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Your score indicates that your class may

Need Work​​

Check out exactly where you can improve in the answer guide below!

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Research-Backed Answers

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1. While I’m teaching, my students have opportunities to practice: 

Around 20 times every 10 minutes

Research shows students need frequent, repeated practice (about 1.8 opportunities per minute) to build strong reading and writing skills effectively (Fien et al., 2015).

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2. The literacy curriculum I use has been vetted by an independent organization and verified to be following the Science of Reading: Yes, it is vetted.

Many programs claim to follow the Science of Reading but still include outdated practices. It's very important to follow a curriculum that has been independently vetted for following research-based principles (Seidenberg, 2013).

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3. When introducing a new letter-sound pair (phonics pattern), my students practice it: 

Many times across several days (over 70 times)

Learning new letter-sound relationships takes time and consistent repetition. While some students may learn quickly, many children need numerous guided practice opportunities across multiple sessions before they internalize these patterns and can apply them reliably in reading tasks (Wolf, 2015).

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4. When my students struggle to read a word, I: 

Help them learn to decode it by teaching them the letter-sound pairs.

Research shows that strong readers do not rely on pictures or context clues to guess unfamiliar words. Instead, they first decode the word using their knowledge of letter-sound relationships, and then use context only to confirm meaning. This phonics-based decoding strategy leads to more accurate and automatic word reading than guessing from pictures or context (National Reading Panel, 2000). 

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5. During phonics lessons, I show students how to position their mouth/tongue to make sounds: 

Yes - I frequently show mouth positions and do articulation cues for sounds.

Drawing attention to how sounds are formed in the mouth can boost students’ phonics learning. Studies indicate that when teachers explicitly teach the articulatory features of phonemes, children make stronger connections between sounds and letters (Castiglioni-Spalten & Ehri, 2003). 

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6. In teaching phonemic awareness (the understanding of sounds in spoken words), I: 

Pair sounds with letters as much as possible, showing written letters when we blend or segment sounds.

Combining phonemic awareness exercises with letters gives the biggest boost to decoding and spelling. Studies show that oral-only instruction reaches a plateau, while instruction that includes letters leads to stronger and more sustained literacy growth (Erbeli et al., 2024). 

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7. When planning my literacy instruction, I generally: 

Focus on just 1-2 new skills at a time, while continually reinforcing old skills.

Less is more when it comes to introducing new skills. Research shows it is far more effective to target just one or two new concepts and provide plenty of practice on those (while reviewing old skills alongside the new). This ensures depth of understanding and retention (Rosenshine, 2012). 

8. I incorporate activities like word building, word chaining, or word ladders (where students change one letter at a time in a word) as part of my reading instruction: In every lesson

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Word chaining or ladder activities (e.g. turning cap into cup into cusp, changing one letter at a time) are proven techniques in early literacy. They are especially powerful for teaching encoding (spelling). Such tasks require students to actively think about sounds and letters, which research shows strengthens their grasp of phonics patterns (Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, 2023). 

  1. Castiglioni-Spalten, M., & Ehri, L. C. (2003). Phonemic awareness instruction: Contribution of articulatory segmentation to novice beginners’ reading and spelling. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7(1), 25–52.

  2. Erbeli, F., Rice, M., Xu, Y., Bishop, M. E., & Goodrich, J. M. (2024). A Meta-Analysis on the Optimal Cumulative Dosage of Early Phonemic Awareness Instruction. Scientific Studies of Reading, 28(4), 345–370. https://doi.org/10.1080/10888438.2024.2309386

  3. Fien, H., Smith, J. L. M., Smolkowski, K., Baker, S. K., Nelson, N. J., & Chaparro, E. (2015). An examination of the efficacy of a multi-tiered intervention on early reading outcomes for first grade students at risk for reading difficulties. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 48(6), 602–621. Retrieved from https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED601958.pdf

  4. Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. (2023, March 14). Phonics and decoding. Mass Literacy: Evidence Based Early Literacy. https://www.doe.mass.edu/massliteracy/skilled-reading/fluent-word-reading/phonics-decoding.html

  5. National Reading Panel. (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication No. 00-4769). In Reading rockets: Phonics and decoding. Retrieved from https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/phonics-and-decoding/articles/teaching-alphabetic-code-phonics-and-decoding 

  6. Rosenshine, B. (2012). Principles of Instruction: Research-based strategies that all teachers should know (summary reprinted at 52papers.org). Retrieved from https://52papers.org/posts/year1week47 

  7. Seidenberg, M. S. (2013). The science of reading and its educational implications. Language Learning and Development, 9(4), 331–360. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4020782/#S3

  8. Wolf G. M. (2016). Letter-Sound Reading: Teaching Preschool Children Print-to-Sound Processing. Early childhood education journal, 44(1), 11–19. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-014-0685-y 

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