One benefit of running a grant program is that we hear directly from classroom educators, literacy coaches, and administrators. Part of our process is to understand the challenges that literacy and content teachers face in helping their students achieve reading fluency.

Many of you have reached out to express that, despite professional learning, science of reading materials, and evidence-based assessments, your students still struggle with reading fluency and comprehension. A central theme in the comments can be summarized as follows:

What we’re doing is not working.

This holds true across the country. It’s a significant issue whether students are failing to make general progress or having difficulty transferring skills to new content, even with systematic and explicit instruction. Educators tell us that they struggle with how to help their students, especially in grades 3-8. At this time, they have trouble decoding multisyllabic words, reading words quickly and effortlessly, and understanding what they are reading, especially as the content becomes more complex.

It’s important to recognize that this is occurring nationwide, across every school system—whether urban, suburban, or rural—regardless of school type or program, and in schools with both high and low enrollments.

Here are some of the issues that educators shared with us:

• Many are struggling, with less than 50% of students reading proficiently.
• Many of the middle school students who are reading below grade level have “shaky” foundational skills.
• Many are using explicit instruction, intervention, and evidence-based reading products, but they don’t work for all students, especially those in Tier 2 and Tier 3.
• Some educators are looking for more help, especially with English language learners and students with dyslexia.
• Some students perform well on early benchmark tests but then decline sharply in 3rd grade.
• Even with science-of-reading-based materials, some students find it difficult to generalize their knowledge and apply it in new contexts.

How WordFlight Helps Students Reach Fluency

In this upcoming series of blog posts, we’ll address these challenges and share how WordFlight’s “secret sauce” aids students in achieving fluency and comprehension. We’ll explore how the elements of the science of learning integrate with the science of reading to support students in reaching fluency. While the science of reading and structured literacy provide support for building foundational elements, many students require additional practice to integrate, generalize, and automatically apply these skills. Findings from the science of learning can ensure that students receive the appropriate kind of practice to help them retain knowledge and apply it later and develop automatic skills.

The most pressing question we’ve heard from educators is, “Why do our science of reading interventions succeed for some students but not for others—especially students qualifying for Tier 2 and Tier 3 instruction?”

Others include:

• How do we address interventions for middle school students who have shaky foundational skills and are reading far below grade level?
• Why are students doing well with early benchmark tests but dropping precipitously in 3rd grade?

In this series of blogs, we will address these questions, share how learning principles are integrated into WordFlight, and explain exactly why this intervention program is effective—because it is. Some students require certain types of practice to reach the finish line.

And I want to hear from you, too. Are you having similar challenges? What other problems are you seeing with intermediate and middle school readers who haven’t mastered foundational skills? Let’s make this a conversation. Send me a note at Carolyn@WordFlight.com