I'm not aware of any science of reading laws that say only teach decoding.

In some places in the US they are made to follow it and some DO overdo it. I'm in the part of the country where students come to me guessing words and not reading in 3rd/4th grade bc their teachers didn't teach explicit phonics.

You would need to diagnose whether they can generalize those skills or have just memorized a lot of words, if they can spell. If those things are in place, there's nothing in the science of reading that says they couldn't get more tailored instruction.

A program can provide that knowledge. So can an intensive like LETRS, but it changes teacher knowledge, not necessarily practice.A strong program like UFLI can give teachers knowledge and change practice at the same time.

I think the question "are we over teaching phonics?" is not as helpful as "what's optimal and how can we make out practice more effective."

It seems like you're assuming teachers have this knowledge, but most did not receive training on it.

From what we know it's the process of decoding that leads to words being stored in long term memory. When you read a word with multiple meanings, all meanings you know are activated. That's the point at which context becomes really important.

I don't know how old your kids are, but this becomes problematic as they get older. The research says that we are pretty bad at using context to fill in a word that we've only partially read.

Skilled readers DO process every letter in a word; it's just that it happens automatically.

I do think we can over-teach phonics. 20-30 minutes daily seems to be enough time. But we can also under-teach it, and seeing the results of that is pretty dire.

So saying, "trust teacher judgment" sounds great. But I've found that one of the most reliable ways to build that judgment - when it comes to something as highly-technical as phonics? Teaching a relatively scripted program created by experts.

... to generate new ones inferentially. Most teachers also have limited training in how to understand the relationships between sounds and spellings. I've worked with teachers who have asked me to tell them the sounds of each of the letters, because they never learned them.

... They would likely read "fat-her" which is hard to flexibly shift to "father." However. If they do know <th> spells /th/ they likely can get close enough to figure it out.

The trouble is, we don't have a good way to tell when a reader has enough knowledge of sounds and spellings ...

I DO make use of implicit learning in my practice. However, your description isn't really how reading works.

Skilled readers have a circuit that links sound-visual-meaning. They don't start with "hearing' father. They see the letters.

If they have not learned that <th> can spell /th/...

As an advocate of the "science of reading," I feel fairly confident there is no research that says kids have to know the term diphthong. Anyone advertising that as SOR is full of it

OK, but I live 40 minutes from Idaho and what works in Idaho absolutely would not work on the coasts... unless the coasts are down for creating a Christian nationalist separatist state.

I feel sick to my stomach waiting around to see what atrocity Trump has in mind for the people of Iran this evening. It's hard to fathom our other elected leaders aren't able to check him in any meaningful way. It's an indictment not just of voters but of our whole system. We're ruled by a mad king.

Also, the new ELA standards could not be more aligned to UFLI if they tried... which maybe they did.

UFLI is really gold standard for foundational skills.

Frustrating that the digital piece is so important to funding because many districts are now realizing they went too far with screen time during school.

It looks like Emerge does one of my pet peeves, teaching “blends” as a separate unit. This increases cognitive load on students as they have to remember more units!

A typical program from a big vendor. The best programs out there are relatively low-cost or even open source, based around trade books, not basals. None of those on the list.

Workbook. It looks like the readings are embedded in it, but I’m not 100%.

I paid $4.80 a gallon yesterday.

Solidarity on this St. Patrick's Day.

Sen. Padilla (D-CA) "¿Cómo puede el pueblo salvar el pueblo? Alzando nuestras voces, marchando, organizando nuestras comunidades, y votando."

This is how we save ourselves: marching, organizing & voting. ✊🗳️ #SOTU2026

Together we can build a thriving economy & future. votolatino.org/vote

One important thing to note about this SOTU is that it's just a bad speech on top of everything.

(Also, what is up with Trump's hair? I guess no one had the courage to tell him he had ablittle flag of hair poking up.)

I once coached a teacher who told his 4th graders they could make up statistics to put in their essays. So they would write something like, "According to friends dot com, 94% of kids like friends."

Apparently, those kids grew up to work in the Trump administration.

There is just a lot of wrong history in that speech. So much for meritocracy!

Does Trump want the Stock Market to perform the halftime show next year?

And he’s critical of ICE.

I’ve long thought that schools could learn a lot from summer camps.

Every Living Thing: The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life The Great and Deadly Race to Know All Life

Every Living Thing by Jason Roberts. I listened to the audio but may get the physical book just so it can be part of my library.

bookshop.org/p/books/ever...