Structured Literacy and Typical Literacy Practices: Understanding Differences to Create Instructional Opportunities

A key feature of structured literacyA science-based approach to literacy instruction that is explicit, systematic, and cumulative. It is based on decades of research showing that students need to know how the alphabetic code works and have sufficient language comprehension in order to understand what they read. (SL) includes, “explicit, systematic, and sequential teaching of literacy at multiple levels — phonemesThe smallest parts of spoken language that combine to form words. , letter–sound relationships, syllableA word or word part that contains one vowel sound. patterns, morphemes, vocabularyKnowledge of the meaning and pronunciation of words. , sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structureDifferent ways of organizing the information in texts depending on their purpose. . SL is especially well suited to students with dyslexiaA language-based learning disability that affects reading. because it directly addresses their core weaknesses in phonological skills, decodingThe ability to translate a word from print to speech by using your knowledge of sound–symbol (letter) correspondences. , and spelling. If implemented in Tier 1 instruction and tiered interventions, SL practices may also prevent or ameliorate a wide range of other reading difficulties. See full report