Effective March 2021, the District of Columbia enacted Law 23-191 to address dyslexia and other reading difficulties. This required the Office of the Superintendent of Education to provide support to public schools in identifying and preventing reading difficulties in students. As a result of this law, all DC Public Schools were required to adopt high-quality reading curricula based in The Science of Reading. Now, Science of Reading is a hot topic both in the district and beyond. But what does it really mean?
The (Recent) Past
ALSC guest blogger Jocelyn Levin stated in her April 2024 post, “Reading can be simplified into Word Recognition + Language Comprehension.” This view of reading is often referred to as “The Simple View of Reading,” which is what the Science of Reading is based on. However, I would like to add, or rather multiply, on to Levin’s definition of the Simple View of Reading.
The Present
In a recent professional development seminar for DC school and public librarians, participants were presented with the Simple View of Reading as the following:
Word Recognition x Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension
This differs slightly from the previous view that word recognition added to language comprehension were enough to comprehend a passage. This means that if a child was able to completely recognize every word that they read, but understood the meanings of none of those words, that the child would still have some reading comprehension from their word recognition skills. This multiplication formula shows that that is not necessarily true.
For example, if we were to take this child’s 100% word recognition abilities and equate that to 1, then their lack of language comprehension would equate to 0. Your equation would look like the following in this case:
1 x 0 = 0
By changing the equation from addition to multiplication, we can clearly see that if a child is missing skills in one area, it detracts from overall reading comprehension. If math wasn’t your best subject, allow me to explain in different terms.
If a child is able to recognize and read every word and letter sound on their page, then they might appear to be able to read. However, if they are unable to understand the meaning of the text that they are reading, then have they really accomplished reading comprehension? Prior to the professional development seminar I attended on Valentine’s Day, I had not heard of this model for The Simple View of Reading. While this definition doesn’t tell us everything about the Science of Reading, I thought it was one of the best explanations for The Simple View of Reading that I had seen.
The Future
If this equation sparked interest in you like it did in me, then you might be wondering where to go next for more in depth explanations of the Science of Reading. I would recommend checking out the Podcast Sold A Story by APM Reports. This podcast initially sparked my journey down the Science of Reading path. It wonderfully highlights how instrumental targeted instruction in literacy can be for a vast majority of learners across the globe.
Annaliese Melvin (she/they) is a children’s librarian at a neighborhood library in Washington, D.C. Originally from Pennsylvania, she moved to the DC-area in 2020 to become a special education teacher after graduating from Arcadia University. In 2023, she graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a degree in Library and Information Science and transitioned into the library field. She is passionate about equity, inclusion, reading, and Philadelphia sports. Please note that as a guest post, the views expressed here do not represent the official position of ALA or ALSC.If you are interested in submitting a guest post, you can learn more here and fill out our Guest Blogging Interest Form.
This post addresses ALSC Core Competencies 1.4, 1.5, and 7.2