The Science of Reading...

Everyone learns to read in school, right?  Well, it’s actually more complicated than it seems. I have two kids, ages four and seven, and over the last few years, I have learned a lot about the process of learning how to read. In fact, there has been significant research, deemed the science of reading, that has codified how to teach kids to read. Simply surrounding kids with books and relying on visual cues is not enough; there is a science behind reading, and it includes phonics—the practice of learning sounds to decode words.

 Unless you work in education, or have kids learning to read at this critical juncture, you wouldn’t know that the way we teach kids to read has become a controversial topic. An interesting podcast highlighted the history of this controversy in "Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong" by Emily Hanford. In this six-part series, Hanford explores the longstanding beliefs in schools about how children learn to read, despite cognitive scientists having debunked them long ago. The problem is that some teaching methods are based on outdated ideas that actually make it harder for children to acquire reading skills. Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote some of these ideas, and the companies profiting from their work. At its core, it is a story about educators embracing a false concept and now grappling with the consequences: students lagging behind, wasted resources, and a malfunctioning education system.

According to an article in The New York Times, even in New York City, where I live, half of the children in grades three to eight fall below reading levels for their grade. These statistics are not that far off in Zambia, where we work. Standardized assessment data from the USAID-funded Let’s Read Zambia project shows that across Zambia, the proportion of entering third grade students below minimum literacy standards was 30%.  Over the last 2 years, we have been piloting a new program to ensure students are reading on grade level by third grade. Read Smart Cinyanja is an innovative project to improve early literacy outcomes based on the use of phonetic charts, illustrating the mouth positions associated with each sound. The majority of Zambian children are taught how to read essentially by memorization, but Read Smart focuses on using visual aids and phonics in local languages to teach children how letters actually sound. After being in the program for two years, only 3% of our students were below minimum literacy standards (compared to 30% for the status quo).

We are excited about the potential to expand this program and make a difference in children's lives by teaching more people to read! The shift towards prioritizing phonics in Zambia, New York City, and globally will hopefully facilitate easier and more effective reading instruction for children. To learn more about this topic, I recommend listening to a recent webinar called Beyond the Reading Wars by The Luminos Fund, which also includes Emily Hanford from the Sold a Story podcast and Dr. Benjamin Piper from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

-Katie