Back to school 2020 will be like no other in history. As districts, schools, and families begin to work through educational plans for the new academic year, educators must address student learning loss during the extended spring school closure—known as the COVID slide. School reopening plans will vary, depending on many safety, social, and economic factors. However, one thing will be certain: teachers must have valid ways to reliably assess where students are in their progression of learning.

Learning to read in a language you are simultaneously learning to speak and understand is more complicated than learning to read in a language you already know. This is the challenge faced by millions of English learners (ELs) whose English proficiency is low and school achievement generally poor. What do we know about teaching English learners to read and write and develop as English readers and writers?

In 2018, Alabama provided a professional learning opportunity for teachers of preK—3 students to learn about the science of reading. The response to the blended course of face-to-face training and online modules was overwhelmingly positive and well received. After just one face-to-face training, teachers openly expressed this new knowledge was vital to their success in reaching struggling readers. Teachers acknowledged they wanted quality professional learning that would help them to better teach their children by understanding the what, why, and how of the science of reading in teaching early literacy skills. Funds were invested in the pilot early literacy initiative LETRS® (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) training. This initiative is a joint collaborative partnership with the Alabama Department of Early Childhood Education and the Alabama State Department of Education. Both have been committed to supporting further implementation of the pilot.

Presentations, webinars, discussions, and blogs about the “Science of Reading” seem to be everywhere these days. These sessions, often with Emily Hanford’s work at the center, cover so much groundbreaking information and generate a lot of empowering conversations, making it all the more exciting to watch the momentum surrounding this topic build. However, these sessions often end with two questions still unanswered in our minds.

Sound walls are becoming more common in classrooms thanks to a clearer understanding of the science of reading. We need to understand why a sound wall is set up differently than an A–Z alphabetical word wall and how to use a sound wall effectively to elevate daily instruction during Tier 1 by reviewing the 44 speech sounds and the options for spelling each of the sounds.

In the years since the National Reading Panel (NRP, 2000) identified essential components for teaching reading and likely long before, the “PH” terms, phonemic awareness and phonics have often been confused, conflated, and used interchangeably. Yet it is essential to have a common language and a deep understanding of each of these terms to maximize instruction.