Free Brain Space!

Every year when standardized test results rolled in reading comprehension scores were an area of weakness. Year after year we worked to improve this school-wide. As teachers we found out the hard way that more and more reading comprehension practice did not improve reading comprehension. It was only after trying a different approach to fixing the comprehension problem did we see gains. Teaching students explicit phonics to the point of automaticity and how to effectively use the sounds for decoding was the key to marked improvement in comprehension.
As a committee member for, The Prevention of Reading Difficulties in Young Children, Marilyn Adams commented, “In fact, the automaticity with which skillful readers recognize words is the key to the whole system…The reader’s attention can be focused on the meaning and message of a text only to the extent that it’s free from fussing with the words and letters.”

Researchers have found that the speed with which a child can read a sentence or paragraph is a vital force in how well he will be able to understand it. If he struggles with each word, he hasn’t the necessary “brain space” to think about the text as a whole. After years of working with students we find this true even at the word level. If he struggles with recalling the sounds, decoding new words is inaccurate or very slow.
STEPS encourages sound fluency and continues to quick blending of nonsense syllables in preparation to read words and connected text with speed and accuracy. Free up that brain space so your students can understand what they read. I'd even love to save enough brain space so that they can find their socks and pick them up!