On January 23, 2024, the Maryland State Board of Education called for the adoption of the Science of Reading Statewide. Under the resolution, all Maryland public schools will use Science of Reading methods starting in the 2024 — 2025 school year. So what does this mean for early childhood programs, teachers, and families?
Lindsay Kemeny, teacher and author of “7 Mighty Moves” (a research-backed book on the Science of Reading in practice), says, “I love the phrase we have in the Science of Reading community: Know better, do better.”
For decades, educational experts have debated the “just right approach” for teaching reading. They have considered theories of child development, various instructional strategies and aligned outcomes, and most recently, brain science! Basically, the Science of Reading is brain-based research that shows us how we learn to read. Reading is not a natural process for humans like walking and talking. In fact, it is an incredibly complex skill that requires an inordinate amount of code-breaking to truly decipher what is written on a page. The Science of Reading, however, has provided us with the information we need to gain a deeper understanding of how we learn to read, what skills are involved, how they work together, and which parts of the brain are responsible for reading development. Ultimately emphasizing science rather than commonly-held beliefs.
The good news is that early learning has always approached reading from the belief that children need language and literacy, all day every day. The Science of Reading supports the notion of integrating authentic experiences into every day from every early on is the best approach for early literacy and language development. Therefore, our littlest learners won’t feel a significant shift in their literacy experiences and exposure. At the preschool stage, oral language, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary are still the most critical skills to develop. To build these skills, consider the following activities:
Read aloud together every day, especially stories with rhyming. Practice nursery rhymes and other stories that follow easy patterns. Talk about characters in the stories and any new words you may come across.
Sing songs with children and talk about the new vocabulary in the songs.
Talk together and talk a lot. Have conversations about everything you see. Try to create opportunities for back-and-forth conversations.
Practice letter sounds together, especially the first sounds of short words.
Ensure that children know how to hold a book, flip the pages, and treat it with care. Be sure that they know that words on a page have meaning.
Notice things with your child in their environment. Encourage them to talk about what they see.
Emphasize their name. Help them recognize their name in different places.
Teach children to love books.
As mentioned, early childhood programs, organizations, and many families of young children have embraced the Science of Reading, unknowingly, for decades. We knew better and continued to do better. So here’s the closing advice…continue to raise and support young readers. They will not only learn the life skill of reading, but other important skills such as persistence, perspective-taking, relationship building, and empathy.
Written by Amanda Ensor, teacher, family and community engagement expert, and professional learning specialist, founder of It Takes A Village, LLC.
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