Literacy instruction is a vast and ever-changing field. Distilling decades of research on reading and writing into an expedient and practical guide, educator and author Nathaniel Hansford provides an indispensable resource for educators who want to understand the science behind literacy and empower their own teaching. Gain a reliable and objective, evidence-based overview of what’s truly effective for improving student literacy outcomes.
K–12 teachers and administrators can use this book to: - Learn how to interpret, parse, and better engage with educational research
- Review and examine comprehensive summaries of pivotal research on literacy instruction
- Understand the evolution of continuing historical debates on effective literacy instruction
- Examine meta-analyses to critically evaluate popular teaching methods
- Evaluate the effectiveness of the most common literacy teaching methods
Contents: Introduction
Part 1: Understanding Educational Research Chapter 1: How to Understand the Types of Educational Research
Chapter 2: How to Read and Interpret Educational Research
Chapter 3: The Scientific Principles of Teaching
Part 2: Exploring Research on Reading Instruction Chapter 4: Phonemic Awareness
Chapter 5: Advanced Phonemic Awareness Instruction
Chapter 6: The Reading Wars
Chapter 7: Phonics Scope and Sequence
Chapter 8: Morphology
Chapter 9: Fluency
Chapter 10: Comprehension
Chapter 11: Reading Comprehension and the Dose Effect
Chapter 12: Secondary Meta-Analyses on Reading Comprehension
Part 3: Exploring Research on Writing Instruction Chapter 13: The Reading-Writing Connection
Chapter 14: Handwriting
Chapter 15: Spelling
Chapter 16: Writing
Part 4: Examining the Nuances of Literacy Instruction Debates Chapter 17: Linguistic Phonics
Chapter 18: Decodable Texts
Chapter 19: Sight Words
Chapter 20: Sound Walls
Chapter 21: Embedded Mnemonics
Chapter 22: Multisensory Phonics Instruction
Part 5: Reviewing Practical Recommendations for the Classroom Chapter 23: Secondary Meta-Analysis on Literacy Instruction Research
Chapter 24: Support for Striving Readers and Writers
Epilogue: Putting It All Together
Glossary
References and Resources
Index
Nathaniel Hansford has taught every grade from preK to 12, in places like South Korea, the United Kingdom, the subarctic region of Quebec, and Ontario, Canada. In 2022, he won the Literacy Leader of the Year award from the Ontario International Dyslexia Association. Nathaniel’s previous book is The Scientific Principles of Teaching: Bridging the Divide Between Educational Practice and Research. He has also written hundreds of articles on the science of teaching. He is most interested in using meta-analysis research to help teachers implement methodologies that have been proven to work.
Nathaniel graduated from Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, with a bachelor of education and a bachelor of arts in history. He also holds eleven additional teaching qualifications, including a specialist in reading and in special education. To learn more about Nathaniel’s work in education, visit teachingbyscience.com, or follow @Natejoseph19 on X.
