English Language Arts

Balanced Literacy and the Science of Reading

First, let us agree that these two terms are not at war with one another, but in fact, support and strengthen each other. The pillars of balanced literacy most widely accepted and implemented by reading professionals come from the National Reading Panel research. In this publication, a meta-analysis of the latest research for that time period was conducted on the instructional practices of these pillars, identified as Alphabetics (Phonemic Awareness and Phonics), Comprehension (Vocabulary Instruction and Comprehension Instruction) and Fluency. Many studies have evolved since and these components remain relevant.

Defining the pillars or components is essential for understanding the complexity of comprehensive reading instruction.

• Phonemic Awareness: Phonemes are the smallest units constituting spoken language and English consists of about 41 phonemes. Phonemes combine to form syllables and words. Phonemic awareness refers to the ability to focus on and manipulate phonemes in spoken words. Phonemic awareness is sound oriented, that is students manipulate the sounds in a word without the grapheme. Advanced phonemic awareness involves the student deleting, substituting and reversing phonemes.

• Phonics: Phonics is the relationship between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. It involves learning the alphabetic system, letter-sound correspondences and spelling patterns, and learning how to apply this knowledge in reading. Beginning readers need embedded explicit and systematic instruction to learn coding patterns.

• Comprehension: Reading Comprehension is the ability to process text, understand its meaning, and synthesize what the reader already knows. Reading comprehension involves the reader interacting with the author's text. Proficient readers utilize questioning, connecting, summarizing, monitoring, visualizing and inferring. Vocabulary instruction needs to be embedded in reading to construct meaning. The more widely students read, the more vocabulary they encounter. So once students are able to decode, encourage reading across a variety of genres.

• Fluency: Fluent readers can read text with speed, accuracy, and proper expression. Fluency depends upon well developed word recognition skills, but such skills do not inevitably lead to fluency. Fluency is much more complex than simply measuring words per minute.

While they are often listed separately, these pillars must be woven together for successful reading comprehension to occur. The true "science" of learning to read, which we have known for about 50 years, is how the brain works to associate words we hear with how they look when written. After associating sounds to letters and combinations of letters, our brain creates a map that will connect that combination every time we see it; this is called orthographic mapping. After roughly seven times of these synapses traveling the same path, combinations become "automatic" and we are able to read them without effort. This is why embedded practice with explicit instruction of Alphabetics (phonemic awareness and phonics) is important.

Dr. Hollis Scarborough demonstrates the interconnectedness of each component needed to become a skilled reader through the illustration below.

It' s through this balanced approach we truly learn orthographic mapping which ultimately leads to comprehension. Working on one of these pillars without developing the others simultaneously is like training to become an Olympian in weight lifting by exercising only the right bicep.

For more information, please check out our resource library.