Teachers are life-long learners.

Our Commitment to Evidence-Based Reading Instruction: Aligning Instruction with the Science of Reading Using Structured Literacy

Everyone is buzzing about the Science of Reading, as the evidence to support effective reading instruction becomes widespread news and is no longer an area of debate.

Vocabulary is an essential component of comprehension and writing.

As caregivers of young children, we use our imaginations to build forts from bed sheets and bring characters from picture and chapter books to life with our voices.

Science has shown that systematic, explicit phonics instruction is the necessary foundation for successful reading.

In the 1980s and 1990s, there existed a debate revolving around the question: What is the best approach to teaching reading?

The importance of developing an ability to read in the early years of education cannot be stressed enough.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has altered our daily norms and prompted school closures across the globe, teachers have been required to augment their instructional techniques and convert to remote learning environments.

Highlighting how multi-sensory learning looks in the classroom and different options for how to instruct.

Heads or tails, top or bottom, inside or outside… We are surrounded by examples that require an understanding of dualities, like a two-sided coin.

At one time or another, we have all encountered students who struggle to read a multisyllabic word. As educators, we understand that long words can seem intimidating even for students who have had phonics instruction.

Early identification of dyslexia leads to essential prevention strategies and interventions that can give children the resources they need to understand dyslexia and become life-long readers.

Highlighting what reading fluency entails and how important it is to the end goal: reading comprehension.

Teaching children to read is a complex task that requires insight into a child’s needs, personal learning styles, effective reinforcement, attention span, and access to resources and support.

Orthographic Mapping is a term that sounds daunting, but it is fundamental for fluent reading.

Spelling is one of the most forgotten aspects of literacy development. In many classroom settings, it is looked at as an afterthought, and instruction is limited to rote spelling drills and memorization (Birsh, 2005).

“What does the word ______ mean?” asks every child everywhere. “Look it up in the dictionary,” most parents reply!

Over the last few weeks, many parents have found themselves in the role of providing instruction to their children without the resources to feel successful.

There’s something special about fantasy. For generations, readers young and old have been swept up in stories filled with wondrous characters, enchanting lands, and whimsical creatures.

With so many distractions in today’s world, from television to video games to texting, books may not make it on a child’s to-do list. Some children may view reading as a “chore” or something that accompanies a homework assignment. 

While phonemic awareness and phonics are connected in some respects, they are not the same. Nevertheless, both are very important to a child’s literacy development. To put it simply, phonics involves using the eyes and ears while phonemic awareness involves just the…

For the last 25 years, IMSE has been training educators in an explicit, systematic and sequential, multi-sensory teaching approach. Our goal is for every classroom to have proper techniques to help ensure that all students learn how to read.

Dr. Maria Murray is the founder and CEO of The Reading League, a not-for-profit association dedicated to advancing the awareness, acceptance, and use of evidence-based practices in schools and other education agencies.​ Murray is also an associate professor at the…

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