW list. Check it out!)

Teach kids to decode these words using the same great explicit instruction in sound-spelling correspondences that you would for any other word.

Research suggests the best way to support high frequency word learning is the same as other words: through teaching children to decode these words using sound-spelling knowledge, even irregular parts! For example, teaching children that in the word “of”, o spells /u/ and f spells /v/. Then, ensure children have ample practice ENCODING (by saying sounds and writing the spelling) and get FEEDBACK (you said /long o/ /v/. In this word, o spells /u/. Try it again).

Tell me if you have any more HFW questions below ⬇️

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #orthographicmapping #phonicsfun #phonologicalawareness #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Another free resource I love! Phinder is a tool developed by Dr. Devin Kearns that helps make word lists for specific sound-spelling correspondences.

As described by Dr. Kearns on OnLit.org: Phinder is a free website designed to help educators generate lists of words with a target grapheme-phoneme correspondence or orthographic pattern. Select one or more grapheme-phoneme correspondences, and Phinder will generate a list of words with those patterns organized by frequency. These words can be used for word reading and spelling instruction and practice.

Find it at DevinKearns.com/Phinder

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What’s the Evidence? High Frequency Word Lists

First things first, why do we even care about high frequency words?
📝Simply put, because they are frequent! It’s estimated that about 100-300 words account for 50-70% of the words a child reads in a text. High frequency word knowledge is super important for reading fluency.
🚫But, beware! Children should learn these words like any other word— through decoding — but with an awareness to the rare or irregular parts (when needed). Note that many high frequency words are completely regular, decodable words. One method you might use is the heart word method.

The problem with HFW lists
😨The Dolch list is based on data that is 100 years old. The Fry list is based on data over 50 years old. Both used older, less empirical methods for selecting words.

The new list: CPB Word List (Green et al., 2024)
✅Based on today’s children’s books
✅Uses the most up-to-date methods for determining word frequency
It is both familiar and updated, but will give you the most accurate list of the highest frequency words in children’s literature.

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

🆓🆓🆓🆓🆓
You’re loving the free resources! So here’s some more: where to find quality decodable texts for free!!!

1. Beyond Decodables. This is my website that has decodable texts designed to build knowledge with the Boston Public Schools Focus curriculum.
2. UFLI. Not only does UFLI have free texts, they also have their amazing scope and sequence across many, many publishers — so you can quickly see what texts will work for a specific skill. @ufliteracy
3. ReadWorks. ReadWorks has sets of knowledge-building decodables connected to their Article-a-Day. Three cheers for informational texts!! @readworks
4. Reading Universe. A newer site that is filled with resources, including decodables. Plus, they are putting out new content all the time. @ruteaching
5. TextProject. Created by researcher Freddy Hiebert, this site has tons of texts, including knowledge-building decodables! @textprojectresources

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Today we said goodbye to our perfect dog, Kiwi. She was a pure soul, simply happy to be alive. Though too short, we’re so grateful for the time we had.

And yes, Kiwi was a great co-author of dissertations and books (despite not being able to read or write herself — forgive the poor joke).

Let’s talk about back-to-school materials for teaching the alphabet in Kindergarten!

My top three must-have materials are:
1. Embedded mnemonic alphabet cards (the picture is shaped/inside the letter). Research shows this type of alphabet card supports learning (e.g., Shmidman & Ehri, 2010).
2. Magnetic letters for each student. During phonics, children can select the correct letter for a sound, show the letter when you ask based on name or sound, and more! This is the best and most versatile tool. Big tip: (if you have the budget) Don’t get the magnetic tiles like I have, get the magnetic letters. They are much, much easier for little fingers to grab.
3. Sound/letter boxes to connect alphabet to phonemic awareness. For this one, you can draw your own or use painter’s tape to make boxes on children’s white boards. Bam! Instant ability to practice everything from hearing initial sounds and matching sounds to letters in a word all the way up to spelling and decoding words.

Disclaimer: You don’t need these specific brands! But, I wanted to show you some options and I know how frustrating it is to wonder, “Well, where do I find that?”

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

I’m sharing my favorite free resources for literacy! Let me know if you want more!

These are researcher-created, free, and so easy to use. Plus, they fill in resource gaps that many folks may have.

Check out the Iowa Reading Research Center @iowareadingresearchcenter for all kinds of cool resources.

You’ll find:
-Handwriting supports
-Readers Theater scripts
-Graphic organizers
-Writing prompts
-Tools for supporting MTSS
…and much more!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Looking for amazing, researcher-created resources for literacy? Want them to be FREE?

Check out the Florida Center for Reading Research Student Center Activities. This is a MAJOR time saver for getting back to school AND using the evidence! @thefcrr

With everything from alphabet practice to working on text structure, these print-and-go resources are game changers!

fcrr.org/student-center-activities

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Back to school time saving hack!

Skip the running records 👏👏👏

Three key things you need to know about the research (or lack of research) on running records:

1. There is currently not empirical evidence that shows leveled text assessments predict reading achievement like the benchmark “ladder” suggests.

2. Children do not show consistent reading abilities in texts of the same level, likely because the content, features, and words of texts are not introduced systematically (Burns et al., 2015; Cunningham et al., 2001; Mesmer et al., 2012; Pitcher & Fang, 2007). This means that when we give a running record to find a child’s reading level, we might not actually be finding out their actual reading abilities.

3. Research suggests that Running Records are not sensitive or specific enough to operate as screeners (Klingbeil et al., 2017).

So what does this mean? Right now, it means that research does not suggest that running records are likely to be your best bet for understanding the needs and strengths of your readers. Instead, I suggest measuring specific skills using assessments that are designed to give information about specific skills (like measuring phonics knowledge), using oral reading fluency measures in first grade and above, and using reliable, valid screener assessments to broadly assess for at-risk status.

I also think listening to student reading in decodable texts and other grade level texts can give you a lot of information about how children are decoding words + aspects of fluency; however, it’s important to know that is one type of information for you that won’t give you all the information you need to effectively differentiated instruction.

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

***Captions not working on this reel!***

Want to save time prepping your classroom for back to school? Here’s my top hack.

Skip the sound wall.

Why? Well…
🎯As of today, no research has been done on sound walls so we cannot be certain that they will create an impact.
🎯Walls don’t teach, teachers teach! The decor in your classroom matters a lot less than the teaching that you do.

PSA: If you have a sound wall up and love it or you use a sound wall a lot in your instruction, YOU DO YOU. I’m not saying you need to take it down. But, if you don’t have a sound wall yet, don’t ever use it in during instruction, or don’t even know what a sound wall is, invest your time in your teaching instead!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What do kindergartners need to be able able to decode for the best chance of success? CVC words!

By the end of kindergarten, children should be automatic in their knowledge of letter-sounds. Ideally, most kids will hit this goal by the middle of K (Sunde et al., 2020). They should also be able to blend and segmenting 3 or 4 sound words. But, knowing the alphabet and how to orally blend won’t set kindergarteners up for success.

Instead, we want to focus on ensuring all students can decode regular consonant-vowel-consonant words by the end of the year. Some research shows that, by the start of first grade, decoding skills are far more predictive of success than alphabet knowledge or phonemic awareness (Oh et al., 2010). But don’t stop with decoding! Kindergartners need to be spelling regular CVC words too — with legible handwriting.

Note: These goals are suggestions based on available evidence and are not necessarily predictive of future success or the right goals for all scenarios.

#readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Summer is coming! But reading doesn't stop when the school year ends!

A few quick, research-based tips on summer reading. Want more specifics or printables to send home? Let me know in the comments!

#readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What do first graders need to be able to decode to succeed in second grade? Long vowels!!

This time, instead of looking at an evaluation of second grade texts, I’m sharing research about what the average first grade is able to decode in texts, their average fluency, and the types of words in texts they are expected to read. Together, this research suggests:

The average end of year first grade can read words with 6+ letters, including long vowels and consonant blends. They can also read simple multisyllabic words (think inflected endings like -ing and compound words). They can read grade level texts with about 49-60 word correct per minute (WCPM, how we often think of ORF).

So what is a grade level text? One researcher, Dr. Freddy Hiebert, suggested in 2014 that the right end-of-year text for a first grader is Hey Fly Guy. This is just one idea, but gives a sense for what we might expect.

If you only have a few weeks left of first grade, I suggest you focus on those long vowels! Get children a lot of practice reading words with long vowels in texts to get them ready for more reading in second grade.

Note: These goals are suggestions based on available evidence and are not necessarily predictive of future success or the right goals for all scenarios.

#readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What do second graders need to be able to decode to succeed in third grade? Three syllable words!!

In an evaluation of the words in common curriculum texts for third grade (Kearns & Hiebert, 2021), children need to read words like:
-About 1/2 of words are two-syllable
-Many, many 3+ syllable words (at least 19% of the words they encounter)
-Most multisyllabic words are not compounds

If you only have a few weeks left of second grade, think about how you can ensure your students are practicing reading big words! Your best bet is to lean more into morphology instruction (prefixes, suffixes, roots/bases, inflected endings). Most 3+ syllable words are also multimorphemic, which means we can break them down into smaller parts that hold meaning in order to decode AND understand them.

Note: These goals are suggestions based on available evidence and are not necessarily predictive of future success or the right goals for all scenarios.

#readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What's better? A transformative day for school leaders to make smart literacy changes that stick or a hike to see the beauty of Oregon while talking about word building, fluency, and letters with literacy coaches? How about both???
*****
Special thanks to Clackamas ESD and my North Clackamas friends for creating space to talk about literacy and showing me Oregon!

Welcome to Fascinating Facts Friday! (Well, fascinating to a reading research nerd 🤓).

This week, I'm sharing 3 statistics from research that have truly stopped me in my tracks. These statistics will really make you think -- about how we are focusing on differentiation (by necessity!), about how much time we talk versus supporting student practice, and about what children need to do in K2 phonics to truly be ready to read in 3rd grade texts.

What do these stats make you think? What fact is the most 😮 to you?

Happy Fascinating Facts Friday!

#readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What’s the Evidence: A Perfect Literacy Block?

The simple fact of the matter is that it is incredibly challenging to study dosage and timing of instruction. It’s unlikely there will ever be a “perfect literacy block” for every single situation.

So, we need to look at research on specific areas to think creatively about this question. Note these are all ESTIMATES, not perfect answers.
1. Phonics can be effectively taught in about 20-30 minutes a day K2. See the recent study I discussed about UFLI (Lane et al., 2025).
2. You do not need a phonemic awareness block. Recent evidence suggests phonemic awareness is best integrated into phonics and we only need about 3 minutes a day of oral-only practice. Put that into the phonics block!
3. Writing and read can be taught together. This is especially powerful with a knowledge-building content focus. A recent study found that a 50-60 minute block combining reading and writing instruction in first grade lead to better performance in measures of spelling, vocabulary, and writing. An article about this for teachers by the researchers (Kim & Zagata, 2024) is currently open access if you want to read about how to interweave reading & writing!
4. You likely need some time to support specific needs and give children more targeted practice with your feedback. Why? Well, one crazy statistic for you: by third grade, the range of abilities in a classroom can span 9.2 grade levels (Firmender et al., 2013). It is best if this time is flexible based on the needs you’re supporting, but you may need about 30 minutes.

This ends up with about 2 hours of literacy across a day. Plus, don’t forget to support handwriting in the lower grades and engage in lots of talking/reading/writing in content areas like science and social studies!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

New Study Alert: New Evidence for Connected Phonation

“Fostering Reading Success: Investigating Connected Phonation as a Key Strategy for Word Reading Fluency” (Hassler et al., 2025, in Reading & Writing Quarterly).

Main Takeaways: This case study looked at the effectiveness of connected phonation (blending sounds smoothly without pauses) versus segmented phonation (breaking sounds apart). This study adds to findings by Gonzalez-Frey & Ehri (2020). Both studies indicate connected phonation is more effective for decoding.

What did they do? This is a case study with 3 first graders. Tutoring sessions were 10-15 minutes, 3x a week for 6 weeks. Students learned both ways (connected & segmented) using Elkonin boxes with colored chips.

What did they find? All three students improved their decoding with both connected and segmented phonation; however, connected phonation may facilitate more efficient decoding (student word reading improved even more with connected phonation).

Caveat: Case studies can give us insight into practices, but do not allow us to make the same casual and generalizable claims that larger, controlled experiments allow. This is a promising practice & case study, but not necessarily a confirmation of impact.

What to try: This study, along with the Gonzalez-Frey & Ehri study, suggest it might be helpful to:
* Use connected phonation when teaching consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) words that start with a continuous sound (e.g., “mmmmaaannn” for “man” instead of “m-a-n”).
* Start with or return to connected phonation with continuous initial sounds for students who are struggling to decode efficiently.

Have you tried connected phonation? I love it, espeically in kindergarten!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

New national data / research alert: The 2024 NAEP results are out. Graphic and results from nationsreportcard.gov (go check it out to learn more for yourself about specific states).

Sadly, these results are not what we may want to see. We are still seeing many, many children struggle to demonstrate reading proficiently on this type of assessment. Even though this is just 1 measure, it is a very critical "dipstick" in understanding how students are performing across the country.

So what does this mean? This sort of data can be incredibly demoralizing. I encourage you to instead think of it as continuing the call to action AND expanding the call. Using evidence-based reading instruction must be a non-negotiable for schools.

One area to consider in this expanded call to action is RIGOR. I often notice that upper grades ELA classrooms lack rigor in asking children to think, compose, read, and analyze. NAEP also found this on their reading survey: The percentage of fourth-graders who said they had to write several sentences or paragraphs in response to reading more than five times a year decreased to 37% (from 39% in 2022 and 42% in 2019).

One immediate action to take that is aligned with research (and will improve both reading & writing outcomes): Get your students to start writing in response to reading! Do it tomorrow!!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Why isn’t SOR working for me; Challenge #2: Phonics alone isn’t enough.

Sometimes, folks may misinterpret that the science or reading is only about phonics: it’s about ALL of reading! These are schedules based on actual schools that have been really dedicated to phonics (which is good! But we need other instruction, too). I hope you look at them and have one very clear, very important question:

What happened to read aloud and other knowledge-building experiences???

If the whole day is dedicated to phonics and foundational skills, hopefully students are mastering these skills! But, guess what? That isn’t all children need to become proficient readers. And we can’t wait until children are proficient decoders to THEN start building knowledge, language, or other key aspects of comprehension.

Knowledge-building, across ELA and content areas, needs to be a priority all along if we want children to be the best readers and writers possible! When children have more knowledge, they are more likely to comprehend texts AND even develop stronger word recognition skills. Plus, great writers must also have lots of knowledge.

I know it is very tough to fit everything into a day, but it is possible. Here are some places to learn more about building children’s knowledge and connecting it to the day: The Knowledge Matters Campaign
Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension by David & Meredith Liven
Feeding Two Birds with One Hand: Instructional Simultaneity in Early Literacy Education in the Handbook on the Science of Early Literacy (Duke, Lindsey, & Wise, 2023)

Drop your schedule in the chat! I want to see how you are fitting everything in.

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Welcome to my new series: Why isn’t the science of reading working for me?

Challenge #1: Phonics Practice
This is the NUMBER ONE challenge I see in phonics classrooms:

You’ve learned so much about phonics, decoding, and spelling. You have new resources, a new curriculum, and feels so ready to change readers! But, for some reason, your phonics lessons just aren’t impacting your readers.

The first thing you need to ask yourself is: Are my lessons mostly about STUDENT PRACTICE or mostly about teacher talk? Children learn how to read & spell by… reading and spelling! Indeed, one very cool study found that the most impactful phonics lessons have tons and tons of practice, at least 1.8 opportunities for student practice per minute!

I challenge you to ask yourself after your lesson tomorrow: How many practice opportunities did each child get to use phonics? If the answer is less than 10, it is probably not enough.

A few quick ways to increase practice:
1. Explicit instruction should take less than 3 minutes — time yourself and cut down on the fluff.
2. Get in the habit of saying, “What sound?” and asking for kids to say the sounds whenever you show a letter, even in your modeling.
3. Lean into encoding practice like word building where kids do TONS of practice in a short period of time.

Do you have a “Why isn’t the science of reading working for me?” question? Drop it below!!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

New Study Alert! And, oh my, this is a GREAT one!

“Effect of an Instructional Program in Foundational Reading Skills on Early Literacy Skills of Students in Kindergarten and First Grade” (Lane, Contesse, Gage, & Burns, 2025)

This study investigated the impact of using UFLI Foundations on K & 1 foundational skills. As I’m sure you know, UFLI has been a very popular phonics program in the past few years and is one of the few that I suggest — it is low-cost, researcher-created, and now has been research-tested!

Big takeaway: Using UFLI Foundations with fidelity for phonics is likely to support strong growth in foundational skills.

Who: One district with 21 elementary schools with about 3,000 K & 1 students. Over 80% of students were eligible for free or reduced price lunch and about 15% were eligible for special education services.

Main finding: Compared to the prior year, the effect size on kindergarten and first grade students’ DIBELS scores was between +1.20-2.04! This is a very large effect for a program. 
Extra finding: Teachers who had greater fidelity to the program had students with stronger post-test scores.

Caveat: This is not a gold-standard experiment. Student scores were compared to student data from the 2020-2021 school year (which we all know was a weird year with ongoing COVID disruptions!). So, though this is incredibly exciting, ideally there will be even more rigorous studies to come.

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Follow Up Questions about Repeated Reading and Fluency.

My last reel (What’s the evidence: Repeated reading / fluency) got a lot of follow up questions. Here are some questions you might be wondering about if you plan to use repeated reading in your classroom.

What else are you wondering? Put your question below!

#fluency #phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

What’s the evidence: Repeated Reading?

About five decades of research support the use of repeated reading practice to improve reading fluency and reading comprehension; some studies even show it outperforms multicomponent interventions and other types of evidenced-aligned interventions in fluency. Repeated reading research includes typically developing readers, at-risk readers, readers with specific difficulties, and multilingual learners (Stevens et al. 2016; Begeny et al., 2018; Hudson et al., 2020).

Want to make sure repeated reading is actually supporting fluency? Here are a few key tips:
1. Model fluent reading first.
2. Give clear, specific feedback on performance between readings.
3. Select the right passage: aim for one that children can read well on the first read (about 93-97% accuracy per Burns, 2024), that is fairly short (100-250 words or so), and that is interesting to students.

If you want to take it a step further, select passages that are within a text or set of passages that are all conceptually related to support background knowledge, too.

Want more about fluency? Let me know in the comments below!

#fluency #phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

I have to brag on some incredible teachers today!! In the last week, I’ve heard from teachers at 8+ schools that I work with (and seen some in action!) where kindergarteners have gone from knowing ZERO letter sounds to reading and spelling CVC words and even words with consonant blends in just 2 months!

This is the power of leaning into research. Teachers in these schools are using different curricula and have children with different starting points, but in all cases we focused on:
-key research findings about phonemic awareness, alphabet, & decoding.
-powerful, high impact routines and practices that ANY teacher can use.
-consistency!

And guess what? It doesn’t take all day. Most teachers are spending about 30 min on phonics — being efficient and effective!

PS try not to make fun of my bad dancing 😂
#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

This one’s for the administrators and other decision makers!

Let’s ensure teachers get what they deserve, not just more mandates without resources or support.

Teaching reading well is not easy and requires incredible knowledge, excellent teaching moves and practices, and evidence-based materials/curriculum.

Upcoming research really drives this point home: A pre-print review (Westall & Cunningham) of the impact of state reading laws found these laws only impacted reading outcomes when they were comprehensive. In this case, comprehensive meant addressing SIXTEEN facets of need, such as:
🎯teacher training
🎯literacy coaches
🎯universal screening tools
🎯high-quality instructional materials
🎯summer reading supports

If you want to improve reading in your school, district, region, or state, you need a comprehensive plan that gives teachers -- and readers -- all that they need to succeed.

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

Okay, okay don’t get all worked up! I understand the importance of saying phonemes accurately (you know that I am a self proclaimed phonics nerd and have a PhD in literacy!). But, hear me out: Obsessing about if y spells the sound yee or yah just isn’t going to be the ONE THING that changes your reading outcomes.

Why? Well, first of all, in both cases there is still a schwa that could confuse some kids. Second, y is one of the least frequent letters in English AND in words that do have the /y/ sound, it is spelled with a y less than half of the time. Third, ideally, we are helping children identify phonemes in their oral speech in order to use them to read, so this difference would only matter if it is impacting a students’ attempts to read.

Fourth, and most importantly, there is no research studying the impact of saying yah or yee. And there is not one clear position by experts in linguistics, dyslexia, or other areas. But there is TONS of research about other decisions we make in phonics that DO impact outcomes.

Maybe you’re at a point where you love debating the minutia and really perfecting your teaching. But, if you aren’t, I encourage you to put your energy on changes that we know will impact readers like explicit, systematic phonics with tons of high-impact practice!

#phonics #phonicsactivities #readingintervention #readingteacher #scienceofreading #iteach1st #iteach2nd #teachersofinstagram #resourcesforteachers #dyslexia #reading #structuredliteracy #structuredliteracyinstruction #structuredliteracyworks #structuredliteracytips #scienceofreadingteachers #scienceofreadinginstruction #teachingreading

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