Literacy Blogs

Teacher Question: I'm looking at finding a spelling program for my school.  What are the elements that should be in a good program?  Should the lists of words be based on phonics/spelling patterns like silent e, later expanded into multisyllable words with the same pattern for upper grades + later study on affixes etc.? Should the spelling words be embedded in stories or articles that the students read as part of their word study? Should there be word and sentence dictation?  Should there be vocabulary related activities such as filling out sentences with missing spelling words that are included in a word bank? How many words per week? Shanahan responds: Can you spell ...

  Teacher question: Middle school reading scores are either stagnating or dropping in my state, and they are looking at things they can do to help students improve. I’ve read the materials on the need for kids to reach a certain level of decoding to succeed in the upper grades. What do we do from here? What interventions should schools/states add to help these kids catch up on what they missed? Shanahan responds: The most likely reason middle school scores are down in your state probably has little to do with phonics instruction. Most phonics is provided in grades K-2. Doing a better job with ...

Blast from the Past: This entry first posted on September 10, 2017, and reposted April 12, 2025. Blasts from the Past make blogs available to new audiences and afford me the opportunity to reiterate points or to reconsider my earlier claims. This site is dedicated to improving reading instruction through a close consideration of research. But research is an ongoing enterprise. Anyone who takes a principled stand based on science had better be prepared to dine on crow occasionally. This is one of those times. Accordingly, I have not rewritten this entry but hope to correct it with new prefatory ...