"Science of reading" = reading with phonics, which is a much better way to learn to read than the other approaches which rely on context clues - ex. using the pictures in the book to help figure out what the word is, as opposed to actually sounding it out.
Most kids don't need to be taught how to read...they just learn on their own. For those that do need to be taught (whether dyslexic or not), they are much better off with the phonics approach.
One of the challenges is that when kids don't learn how to sound out words at a relatively young age (say before 3rd-5th grade), it becomes much harder for them to do all other schoolwork and then raises the chance of them dropping out or failing out of school.
I came here to say exactly this, but you said it much more succinctly than I could have! Science of reading is just about teaching kids the rules of how reading/letter sounds works—honestly, since I started teaching kindergarten I have learned many rules that I never explicitly knew about how the English language is spelled. Some kids don’t need to learn those rules explicitly to be able to read, but many do. The concept of comprehension, which is not our main focus in kindergarten (we focus on decoding and encoding), is a whole different topic.
Phonics would work a lot better if the English written language wasn't so full of exceptions. Phonics is definitely key to learning to read, but a whole language model that incorporates phonics with context clues and more is superior to simply decoding letters.
"Science of reading" = reading with phonics, which is a much better way to learn to read than the other approaches which rely on context clues - ex. using the pictures in the book to help figure out what the word is, as opposed to actually sounding it out.
Most kids don't need to be taught how to read...they just learn on their own. For those that do need to be taught (whether dyslexic or not), they are much better off with the phonics approach.
One of the challenges is that when kids don't learn how to sound out words at a relatively young age (say before 3rd-5th grade), it becomes much harder for them to do all other schoolwork and then raises the chance of them dropping out or failing out of school.
I came here to say exactly this, but you said it much more succinctly than I could have! Science of reading is just about teaching kids the rules of how reading/letter sounds works—honestly, since I started teaching kindergarten I have learned many rules that I never explicitly knew about how the English language is spelled. Some kids don’t need to learn those rules explicitly to be able to read, but many do. The concept of comprehension, which is not our main focus in kindergarten (we focus on decoding and encoding), is a whole different topic.
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
A comprehensive explanation of the science and politics behind this debate
+Sold A Story podcast is fascinating and supports this
the froyo outings 🥲
Phonics would work a lot better if the English written language wasn't so full of exceptions. Phonics is definitely key to learning to read, but a whole language model that incorporates phonics with context clues and more is superior to simply decoding letters.