Science of Reading for Parents: How to Understand Teacher Jargon

There are lots of new words in education. This articles explains for parents basic science of reading teacher jargon in clear, precise language.

Specifically, we will learn about terms that come from an approach that many schools use called “the science-of-reading” or “structured literacy.” If your child’s school does not use this approach, they will likely still use similar jargon so being in the know will be helpful to you. Additionally, read this article to learn about why the science-of-reading is the best approach for students with reading difficulties. Or, check out my course, “A Parent’s Advantage in Teaching a Child with Reading Difficulties” to learn how to identify if your child is receiving the best instruction and tips on what to do if they aren’t.

Behind the Science of Reading

(In this section, I set up a brief defense of the science-of-reading since the following terms come from the science-of-reading. If you want to skip straight to the terms and definitions, scroll to the Common Terminology section.)

First, to assuage the common concern of many parents, I must start by saying this:

The science-of-reading (SOR) is not a “new” way to teach reading.

The term “the science-of-reading” refers to the ever-growing body of research spanning back to the 1800s. This body of research explains both how the brain learns to read and the teaching practices that lead to the best reading outcomes (Shanahan, 2020).

Sometimes I have to laugh at the simplicity of some of the scientific revelations coming out of SOR. For example, one of its most foundational concepts is that children should (gasp!) sound out words as they learn to read! For most of us, this is not a revelation. In fact, the phrase “science of reading” was used in the 1830s to describe the process of sounding out words (Shanahan, 2020). So no – this is not a new thing even though some of its other practices might be.

Then why has SOR made such a big stink recently? Unfortunately, there is an opposing force in education that is not rooted in the science-of-reading and has held our classrooms captive since the 1930s.

One practice coming out of this opposing force (commonly called “whole language” or “balanced literacy”) is to teach students to memorize the shapes of words or guess what a word might be based on context, the pictures, or its first sound. Research proves that these practices do not result in long-term reading success, yet they have been taught in classrooms for almost a hundred years. I won’t dive into the full history of reading instruction in America here (if you want to know more, check out this article), but I want you to imagine two forces pushing and pulling reading instruction back and forth over the last century. One force is rooted in an unscientific philosophies that encourage children to make their own meaning through “word exploration.” The other is the SOR – a consensus developed across history, brain-science, evidence, and research.

So when you hear “the science-of-reading,” don’t be worried that it’s some new and trendy phenomena that will fade with time, like many educational fads. It’s really the putting into practice of what we know about how a brain learns to read, write, and spell. It is a collection of theories and methods that are well-researched and grounded in both brain-science and classroom-based studies. It is developing teaching methods for all areas of reading instruction (not just sounding out words) to match scientific revelations (Shanahan, 2024). It is rejecting feel-good philosophies that sound nice but don’t teach children to read.

There is not nearly enough time here to tell you about all the research and frameworks that now define a SOR approach to reading instruction. If you want more detailed information, here is a list of my favorite books on the topic:

Why Johnny Can’t Read by Rudolf Flesch (1985)
Language At the Speed of Sight by Mark Seidenberg (2017)

You can also check out my course, “A Parent’s Advantage in Teaching A Child with Reading Difficulties.” In that course I make the research as bite-size as possible, walk through the history of reading instruction in America, explain how to identify good or not-so-good reading instruction, teach how to advocate for a SOR approach within your child’s classroom if needed, and show you how to implement a SOR approach at home. I believe it’s well worth your time!

But today we will keep it high-level. So let’s dive in! The next section will review terms you may hear or see your child’s teacher use at conferences or in newsletters.

Science of Reading Terminology

Phoneme

Phoneme is “a sound that can be represented by a spelling.” It is not any sound in our environment (like a bird chirping) or any sound we can make with our mouth (like blowing a raspberry), but specifically sounds that are inside of words. The number of phonemes a word has is not the same as the number of letters. For example, the word “chain” has 5 letters but only 3 phonemes /ch/ /ae/ /n/. When a teacher wants to represent a sound (phoneme) in writing they show it using these slash marks / /. This is the marking you see in dictionaries to show the pronunciation of words! There are 44 phonemes in the English language.

Grapheme

A grapheme is simply a letter that spells a sound. For example “b” is the grapheme for the sound (phoneme) /b/. A grapheme can also be a group of letters that spells one phoneme. For example, “th” is considered one grapheme even though it is two letters because it spells one sound: /th/ (the sound at the beginning of “thumb”). Often teachers will refer to these letter groupings as spelling patterns, phoneme-grapheme correspondences, or sound-symbol correspondences. These all mean the same thing! To keep phonemes and graphemes straight, I like to think of “phone” (sound or voice) and “autograph” (writing).

Phonics

Phonics instruction is teaching about sounds (phonemes) and the letters (graphemes) that spell them. Systematic phonics instruction moves from simple to more complicated. For example, every child starts with learning the letters of the alphabet and their most common sounds: “a” (the letter) spells /a/ (the sound at the beginning of “apple”). The letter “a” can spell other things but most often it spells the sound at the beginning of “apple” (/a/) so we start there! Then instruction moves to teaching digraphs (two letters working together to make one sound) such as “th”, “sh” and “ph”. From there, the spelling patterns get more and more complex. Overall, phonics is teaching the sounds made by all the letters and letter combinations that exist in the child’s language. Reading instruction that uses systematic phonics may also be referred to as “code-based” because it teaches the code of reading.

Decoding

Decoding in reading is the process of looking at a word on a page and reading it aloud. A teacher encourages a child to practice decoding after they have been taught a spelling pattern. In classrooms, decoding should be practiced as sounding out a word using previously taught spelling patterns. Research shows us that it is not helpful for children to attempt to sound out words with spelling patterns that have not yet been taught and practiced in isolation. For example, if a student has not yet learned that “ph” (the letters) spells /f/ (the sound at the beginning of “fan”) or that the bossy “e” makes “o” say its name, then it is not helpful to give them the word “phone” and teach those spelling patterns on the fly. They won’t stick in a meaningful way. In SOR, all words that a child is expected to decode on their own should only have previously taught spelling patterns. (Wondering about common words that don’t follow standard patterns, like “said” or “who”? Your brain is on the right track. We will get to that in a minute!)

Text Reading Fluency

Text reading fluency is sometimes called oral reading fluency. It refers to the ability to read accurately, smoothly, and expressively in a way that supports understanding of the text. Teachers test reading fluency in ways that give insight into how fluently a student reads. Sometimes teachers will listen to a student read and count the percentage of words read accurately or inaccurately. They may also time a student’s reading to see how many words per minute a student reads. This piece of data should be used with caution because we don’t want to create extremely fast readers that don’t read the correct words and don’t understand the text. At the same time, however, unlabored and smooth reading helps a student understand a text better. A student that reads slowly and sounds out every word will have a hard time finding the meaning of the text. Expressive reading can also indicate to a teacher how well a child understands a text. If they read a question as if it is a statement, they may have missed some of its meaning.

Text Comprehension

Text comprehension is as it sounds: the ability to understand a text. There are two different types of text comprehension and effective SOR classrooms will include ample time to practice both. Listening comprehension is understanding a text read aloud to you. Listening comprehension practice should occur regularly in kindergarten-3rd grade classes (and beyond) in order to boost text comprehension skills before students can read at that level on their own. The other type of text comprehension is reading comprehension. This occurs when a student is able to understand a text that they have read to themselves. Although the research in this area of literacy is less straightforward, SOR has suggested that classrooms move away from teaching specific comprehension skills, such as how to find the main idea or how to draw conclusions and instead focus on building comprehension through teaching robust vocabulary and background knowledge instruction. Along with this, comprehension skills should be taught using texts that have lots of details or facts, or within themed units (Moats, 2019).

Structured literacy

Structured literacy is an overall approach to reading instruction that is code-based. This means that the emphasis of structured literacy is on teaching the code, rules, or spelling patterns of reading. Structured literacy includes instruction in vital skills that fall outside the scope of phonics such as phonological awareness (being aware of sounds within words), fluency (reading smoothly and accurately), vocabulary (understanding the meanings of words), comprehension skills (the skills required to understand a text on a deep level), and writing composition (creating a logical, readable piece of writing). All of these skills should also be taught according to well-researched SOR approaches. Structured literacy differs from other common literacy approaches such as “balanced literacy,” “whole language,” or “whole word.” These are all meaning-based approaches, not code-based. Meaning-based approaches do not focus on expliciting teaching these essential reading skills but on general exposure to lots of texts and understanding the meaning of texts rather than decoding the words within it. Check out this article on how the brain learns to read, or my course “A Parent’s Advantage for a Child with Reading Difficulties” for more information on why code-based approaches are best for children with reading difficulties.

Tools and Strategies

In this next section, we will talk about some practices that should be happening in effective SOR classrooms. There is not enough time to explain the scientific research that backs each of these practices, but I will do my best to tell you how much evidence there is to support each.

Phonemic Awareness Activities

I mentioned earlier that the number of phonemes (sounds) does not always match the number of graphemes (letters) in a word. Because of this, students will often be asked to do phonemic awareness activities without looking at any words. Phonemic awareness refers to a student’s ability to identify, blend, break apart, or change sounds in a spoken word. Sometimes a teacher will have them use blocks, coins or other markers to visualize the sounds as they do these activities. Some activities may include:

Having students say the first, middle or last sound in a word
- Ex: “Say apple. What’s the first sound? /a/”
Having students identify or come up with words that rhyme
- Ex: “Say cat. Which word rhymes? Bat or call?”
Having students break apart the sounds in a word to say them separately
- Ex: “Say the sounds in ‘phone’. /f/ /oe/ /n/”
Presenting sounds in a word separately and having students blend them together to say a whole word
- Ex: “What words is this? /k/ /ae/ /k/. ‘Cake’.”
Having students change a sound in a word to make a new word
- Ex: “Say ‘chain’. Change /ch/ to /r/. What’s the new word? ‘Rain’.”

Phonemic awareness instruction is essential and the skills should intentionally build upon each other slowly. Literacy expert and researcher, Louisa Moats, calls it “[p]erhaps the most critical and least-practiced component of effective early instruction” (Moats, 2019).

Sound Walls

A sound wall is a place where teachers post all of the spelling patterns that have been taught connected to the sounds they make. (This is different from a word wall which focuses on a word’s definition and should only be used as a vocabulary building tool.) Typically all 44 English phonemes are on the sound wall, are represented by a picture, and are organized according to whether they are a consonant or vowel sound. Then, as teachers introduce a spelling for a specific phoneme, they will place a card with that spelling below the picture of that phoneme. Because many phonemes have more than one spelling, additional spellings are added as they are taught. For example, the sound /f/ (at the beginning of “fan”) can be spelled by the letter “f” which would be taught first, and by the letters “ph”. Both spellings would go underneath the picture representing the sound /f/. A sound wall typically also includes pictures of what a person’s mouth looks like when saying the sound. While there is little direct evidence to support the use of sound walls, many educational researchers say they align with SOR theory and recommend them (Hansford & King, 2022). Hopefully some direct studies will come soon!

Letter-Sound Mapping

Also known as sound-symbol mapping or phoneme-grapheme mapping, this is an activity that students should be doing regularly. It is probably the most well-researched activity on this list. It enhances a student’s “orthographic mapping” (their ability to recall a word automatically after connecting its sounds to its spellings so many times) (Boyer & Ehri, 2011; Ehri, 2013). Generally, it looks like giving students a paper with lines or boxes and then having students fill in each box with the grapheme that represents each phoneme. For example, the word “phone” has three phonemes (sounds). The student will write “ph” in the first box to spell the /f/ sound. The student will write “o” in the second box and “ne” in the last box. Because “e” does not make its own sound in this word, it cannot have its own box because the number of boxes should match the number of sounds, not letters. Mapping activities may also involve magnet letter tile boards (like this) or word building where students use mixed-up graphemes on cards to build new words. Teachers may use this as part of their instruction to practice new spelling patterns and give students a list of words with that spelling pattern to map on their own. These activities can take many forms, as long as the student is matching the spoken sound to the spelling pattern (practicing their orthographic mapping) in order to spell or read words!

Heart Words

If you were wondering about irregular words that students encounter frequently in early reading such as “the,” “said,” or “who,” we are now ready to talk about how to tackle that type of instruction. These words have spelling patterns that would not be taught as early as they need to be read, such as “ai” spells /e/ (the sound at the beginning of “elephant”). It is not much different than regular phonics instruction and uses letter-sound mapping. These words are usually referred to as heart words, tricky words, outlaw words or something similar. A teacher will present the word, break it into its sounds, and identify if each sound is regular or spelled by a “tricky” pattern that we have to learn “by heart.” For example, a teacher would break apart the word “said” into its three phoneme-grapheme correspondences, usually using a letter-sound map: “s” for /s/, “ai” for /e/ and “d” for /d/. Then the teacher would heart, circle, or in some other way mark the part we have to know by heart – that “ai” spells /e/ (the sound at the beginning of “elephant”). A teacher may then talk about how normally “e” spells /e/, but not in this tricky word! Words such as “the” may start out with two tricky parts, but as students progress in their phonics knowledge, the first part won’t stay tricky for long because they will eventually learn that “th” spells /th/ (the sound at the beginning of “they”) normally! Unfortunately, because this is a relatively new strategy for teaching irregular words there are not many studies that directly examine its effectiveness. Experts do agree that it aligns with the theory of orthographic mapping and therefore is most likely an effective strategy, but technically the jury is still out on whether memorizing these words as whole words or memorizing only their tricky part is best (Hansford & Garforth, 2024).

Decodable Texts

This is a text that a student can read independently because it contains only previously taught spelling patterns and heart words, nothing new. Decodable texts are used in code-based classrooms because they theoretically align with orthographic mapping practices and build confidence because students can read all of it independently. In contrast, meaning-based approaches will use something called leveled-texts. These texts are labeled with letters of the alphabet to represent how “easy or difficult” they are to read. Leveled texts do not account for what was taught in the phonics lesson that day and often include a lot of pictures that students can use to help them identify words. Teachers using leveled-texts often encourage students to use pictures, the first sound of the word, or the context of the sentence to figure out what an unknown word might be. This approach does not match how a brain, especially a dyslexic one, learns to read. Teachers using decodable texts, on the other hand, can encourage students to use their phonics knowledge to sound out unknown words because they know that the student has been taught all of the spelling patterns and now needs to practice them in a real text in order for them to become more automatic (building their orthographic mapping skills). Unfortunately, decodable texts, like heart word instruction, have very few studies that directly examine their effects but the practice of them is likely beneficial since it aligns with the well-researched theory of orthographic mapping (Pedagogy Non Grata, n.d.). Most experts say that decodable texts should not be the only texts used in a classroom. Even struggling readers should have exposure to real texts (whether read aloud or simplified) that are tied to the unit or theme being studied in the classroom. More on that in a later article.

Conclusion

Ensuring that your child is receiving the highest-quality instruction is one of your most important jobs as a parent, especially if your child is struggling with reading. While some students can learn to read using a meaning-based approach, the approach is inefficient and much less effective for students with reading difficulties. Because the SOR considers both brain science and evidence-based practices, it is powerful in furthering the progress of students that would otherwise become stuck in their reading. If you are concerned that your child is not receiving high-quality reading instruction, consider purchasing my course, “A Parent’s Advantage for A Child with Reading Difficulties.” It will give recommendations on how to examine your child’s reading curriculum with a critical eye, how to talk with their school about the curriculum, and even how to deliver higher-quality reading instruction at home than they could ever receive in the classroom because of the deep knowledge you have of their strengths, weaknesses, and learning preferences. If you’ve been around here before, you know we call this A Parent’s Advantage!

What’s something new you learned in this article? What are some other common terms you would like explained? I am planning on doing a series entitled, “How to Speak Teacher,” so if you have some words you want me to break down, comment below!

References

Boyer, N., & Ehri, L. C. (2011). Contribution of phonemic segmentation instruction with letters and articulation pictures to word reading and spelling in beginners. Scientific Studies of Reading, 15(5), 440–470. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2010.520778

Hansford, N., & King, J. (2022, August 31). Sound Walls and Letter Sound Articulation Training. Teaching By Science. https://www.teachingbyscience.com/sound-walls

Hansford, N., & Garforth, K. (2024, July 19). Should I Teach Sight Words?. Teaching By Science. https://www.pedagogynongrata.com/_files/ugd/237d54_4dc37d16a72a4cb48439cb890bd1ad97.pdf

Ehri, L. C. (2013). Orthographic Mapping in the Acquisition of Sight Word Reading, Spelling Memory, and Vocabulary Learning. Scientific Studies of Reading, 18(1), 5–21. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2013.819356

Moats, L. (2019). Of ‘Hard Words’ and Straw Men: Let’s Understand What Reading Science is Really About. Edview 360 Blog Series. https://www.voyagersopris.com/blog/edview360/lets-understand-what-reading-science-is-really-about

Pedagogy Non Grata. (n.d.). Are Decodeable Texts Evidence-Based?. Teaching By Science. https://www.pedagogynongrata.com/decodeable-texts

Shanahan, T. (2020). What constitutes a science of reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 55, S235-S247.
Shanahan, T. (2024). Unpacking the science of reading with Dr. Timothy Shanahan. Regional Educational Laboratory Program. Institute of Education Sciences. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/Products/Region/west/Blog/107997