There has been much debate about high-stakes testing in this past year and particularly as students have returned to in-person learning with the uncertainty of remaining in person.

Structured Literacy (SL) approaches share a focus on certain types of content, and they exemplify specific instructional features.

One pervasive myth about dyslexia is that students with this neurobiological difference can’t or won’t learn to read. Fortunately, research indicates that this is not the case.

The simple view of reading states that reading comprehension is the product of word recognition and language comprehension. This simple, yet powerful, equation informs both my beginning-of-the-year assessments and the reading interventions I provide for my third-grade students. Since my end goal is reading comprehension, I need to assess and support my students in both their word-recognition skills and their language comprehension abilities

During normal times, two groups of students have been at the heart of my literacy work. They are our fragile readers—fragile because they are young and just beginning to read, or fragile because they are older students who haven’t read well for years. As we navigate through these COVID years, we continue to hear messages of hope for these students.

I have often heard third grade described as the year students shift from learning to read to reading to learn. And while there is accuracy to that statement, I have found that third grade feels more like the year we juggle between supporting students who are still learning to read and engaging those who are reading to learn.