Our Amazing Brain!

Reading and writing require the activation and skilled coordination of many areas in the brain.

When we see a word on the page, our Visual Area is activated, as it is when we look at any object in our environment.

Next, our brain recognizes that the thing we are looking at is a word, which is a part of language. This distinguishes the thing we are looking at from other objects and sends a signal to the Visual Word Form Area.

Language input must take a unique path through the brain to be processed correctly. We must be able to recognize the letter patterns visually, then “hear” the sounds they make in our minds, and finally understand the meaning of both words and sentences.

  • The visual cortext helps us recognize letters and words.
  • The phonological cortex maps the sounds to letters.
  • The semantic and syntactic cortices store word meanings and help us understand the rules and structure of sentences.
Our Amazing Brain
  • Visual Area
  • Visual Word Form Area
  • Visual cortext
  • Phonological cortex
  • Semantic and syntactic cortices

Reading is Rocket Science

Reading is Rocket Science

In her famous article called, “Teaching Reading is Rocket Science,” (1999, 2020) Dr. Louisa Moats surveys the decades of research that have illuminated how the brain learns to read. Moats emphasizes that the English language is complex (not weird) and that it takes carefully planned instruction in all aspects of English to gain mastery and, ultimately, a love of reading.

Sadly, the knowledge and skills needed to teach reading are not included in many teacher preparation programs, curricula, or professional development. Consequently, many of our most vulnerable students are not given access to the necessary information to become accurate and fluent readers and writers.

Even so, researchers estimate that with appropriate instruction, “up to 95% of all children can be taught to read by the end of first grade, with future achievement constrained only by students’ reasoning and listening comprehension abilities” (2020, p.5).

Simple View Formula

If reading is so complex, how do we learn to do it?

Cognitive scientists Gough and Tumner have boiled down the complex act of reading into two “simple” components: Word Recognition (decoding) and Language Comprehension. In The Simple View of Reading (1986), Gough and Tumner point out that there are two necessary components to reading comprehension: Word Recognition and Language Comprehension. In fact, the math formula is one of multiplication (not addition). A student will need adequate skill in both areas, not just one or the other.

For example, a student will not understand what he is reading if he is able to read all of the words but does not understand what they mean. On the other end, a student cannot understand what he is reading if he understands the meaning of the words when they are read aloud but cannot read the letters on the page. Both Word Recognition and Language Comprehension skills are needed in increasing measure as students move through the grade levels, encountering increasingly difficult text.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope

Another important model for understanding how reading develops is Scarborough’s Reading Rope (2001). In the model, Hollis Scarborough describes the sub components of the Simple View of Reading mentioned above.

As you can see from the rope graphic, the Simple View is not actually that simple! Skilled reading is made up of many unique components that must work together to become increasingly strategic and automatic. When all of the strands of the rope are well supported by research-based instruction and adequate practice to mastery, students can develop a solid foundation of reading skill.

Structured Literacy

As educators begin to organize their instruction using the Simple View of Reading and Scarborough’s Reading Rope, other concerns arise. How will we be sure that we are covering all of the necessary components of reading? How should we teach these concepts? How will we measure student progress?

In answer to these questions (and many more), the International Dyslexia Association created the term Structured Literacy in 2014.

The term Structured Literacy refers to the content of all levels of language. It also includes research-based methods of instruction.

As a teacher moves students through the layers of the English language, he or she will focus on both analysis and production of language at all levels, from the smallest units of sound to complete texts.

Structured Literacy methods include explicit instruction, systematic and cumulative organization of content, multisensory/multimodal lessons, and diagnostic, responsive teaching and assessment.

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