It has been quite a few years now since we started this journey, but one huge problem stands out with structured literacy...people simply see it as just a change in reading and decodable books have become far too important in terms of the teaching.
With many simply swapping the ready to read books for decodable texts, but continuing to teach the same way, the same problems are coming up. Children stuck on a stage for what seems forever, letter sounds not sticking, blending and segmenting not happening.
The problem is that the books are being used as the teaching tool, not simply one part of the process when they should actually just be a way of practising and putting into action the skills and knowledge being embedded.
The problem with structured literacy is that many don't actually understand the components of structured literacy. They think it is just phonics.
The layers of learning in many classrooms are still being forgotten and the reality is many children are still in the same place they were in using a balanced approach.
Phonological understandings are not being attended to and phonemic awareness is being mistaken for phonetic awareness. One of the most important things I learned was about phonological/phonemic awareness, that ability to make, hear, manipulate, blend and segment sounds (sounds not symbols)...there is a big problem with 'structured literacy' teaching if this is being overlooked. In fact phonological skills, or lack of are a big issue for many of our struggling readers across the country. I noticed early on that phonological skills or lack of gave me massive clues around how to help my learners, I just had to know enough to look for them.
I think one of the biggest problems with structured literacy at the moment is that many people don't realise this is not called structured reading...it is an approach to literacy that encompasses everything. No longer should children be becoming great readers, but on the other hand reluctant writers and poor spellers. If structured literacy as an approach is being applied well, children should be progressing on all areas equally...it is when they don't that we are given our biggest hint of specific needs that may need to be catered for. Encoding and decoding are two sides of the same coin and need to be treated as such. Often we will see that a child has efficient blending skills, but segmenting and taking sound to print isn't as strong, or vice versa...having a deep understanding of structured literacy and the science of reading/spelling allows us to be able to do something about it.
There are so many layers that need to be in place before a book is even placed in front of a learner..and then throughout the process there are so many understandings being developed at each stage, that if we are simply using the book, we will come up against hurdles.
In fact I have my own experience with this and this year we again adjusted how we are teaching using the decodable books. We were finding children racing through the early stages, but then coming up against a wall when there were so many new sounds and so many heart words...their actual understandings of heart words, spelling and letter formation were lagging behind their reading, we were not giving them time to consolidate understandings.
So for us it came back to the individual. Teaching specifically the understandings (encoding and decoding) in the stage above the books we were actually using...this means we can work on fluency when reading the text and children are having more success. It is the best of both worlds, practicing next steps in context, but also reading with a great degree of success that gives confidence.
For some of our learners who need more repetition and who are not quite up to building fluency in this way, we've created a staged approach, using materials to encode and decode the speed words in the stories, then reading the text, without the pictures, then finally reading the text with the pictures. This scaffolded approach works well for our learners on stage one and two. I have shared some of these ideas on my tiktok number agents. Tiktok is a great place to get free PLD, there are so many great educators on there!
Everything is slow and deliberate, because let's face it, strong foundations are key and acceleration without these strong foundations is a fallacy. If I rush the building of a house, without putting in place strong foundations, the first time it faces a strong wind, it will fall down. The same can be said for literacy acquisition. We must be using explicit teaching, ensure cognitive load is not too great and ensuring there is lots of repetition.
If schools are putting in place benchmark expectations against age and decodable stage, there is going to remain the angst for teachers around acceleration, the angst around children them not getting where they need to be. Instead we must be guided by the individual and tune into their needs. This doesn't mean we don't strive to help them do their best, but it means we meet them where they are at and build foundations for growth.
That is the next big problem with structured literacy teachers are still trying to apply a reading age to stages and still applying benchmarks for achievement...after six months, after a year etc. This leads to them feeling the same old pressure as before. Pressure to get children to a certain stage based on a certain age is counterproductive for good teaching and learning.
Learning simply does not happen like this, it is not linear, children do not progress at the same rate and do not have the same needs. When it comes down to it applying benchmarks for achievement are not helpful for anyone. Tuning into specific needs and understanding how to help is key. Every teacher at every level of the school needs to have a well embedded skill set that enables them to help learners, no matter their level of progress.
Let's think our youngest learners...there are so many layers that need to be in place before a book is even placed in front of them...and then throughout the process there is so many understandings being developed at each stage, that if we are simply using the book, many children will come up against huge hurdles.
Firstly we need to think developmentally, children have many foundations to put in place well before reading and writing needs to be happening. For many of our children the explicit teaching of reading and writing does not happen till six, or after if developmentally appropriate. Forcing a child to start earlier does them no favours later on. On average, most of our children start engaging with more formal reading and spelling at 5.9yrs (this is just an average...based on the past few years of course many fall either side of this average because that is how averages work)
Providing a rich environment for children to grow and develop in their own time is much more important than anything else. It is this opportunity to develop in an environment rich in language, rich in talk, rich in movement, rich in relationships and rich in play that will pay off in the long run.
These are our current goals, that go with our developmental framework...it morphs into being structured literacy specific as children are ready. There is a link within this sheet that shows you the knowledge we are developing in each stage once children have firm foundations.
Back the the biggest problem with structured literacy right now...the fact that it is being viewed through a narrow lens of phonics and reading. The truth is structured literacy is just a term for an approach, that encompasses so much more than that! The above image is a great one to reflect on.
What elements of structured literacy can be seen in my classroom?
Well, firstly, it no longer happens in a block called reading/writing or spelling, but does happen over the day and the week in small bite sized amounts. Basically pulling apart what it takes to be a writer/reader and teaching explicitly those parts, avoiding cognitive load and making sessions short. (Remembering for me this happens in a room where play is our main way of working, this to me, is still the most important thing.). These sessions may be individual, small group or whole class. These groupings are flexible and change from day to day.
Children in the year before they come to me have experienced a rich environment based on play, storytelling, drawing and talk. They have also had great opportunities to develop fine and gross motor skills, and this really shows! They have come from an environment based on storytelling, an environment where they have been read fabulous stories, an environment where they have explored great vocab and an environment where talk is rich and all around them. Oral language has been the foundation of their learning and play has been given the priority it deserves. In our play based class, children have ample opportunity to self-select writing as an activity and to use it within their play.
In my class over the week, we have short, bite sized sessions, these are not timetabled, but are planned for and happen where they naturally fit into our day.
As you may be aware, the goals that we work with children on are individualised, this means that for some they may be slightly ahead of where we are working as a class...that is ok, because a lot of learning comes from teaching others and repetition is vital! Let me also say, this is not boring, as a teacher I am invigorated by structured literacy and children love learning in this way, they are successful and success breeds success.
1) Formation is a big part of our approach - we use Casey the Caterpillar. The story is playful and making the shapes is accessible for all children. I watch pencil grip during this time, taking into account that for some children, their hand strength (and all the many components that go into pencil grip) may not be there yet. What I did discover this year is that children need to use shorter pencils...so that adjustment can be made easily. Children are also developing fine motor during play as well, so it is just up to me to watch and notice if there is something that needs to be adjusted for that child as and when they are ready for it. Casey also assists them with directionality and the concept of never being able to go back to her egg is one they really cotton onto to. Now the shapes are embedded we we work on combining them to write the letters themselves...or spelling the sounds as I like to call it. Children can be heard saying the shapes as they make each letter. For many this has now become automatic and reversals rarely happen.
Casey is also a really good one to share with parents, it is an easy way that they can help.
2)Phonetic awareness - through our structured literacy sessions we work through the scope and sequence, we use LLLL and the code. We also have a seperate phonological focus at the beginning of this session. Throughout the day, when we have moments, I will put a challenge word up on the board and children will have a go at decoding it. We can then talk about the sounds within the word etc and link it back to what we have been learning. Children can then practice putting this word in a sentence, there is a lot of discussion that comes out of this.
3)Word chain, children love this activity, we do it as a whole class or in a small group and will also share with home so they can use this if they want. We do word chain once a week at least. Children really love this, I keep it well within all of their abilities and in the stage they are working on, so everyone is happy to have a go. During our word chain, children physically spell the words on a whiteboard and we actively talk about the part of the word that is being changed. I use my slinky to reinforce the concept of stretching out the word to hear the beginning, middle and end. This is another good opportunity to put words into a sentence that makes sense. This is also a good opportunity to check on formation and to remind children of our Casey shapes.
4)Dictated sentences...based on the stages we are working on we will use a dictated text. This is a good opportunity to focus on spacing, directionality and full stops. We do this as a whole class once a week and we do this as part of our activities in reading groups. Dictated sentences are not our 'writing' they are part of giving children the tools they need to be a writer. This is not about creativity, it is about the nuts and bolts of writing a sentence. I have noticed a huge improvement in children's independent 'creative' writing since we have started using dictated sentences. Before using a structured approach, many of my learners couldn't keep a sentence in their head, let along remember it long enough to write something on their own.
5)Heart word learning. Children will be working on these individually, but we teach them in class using the approach of taking sound to print and exploring the irregular parts. To assist our collaborative writing, we will occasionally work on heart words that are a bit out of sequence, so that children can access them when they write. For me this heart word learning is so important, when children 'guess' at words like heart words, that are used so frequently, they often form spelling patterns that they then believe to be correct, it is so hard to undo this. We learn heart words once or twice a week as a class, or as relevant to our collaborative writing. It might take a little bit longer to do, but I am confident that no child will be learning the wrong spelling of irregular words and embedding this into how they think it is spelled.
6) Collaborative writing - once a week we will come up with a short story together. This is quite heavily guided by me, because I know what heart words they do or don't know. The collaborative writing is usually based around our storytelling, but not always. We will say the story out loud together. Count the words (it is usually just the first sentence we write together.) Children will have a go on whiteboards, scaffolded and supported by me. We will discuss the features we have learned, like spacing, capital letters, full stops and may learn something new if it fits. I like to use a Nessy video from youtube if relevant because children love these. Once we have written the sentence together, children grab their books and go and write independently. Many will write the same sentence, others will do this, but add extra, while others will write their own story. The change in confidence has been huge for my learners.
From time to time, instead of collaborative writing, we will simply brainstorm ideas and children will go off and write on their own.
7)Storytelling - we have Edward our storytelling puppet, he is loved by the children and visits to tell weird and wonderful stories, full of imagination and great vocabulary. Children will often draw their own pictures in response to this and tell their own stories, I have blogged about this storytelling before and it really is just a time where children are free to be the masters of their own stories. A great balance against the explicit strategies being used. We use storytelling throughout the week as often as we can!
8)Digging deeper into storytelling. This year I am learning about talk for writing. We did one last term based on the Itchy Witch and it was fantastic. When we are in the midst of this, we will be having short sessions each day. If you want to find out more, here is the website. https://www.talk4writing.com/
This term we are looking at the picture book Chalk. Writing the story to go with the pictures, retelling this and then innovating to create our own.
9)Individual 'structured literacy' sessions. These look different for each child, once a week they meet with us and we go through a lesson together, starting with what they know and then teaching explicitly the next thing they need. This might be phonics based on their stage, a spelling rule, heart words relevant to their stage, speed words based on the book they are learning, code words based on their stage, paper texts or decodable books.
10) Fluency books. Children take home two or three books each week at a stage below where they are working with us, they practice these daily with the goal of fluency, comprehension and understanding punctuation. When we meet with them, we tune into these books and feed back to parents how they are going.
11) Specific bite sized sessions daily for phonics as a whole class, largely revisiting the first 5 stages of sounds. Then we focus in small groups on the stage we are working on. Individually children then have their own specific sessions as needed.
12) Chapter book read - whole class. Last term we read Amelia Jane, this term we are reading the faraway tree. Of course it goes without saying that we read lots of wonderful picture books too.
These are the writing priorities we have set as a school to guide us when working with children and what we are looking for. Year levels are just a guide as we know children develop at different rates.
The biggest problem with structured literacy however is that it is still seen as a fad by many and totally misunderstood. This means programmes are being implemented with little understanding and we will only get what we have always got, with the same children having the same problems.
The problem with this is that structured literacy will be made the scapegoat and shelved by many schools only to go back to an approach that has been failing far too many children.
The reality is there is no issue or problem with structured literacy, when done well it can be transformational for our teaching and life changing for our children, we've just got to understand it enough to really do it justice in a classroom.
This video below is a great one to share regarding the components of Structured Literacy
I have reflected before on the why of my scope and sequence. But very basically the children in my class were the why, they showed me that before anything else, they needed a deep sense of pattern and number. Just as my journey through structured literacy showed me that children needed that deep phonological and phonemic awareness.
It has also been so lovely to hear from our new entrant class of 2022 that the scope and sequence is proving just as beneficial for them as it was for me last year.
If you want to know more, there is an old blog post from last April that describes this in more detail.
I started this process out of a want and real need to understand why children might struggle with maths and an interest in learning more about dyscalculia. I avidly read everything I could and listened to podcasts whenever I went walking. The work of Christopher Woodin really spoke to me and his patterns have since been a real game changer.
When I wrote this scope and sequence (as I was teaching it) I also wrote the next sessions..after I saw how well it it was working for me and really wanted others to be able to teach in this way.
At the time I thought it might last for 6 months if that. But I started last year in March and am still working my way through it with my class that started with me. It has had a huge impact, but we are only up to session 52 (of 60). Granted we only work in this way two - three times a week, but I think the scope and sequence is more like 1 year - 18 months worth of learning. Once I am completed session 60 I intend to go back through all the sessions and add to them or change them according to what I learned.
We are currently on session 52 (grouping) we are likely to stay on this session for at least the next two weeks...repetition is key, children need to explore the same concept in a range of different ways many many times. This is true for any learning.
As I sit and watch them working with visual images, I can't help but be blown away by the strategies they are employing independently. This is even more impressive when I remember that many of these children didn't have a sense of number when they started, couldn't look at a group and make a good guess at how many there could be, and would often grab a handful when they only needed a couple more.
This term we have opened a modified agency, based on a portal that connects us to many different worlds. It fits well time wise and means we can do this and continue to work on our scope and sequence...all within the world of our play-based class.
This scope and sequence has really gifted children a sense of a whole and its parts...friends to ten, doubles, using five, they all make sense. Number bonds are really deeply understood as is the concept that problems like 3 + 5 and 5 + 3 is the same and that if I know these, then I know the reverse, 8-3 is 5 etc. Now we are also developing the understanding that 5 x 3 and 3 x 5 gives us the same whole. Flexibility with number is coming through loud and strong.
I have spent longer on grouping than intended and so have made up more visual images to go along with this, I will add the pack to the scope and sequence at some stage.
The key is the patterns and spending a lot of time consolidating these...the woodin patterns seem so simple, but for many these patterns have given them something to really establish their understanding of a whole and its parts. Now we are further into the scope and sequence, some children are beginning to express groups in different ways, while those that need to will still defer to the patterns.
If you are picking up the scope and sequence for the first time, follow the sequence, combine sessions if it makes sense for your class, but don't skip, don't pick and mix...it is intended to be cumulative, so trust in the process.
I don't advocate worksheets and we don't work in math books. We use whiteboards, markers and materials...along with this talk is key, lots of sharing and lots of reflecting.
To say I am happy with where we are at is an absolute understatement...this has to be one of the best things I have done in my career and I am very happy with how everything is going.
The reflections below are just some of the understandings we have been developing.
