Testing like a Pro

Compared to the stresses of life under quarantine, test day jitters might feel trivial - but for many students, quizzes and exams are a perennial source of anxiety. Students, parents, and even teachers can become frustrated when performance on test day doesn’t seem to match up with a student’s potential. Test scores aren’t always the most reliable measure of mastery/growth in a subject, it’s true, but if testing is a persistent trouble spot, it’s important to incorporate that pattern as feedback on how students are preparing, and adjust appropriately. Below are a few of our tried and true tips for studying for an exam. 

1. Treat every assignment and reading as a part of your preparation.

The most important element of test preparation comes in the weeks (and sometimes months) before a test, as a student remains actively engaged with lectures and homework assignments, moving from knowing to understanding as they learn so that, when it comes time to study, they are already beginning from a place of confidence, rather than starting from scratch. The test is not a separate, stress-charged event in this model, but the natural culmination of weeks of learning. In concrete terms, this means that students should be taking clear notes and creating study materials as they learn the content, keeping up with readings and assignments, and independently reviewing at the end of every shorter unit.

2. Distribute practice by spreading out your studying.

Studies have shown that if you believe a test will require four hours of studying in the week of the exam, it is much more effective to split up this time into smaller chunks, spread out over multiple days, than to cram all four hours on the night before the exam. So…

3. Make a clear study plan.

It isn’t always easy for students to manage the many tasks that are thrust upon them—to use time wisely, set up a study plan well in advance of the test, with an explicit schedule for studying that splits up the content over multiple days and a specific plan for which study strategies to employ. 

4. Mix it up by using a variety of strategies.

Different types of content (and different types of tests) will require different strategies—and students should also consider what strategies work best for their specific learning strengths. The more that you can approach a subject from different angles—with flashcards written in your own words, illustrated histories, timelines, online video resources, practice problems, poetic adaptations, mnemonics and memory aides, etc—the more you’ll move from knowing to understanding. Your goal should be to absorb new information with context, thinking about it as a story, rather than memorizing in isolation or by rote. Use a timer to focus for specific periods, and switch between strategies. 

5. Find a buddy (or a student).

Study groups are a great way to stay motivated and trade notes with a peer, whose insight into the specifics of your test might go beyond what a generalized online resource can offer. Even better, studies have shown that teaching content is one of the most effective ways to retain it—with a classmate, take turns teaching one another concepts from your exam, or ask your parents if they need a refresher on selective permeability of the cell membrane (my guess is, they will).

6. Get a good night’s sleep, and stay healthy.

It is tempting to believe that staying up late to cram will help you conquer the test—but the truth is, giving your brain the rest it needs is more important. This is another reason why it’s important to distribute your studying across multiple days! Take care of yourself and your body as if you’re an athlete preparing for an event. That means you should take active breaks, drink water, and eat healthy snacks!

7. After the test, reflect!

Your job isn’t over when the test is done —take a well-deserved break, of course, but then take time to reflect on the study process and the test itself. Think about what worked, so that you can use it again next time. What areas can you identify for improvement next time? Taking a moment to register the feedback your test experience provides is how you’ll become a better student.

Building Confidence in Math

For some students, looking at numbers can feel like trying to read text in a foreign language. No matter how hard we try to drill that language, they just can’t seem to make meaning of what they see. But regardless of how challenging a student may find math, there is always a way to make the content more accessible, no matter what is holding them back. 

Because each subsequent grade in math builds off of prior concepts, any gaps in understanding will affect a student’s ability to make sense of more complex topics. So, for example, if a student does not understand the reciprocity of addition and subtraction, they will struggle even more when eventually faced with more complex algebraic equations. For this reason, it is crucial that we address our student’s challenges with math as early as possible. Otherwise, they run the risk of falling further and further behind.

The “traditional” math instruction of years ago, which consisted of mostly rote memorization of facts and formulas, just doesn’t cut it anymore; math mastery requires so much more! Children used to have to adapt to learn the way math content was being taught. Now, teachers are adapting their instruction to teach the way students learn. There are many opportunities to supplement and replicate this new approach to math at home, and it won’t require you to remember any formulas or re-teach strategies you learned in your childhood.

Here are some common early challenges and ways to address them at home:

• Fact fluency

  • All kids love games! Why not help your child build the crucial skill of knowing their addition/subtraction and multiplication/division facts through play? All you need is a deck of cards. Play “Go Fish” with Make 10 pairs, or play any number of other games that will build addition and subtraction fluency. 

  • A deck of cards works just as well for multiplication and division facts. Just multiply the cards chosen instead of adding. Have your child build an understanding of the inverse relationship between multiplication and division by having them work backwards from the product to get to the original number. (Example: student draws a 4 and a 6, they write the equation 4 x 6 = 24, followed by the inverse, 24 / 6 = 4.)

• Word problems

  • Have students make sense of word problems by drawing a picture of the information. This can help them understand and keep track of what is being asked.

  • Have students generate their own word problems. They can either solve them, or give them to a family member and then check their work.

• Precision (counting and calculating)

  • To build your child’s skills with one-to-one correspondence (counting accuracy), have them count household objects like buttons or coins, moving one at a time from one pile to another as they say each number out loud. As simple as it sounds, many math errors are a result of weak one-to-one correspondence, so it’s important to develop this skill.

  • Have your child estimate their answer before they solve using strategies like rounding. This will help them become more likely to catch errors as they work, or at least recognize more quickly when they’ve arrived at an incorrect answer.

• Developing an “I can’t do this” mentality

  • Many math struggles come from a student’s simple belief that they “just can’t”. This mentality can quickly spiral, and when students focus primarily (or exclusively) on whether they are right or wrong, it becomes impossible for them to grow their thinking. Help your child re-frame their perspective by encouraging them to talk through their process and not just focus on their answer. Have them explain a problem to you and how they solved it, explaining each step and what they were thinking. Even when they do make mistakes, finding those mistakes and fixing them not only prevents them from happening again, but might just boost their confidence when they understand where they went wrong!

With patience, persistence, and some creativity, we can help our children not only begin to understand puzzling mathematical concepts, but we can also begin to cultivate a love for (or at least an interest in) problem-solving and the often perplexing language of numbers.

Reading Strategically

As students grow older, the demands of classwork evolve; rather than simply summarizing plot or retaining historical dates, students are challenged to think critically, as they take their base of skills and knowledge and use these tools to forge original analysis. In parallel with this evolution in their education must come an evolution in the way they read, and in the way they annotate. With luck, students will have been building up simple annotation habits for some time by this point — but now, the purpose of annotation shifts, from a tactic for staying engaged with the reading, to an active commentary that records insight and evidence with a grander end goal in mind: the analytical essay.

When students read with the aim of collecting evidence to use in an essay, they do so under a variety of different circumstances. Some teachers might provide a framework or prompt before reading begins — others will wait until after the class has finished reading a text before distributing the essay assignment. In either case the goal of annotation is the same: to activate the mind as students read, and start them down the path of critical analysis. The key here is reading with a clear purpose. If the prompts are distributed ahead of time, students should come up with a key — by assigning each prompt a number, for example — and mark the text with the appropriate number whenever they find a quote that could be of use in responding to that prompt. For visually-oriented learners, pens or post-it notes in different colors for different themes can enhance the process. Even if they don’t have the list of possible prompts before they begin reading, students should use a site like LitCharts to preview the text, searching for important themes that they can annotate in a similar way, as these are likely to be helpful for the eventual essay. It’s best to focus on two or three themes at a time — and remember that one piece of evidence might be helpful for more than one theme, and should be marked with more than one number or color. 

If they’re writing a research paper, and using sources that they find independently, many students will find that the challenge is sifting through the text to find relevant evidence. Here, too, there is a shift in the approach to reading; rather than starting from the beginning and reading a stack of library books through to the end, students should start with a focused question and use strategic searches to isolate the evidence they need. This means using the table of contents, learning to navigate an index, focusing on headings, and searching intelligently through online databases. As students encounter the information they will need, they should be compiling quotes into a central notes document, making sure to include source information and page numbers as they read and record to smooth the process of creating a bibliography later on. Online tools such as easybib.com, citationmachine.net, and the reference materials at Purdue’s Online Writing Lab make creating citations easier than ever, but most students will need an introduction to the process — both in order to understand the required formatting and its intention, and to avoid unintentional plagiarism. 

The right kind of annotation will make the process of writing a critical essay or research paper ten times simpler, and much more effective at the same time. Not only can annotation provide the kind of record that students can easily transfer into a brainstorm and outline, it will activate their way of thinking about the text as they read, setting them up for success as writers.

Working with Your Child's Teacher

Close communication and trust between student, teacher, and parent are always important. As students return to school, they need to know that everyone in their educational life is on the same team. When there is a strong connection between home and school, it increases the likelihood that students will develop positive feelings about school, and prevents feelings like anxiety or depression. Students’ motivation, performance, and mental wellness improve. And it all starts with a close and positive relationship between the teacher and the parent.

KEEP EACH OTHER IN THE LOOP

It’s impossible for every parent to be kept in the loop about every single thing that happens throughout the day. Conversely, there’s no way to keep your child’s teacher updated on every single detail of what's going on at home. That would be exhausting for both of you! Still, it’s important that you are filling each other in on the big stuff. If you have created a chart at home to keep your child organized and on track, let her teacher know! Send a picture of the chart and briefly explain why you started it and how it’s helping.

Similarly, teachers should be telling parents about whatever is going on in school that specifically involves their child. For example, if a student in your class has just started an incentive system to help increase his or her motivation or improve behavior, their parents should definitely know about it. For younger students, it can be helpful to have some sort of daily report of how it went—nothing complicated, just a sticky note or slip of paper with check marks, tallies, or some other quick system for reporting to parents how their child did that day. 

BRINGING THE STUDENT INTO THE FOLD

While it’s important for parents and teachers to know what is going on in school and at home respectively, the main reason to establish these connections is for the student. When students see that there is close and consistent communication between their teacher and parent, it sends two messages. The first is that you both care enough to have formed a partnership in which your main goal is to help them succeed. Secondly, it adds an element of accountability. It reaffirms for students that they won’t get away with doing less than their best, or all of the caring adults in their life will work together to intervene.

In your pursuit of a collaborative partnership, don’t forget who it’s all about. As we’ve established, your shared goal is success for the student. Of course there will be topics and conversations that you don’t want them to be a part of, especially with younger students. But it’s important to include them in the communication as much as possible. For older students, this should be virtually all the time. It not only shows them that you care, but that you want them to be involved in the conversations about their education. It empowers them and helps them build independence by acknowledging that they can and should play a part in those important discussions and decisions.

Helping Your Child Discover a Passion

As children grow and mature, they slowly but surely discover those things that excite them and figure out the activities they do not enjoy. Little kids are generally up for anything, so they will participate in just about any activity their parents sign them up for. As they get older, however, children develop more specific tastes and interests, and learn more about who they are and what special skills or passions they might possess. With this in mind, it is important that students begin to explore a wide range of extracurricular activities at an early age, so they can discover the passions and interests that will enable them to thrive inside and outside of school.

There are many ways to encourage your child to get involved in extracurriculars; you might start by asking your student what he finds appealing or what she has always wanted to try. Because kids at this age don’t always know what appeals to them, you might ask a teacher or counselor if they have observed any special or specific aptitude your child might possess and then encourage him or her in that direction. The truth is, however, that at this age, your student might not yet show a passion or talent for any one activity as they simply have not yet been exposed to all the options. With that in mind, the more you can encourage them to try a wide spectrum of activities, the better. Below are many extracurricular options and the potential benefits they might provide your child:

Arts: the arts are a great way for your child to develop and express those parts of themselves that they may not be able to find in an academic setting. These might include, visual arts (painting, drawing, photography), drama (acting, singing, set design), writing/reading (newspaper, yearbook, poetry, book club), music (chorus, band, voice), dance and design. Involvement in the arts, even if they do not end up loving the activity, instills the values of self-confidence, communication, intrinsic motivation, creative problem solving, self-expression and improved cognition. Even if your student ultimately decides that the arts is not where their passion lies, by exploring an artistic extracurricular early on, he/she will still develop a deeper self-understanding.

Sports: taking part in a sports activity can provide a healthy outlet for young students who might feel constrained by academics. Most schools offer a wide variety of sports activities, whether intramural or clubs, competitive or not, and there is usually something for everyone. Encouraging your student to join a sports club can offer a nice counterbalance to the hours they spend sitting at a desk in school. Students at this age have a lot of physical energy, and there has been a great deal of research correlating participation in athletics with improved academic performance. Beyond the obvious physical benefits, taking part in a sports team teaches teamwork, perseverance, skill-building, commitment and time management and allows for important social bonding. 

Volunteering: when young students take part in an organization or extracurricular that focuses on giving back, your developing child will gain insight into the lasting social and health benefits of volunteer work, both on their community and themselves. Many schools offer volunteer programs within the school, (National Honor Society, peer tutoring, community gardening, library work, etc.) and in the community at large, (tutoring at under-privileged schools, parks and museum work, Big Brother, Big Sister, YMCA, etc.). Volunteer programs for middle schoolers have been shown to have the greatest positive impact on the social and mental health of students; he/she will gain a sense of agency, learn about teamwork, develop a passion for community building and allow the child to feel that they are giving back and accomplishing something, which can often translate to accomplishment in academics. 

Leadership: for those students who enjoy academic work but would like an outlet to display more agency and assertiveness, you might encourage them to join an academic extracurricular such as speech and debate or student council. Many schools have a Student Court, a Debate, Mock Trial/Mock Congress or Model United Nations club. This provides a great opportunity for kids to develop their public speaking, writing, and debate skills. Additionally, they will learn about diplomacy and problem solving, cooperation and leadership, while also developing self-confidence and grit. This provides long-lasting benefits to your child as they enter high school and transition into professional careers that will inevitably require strong writing and oratorical skills. 

Science/Math: some students, even in middle school, find certain academic subjects so exciting that they would like to explore them outside of the rigid school requirements. If your child has an interest in science, technology, engineering, and math, you might consider encouraging them to join an extracurricular program, such as STEM, that allows them to experiment, play and explore those elements they might not get to tackle in class. Taking part in an academic extracurricular allows students to get messy, explore real-world situations and take part in alternative learning methods. These clubs can also be beneficial for those students who might struggle with the structure and presentation of material in their math and science classes. Ideally, they can discover the potential love of learning through risk-taking, hands-on work and creative problem solving. This positive reinforcement and increased confidence can, in turn, improve academic work within the classroom. 

Extracurricular activity has long been linked to academic and mental health and there is no more important time for extracurricular exploration than in middle school. Students at this age are often vulnerable and unsure of themselves as they navigate a new social setting; joining a team, an organization or a club can give these young students the chance to be a part of something, and begin developing valuable life skills such as teamwork, cooperation, leadership, and problem-solving. If your middle schooler begins to explore options early on, and tries activities at which they are afraid they might fail, they will begin to conquer the fear of failure that plagues all students. Ultimately, the way middle school students spend their free time can have a huge impact on their academic work and hopefully plant the seed that will blossom into a full-blown passion as they focus their interests in high school!

The Hidden Benefits of Reading

Everyone knows that reading is important. Not only have societies valued literacy for centuries, in work and for pleasure, but it is the only mode of learning that is used in virtually every academic domain. Reading builds vocabulary and teaches people about any subject matter they could possibly want to learn. Most people know that increased reading is linked to improved grades, test scores, and even IQ. But there are nonacademic benefits to reading that many people don't know about. Here are some of the lesser known reasons why we should all pick up a book every day:

Decrease Stress, Increase Empathy

Now is the perfect time to incorporate reading into your family's daily routine if it isn't there already. Choose a time of the day most convenient and conducive to quiet, peaceful reading. You will reap the benefits no matter what time of day, but reading right before bed, especially in place of watching TV or scrolling on a smartphone, will be particularly beneficial and is more likely to lull you into a deeper, more restorative sleep. In addition to stress reduction, new perspectives found in both fiction and nonfiction books help strengthen the muscle in the brain responsible for empathy, so a reading routine will not only improve your child's brain but also their relationships. 

Improve Physical Health

Believe it or not, reading can also improve your physical health! While reading is primarily an exercise for the brain, other body systems benefit from it as well. Reading has been proven to lower blood pressure and heart rate and calm nerves. Think of it as a more intellectually engaging form of meditation! 

Alleviate Depression

Studies have also shown that reading can actually ease some of the symptoms of depression. While the blue light of TV and computer screens can worsen symptoms, print books can have the reverse effect. Even for those who don't suffer from clinical depression, the escape that books offer can help children and adults alike cope with trauma and adversity in a healthy way.

Improve Family Relationships

Finally, read together! No matter what this looks like for your family, try to build in a daily, weekly, or even monthly routine where everyone is sitting down together and reading. Whether it's the same book out loud, or different books independently, families who read together are stronger, happier, and healthier.

Why Do We Set Goals?

Setting Goals

Where would we be in a society without goals? Imagine if Martin Luther King Jr. hadn’t set the goal of civil and economic rights for African Americans in America? Or if John F. Kennedy hadn’t set the goal of putting a man on the moon? Presidents, athletes, artists, activists, students - all of us need a roadmap to set us on our course to achieve our desires and ambitions. Although not all of these ambitions will ultimately be met, and not all of our desires can possibly be sated, the very act of setting goals allows us to develop a sense of agency, commitment, and motivation, which eventually leads to success both in school and in life. 

For young students in particular, the stressors of school combined with the strains of a social life, can make self-development difficult. In fact, it takes many years to feel decisive in our actions and confident in our selves, but when we begin to identify and set goals for ourselves at an early age, we start to develop agency. When a young person develops agency, they are also developing maturity, persistence, and even creativity. Because goal-setting takes self-reflection, when we identify those personalized goals, we defacto identify our weaknesses, and can start on the path of self-improvement. The seemingly simple act of self-reflection can give a young person the empowerment that is often lacking in the other areas of their life. Empowerment can lead to more involvement in class discussions, a greater investment in risk-taking and creativity, and an increased perseverance in subjects such as language learning and math.

The dread of not accomplishing one’s goals convinces many people, adults and children alike, not to set them at all. However, the goal-setting process itself can positively correlate with commitment and thus, achievement. When we set action plans for ourselves, even if the steps are as simple as making our bed in the morning or adding three new words to our vocabulary every day, we are practicing self-regulation. When we commit to these self-imposed tasks, we are more likely to regulate our behavior to achieve our ultimate goals: to be neater or learn Spanish. Setting goals through a written, personalized action plan of small, yet achievable tasks, leads to a greater chance of commitment, which leads to an increased sense of competence and pride. This, in turn, encourages students to set more goals for themselves and eventually leads to a goal-oriented mindset. Ultimately, the metacognitive practice of self-regulation allows for students to internalize their goals and achievements over time and provides motivation in their learning and professional trajectories. 

It does not take a great deal of scientific data to convince one that motivation is a huge factor in achieving success. But motivation is hard to come by; when a student has convinced him or herself that she/he is not adept in a particular subject or at a particular skill, that feeling of self-deprecation can itself destroy motivation. Studies have shown, however, that when students set clear, written goals for themselves that are particularly concrete and attainable, they are more likely to develop the motivation that leads to greater success. Specificity is key; when a student has a meaningful engagement with the task or objective, and can identify how and when they are going to accomplish it, they are more likely to be motivated to do so. As motivation increases, performance also improves; specific goal-setting provides for students a structure for organization, prioritization and determination, three important ingredients for long-term success. 

Whether we acknowledge them or not, we all have goals. My goal for tomorrow may simply be to partake in more exercise, while my future goal may be to speak fluent Mandarin. The first step in achieving either of those goals is to write them down and to then create a plan of action to achieve them. While both are possible, we must learn to set goals effectively, within a realistic and temporal scope. Eventually, I may be able to achieve both my micro and macro goal, but that begins with self-reflection, commitment and motivation. As Einstein once said, “The value of achievement lies in the achieving.”

Supporting the College Transition

For some students, the transition from high school to what’s next couldn’t be smoother. But for others, this time can feel impossible to navigate. The most important thing parents can do is find a balance between being supportive and giving their students the space they need to develop their independence. No matter where they’re headed next, these tips will help you help them make sure they’re on the right track.

Offer Help, But Give Space

Your child is likely craving independence. But he or she is also not ready for it in a lot of ways. He will still need you to guide and support him during this time. So be there! Be available for talks, advice, or to help with navigating some of the new adult skills your child (who is no longer a child) will soon need. If he’d rather navigate something on his own, let him (as long as it’s safe). It might just be a valuable learning experience.

Study Habits

Whether or not your child will be entering college, it's important that she develops productive work habits and study habits. This will come in handy (or be crucial) in whatever it is she is doing next. Knowing effective time management and organizational strategies will help her in all areas of her life, not just academics.

Self-Advocacy

 Every adult should know how to self-advocate. Ideally, students start learning self-advocacy early. While still in school, they should begin learning how to recognize their learning style and needs, and how to communicate them to others in their life, including professors, bosses, and even friends. The first step in truly mastering self-advocacy is to build confidence. Students who feel sure of themselves and believe that they are worth whatever they are advocating for are a lot more likely to speak up when they need something.

Teach or Reinforce Metacognition

Another important skill children need as they transition to young adulthood is metacognition, or the ability to think about one's thinking. All this really means is that students should have a good sense of themselves as learners and as individuals in order for them to best operate. For example, if your child needs to take breaks periodically to stay focused, it's helpful for them to be aware of that so they can proactively plan their work time with those breaks in mind.

Be Available to Help With Logistics

There are a lot of adult skills that just don’t come naturally to kids. We take some of these skills for granted because we’ve known how to do them for so long. Things like paying bills, filling a car with gas, or even mailing a letter at the post office (those still exist?!) can feel daunting to a teen! Be available to help with these things, but allow for independence when it’s there and when it’s comfortable.

Provide Guidance

We have our own curricula designed to support this transition, which we’ve named Smarter College - get in touch to learn more.

Summer Learning

As we head into summer, most students (and teachers) feel at least some measure of relief, more than ready for a bit of rest and relaxation. But parents and educators alike also sometimes worry about the potential for “learning loss” given months away from the classroom; it’s a phrase that, along with “coronavirus slide,” has recently been popping up in news articles and opinion pieces with some frequency over the past 2-3 years. In this week’s post, we look into the research, and suggest a way to reframe the issue around potential for growth.

The general anxiety around COVID’s prolonged effect on student learning is justified, given the unprecedented nature of the pandemic’s disruption. Massive rollouts of tutoring support or increased classroom time have attempted to make up for missed material. These initiatives often use research around summer learning loss to make predictions about how much material students may be missing as a result of school closures.

Academic studies in the late 1980s and 1990s, including an oft-cited meta-analysis by Harris Cooper, established the concept of summer learning loss as a major driver of student achievement gaps. According to these studies, the average student might lose as much as a month of progress in math and reading levels, which, compounded over several years of schooling, could accumulate to a significant disadvantage. Using these measures, one research group suggested that the “coronavirus slide” in combination with normal summer learning loss could result in a year’s worth of catch-up in math and science subjects. 

More recent work, though, suggests that the reality is more complex; while many students do indeed lose ground academically over the summer, others stay at a similar level, and some are even able to continue to progress. These results support a conclusion that might seem intuitive: the classroom is not the only place where students learn, and for certain students, it’s not even the most important. Rather, a supportive home environment, paired with project-based learning and targeted summer activities -- some with an academic bent, along with others that are more creative and/or social -- can ensure that students continue along their unique educational trajectories. 

There is hope to be had in the realization that learning comes in many forms, and targeted doses of academic practice over the summer can have a significant effect. While making sure that students have the break they need, families should seek to build in these learning opportunities along the way.

The Reading Debates

For many years, even the most proactive and conscientious teachers have taught reading using a “Balanced Literacy” approach; that is, using a combination of explicit phonics instruction, and more whole language strategies like using context to “guess” words. But collective research from the last few decades has overwhelmingly shown that those whole language strategies don’t build strong readers able to decode complex texts. This extensive research has been coined the “Science of Reading.” As the name implies, we are all learning that teaching reading is a science, not an art. Students need explicit, systematic language instruction to “crack the code” and make sense of written language.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN SCIENCE OF READING AND PHONICS?

Phonics is part of the science of reading. Phonics instruction refers to the specific skills students learn about letter sounds and symbols. The science of reading is more complex than just phonics. It includes everything about how kids learn to read, which does start with systematic and explicit phonics instruction, but it doesn’t end there. In addition to teaching phonics, it also includes vocabulary acquisition, morphology skills (manipulating words), and comprehension strategies.

SCIENCE OF READING IN THE CLASSROOM

So what should a reading lesson look like knowing what we now know? A typical reading lesson used to consist of a specific skill being modeled, perhaps through a read-aloud. Then students would try it out themselves through independent practice. It still works this way, but some of the skills and strategies promoted by Science of Reading research differ. Teachers might still model skills through a read-aloud, and students might still have time to practice those skills independently. But instead of teaching students strategies like using a picture and the first letter of a word to figure out what it says, students learn how to solve the word based on how it’s written. And instead of isolated comprehension strategies like sequencing events or identifying cause and effect, students practice mindful reading, and teachers show them what it looks like.

SHIFTING YOUR PRACTICE

It can be difficult to acknowledge that something you’ve been doing for years isn’t best for students. But everyone who teaches reading is in the same boat! We are all constantly learning and growing. Making the shift toward a more structured approach to teaching reading just means that, like the research itself, your teaching practice is evolving.

A classroom that truly embodies the science of reading principles starts with phonics instruction early. It empowers students by helping them crack the reading code by actually learning how to decode words instead of using pictures, sentence structure, or context to guess at them. It also teaches comprehension not through isolated skill practice, but through interacting with text and being metacognitive about one’s reading process. This means students are encouraged to think about what and how they are thinking while they read.

So given what we know about the science of reading, what makes a good reader? First, it takes knowledge of phonics rules and how to apply them. Next, it takes meaningful vocabulary acquisition. And finally, it takes actively and metacognitively engaging with text in order to make sense of it.