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Structured Literacy

What is Structured Literacy?

 

The Science of Reading has proven that a Structured Literacy approach is a necessary foundation for reading success.

Structured Literacy supports explicit, sequential, systematic, prescriptive, diagnostic, and cumulative instruction to benefit all learners, both general education and remedial.

 

Structured Literacy: What we teach

  • Phonology – Speech sounds
  • Sound-Symbol Association – The relationship between sounds and symbols
  • Syllables – A word or part of a word that contains one vowel phoneme
  • Morphology – The study of the forms of words
  • Syntax – Sentence structure
  • Semantics – Meaning of words

 

How the Elements of Structured Literacy are Taught

  • Systematic – The delivery of instruction follows a well-defined scope and sequence, which provides a logical progression of skills that move from simple to more complex.
  • Cumulative – Newly introduced concepts are layered upon previously learned concepts. The foundation of knowledge for phoneme-grapheme relationships, reliable spelling patterns, and generalization of rules is frequently reviewed to build automaticity.
  • Explicit – The teacher gives a direct and clear explanation for each new concept during explicit instruction. Instruction should be enhanced with multi-sensory strategies to involve the visual, auditory, and tactile/kinesthetic senses in learning to improve memory.
  • Diagnostic – Continuous formative assessment informs progress monitoring and allows teachers to measure outcomes and make decisions for prescriptive teaching and differentiation.

Through Structured Literacy (SL):

  • Teachers implement methods that are appropriate for all students and particularly necessary for students with learning differences.
  • Instruction incorporates recommended multi-sensory instructional techniques. 
  • Instruction is assessment-driven. The diagnostic aspect of SL requires continued progress monitoring to measure outcomes and guide differentiation. 
  • Students are provided repeated opportunities with decodable text that have ample representations of the phonetic elements for code emphasis.
  • Students experience dictation of words and sentences containing the phonetic concept, and students become skilled in spelling words within and outside of the text.
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       Source: IMSE Journal, September 14, 2020                                              LadderofReadingIMSE-1.png

Image source: https://dyslexiaida.org/ladder-of-reading-infographic-structured-literacyhelps- all-students/ 

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