Editor's Note: This article is adapted from our live webinar, "Building a Strong Reading Foundation for District-Wide Success" featuring Dr. D. Ray Reutzel, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for the School of the Future, Utah State University.
💡 Want to watch the full discussion? Access the on-demand webinar recording here.
- Blending and segmenting drive phonemic awareness gains. In the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis, blending and segmenting alone produced an effect size of 0.67, compared with 0.76 for every phonemic awareness task combined.
- About 20 hours of phonemic awareness is enough. After roughly 20 total hours, the effect size drops by 65%, which works out to about four to five minutes a day from late preschool to mid-first grade.
- A letter a day beats a letter a week. Teaching one letter per day lets students cycle through the alphabet six or seven times a year instead of about one and a half.
- Phonics is prevention, not a cure. According to Dr. Reutzel, phonics taught after a reading difficulty appears loses about half its effect.
- 107 high-frequency words cover 50% of adult reading. Teachers do not need hundreds of sight words to get students reading well.
- Every phonics lesson should end in connected text. Students need to blend words, read a decodable, spell words, and take dictation with each new pattern.
What is the Science of Reading, and what is it not?
The Science of Reading is a body of research, not a curriculum, program, or professional development package. Dr. Reutzel pointed to the International Literacy Association's definition: a corpus of peer-reviewed, objective investigation that has accumulated reliable evidence about how humans learn to read over decades.
He drew a sharp line between two related fields. The Science of Reading describes how children become proficient readers, while the science of reading instruction tests which teaching methods actually work. They are separate bodies of research, and districts need both.
Underneath both sit two familiar models. Scarborough's Reading Rope braids language comprehension and word recognition together. Phil Gough's Simple View of Reading states it as math: decoding times language comprehension equals reading comprehension.
That means comprehension instruction starts early. Dr. Reutzel recommends teaching kindergartners to comprehend through read-alouds, so that when their decoding catches up, they already have the mental strategies to understand what they read. Background knowledge matters just as much, since he estimates about 80% of comprehension depends on what a reader brings to the text.
Why is learning to read so hard for young children?
Learning to read asks four- and five-year-olds to do some of the most abstract, formal thinking they will ever encounter. Citing psychologist Daniel Willingham's book The Reading Mind, Dr. Reutzel described the reader's job as reversing the writer's work: turning print back into the speech that was once in the writer's mind.
To do that, children must tell letters apart, hear individual sounds in the speech stream, and learn how those symbols and sounds map onto each other. The ability to discriminate speech sounds is not a natural human ability, which is why so many children struggle and why they need a teacher who understands how the brain does this work.
Orthographic patterns ease the load. A child blending the word "height" sound by sound juggles four pieces at once, while a child who recognizes "ight" as a single chunk does far less work. Over time, the phonological route and the orthographic route combine until most words become sight words.
"I don't think we really understand what we're asking these little ones to do."
Dr. D. Ray ReutzelWhere should phonemic awareness time go?
Phonemic awareness time belongs almost entirely to blending and segmenting individual sounds. Rhyming, alliteration, and syllable work form "the little runway," as Dr. Reutzel put it, but the takeoff happens at the phoneme level.
The effect size for blending and segmenting alone in the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis. Adding deletions, substitutions, and every other manipulation only raised it to 0.76. The threshold researchers such as John Hattie consider worth caring about is 0.4.
"Where's the money?" Dr. Reutzel asked. "It's in blending and segmenting." He urged teachers to stop spending time on tasks that do not bring home results and focus on the two skills that do.
Time matters too. The same meta-analysis found that after about 20 total hours of phonemic awareness instruction, the effect size drops by 65%. Spread across late preschool, kindergarten, and the first half of first grade, that is roughly four to five minutes a day, not the 20- or 30-minute lessons found in many published programs.
Three more findings shape how that time is used:
- Pair sounds with letters quickly. The effect size rises when phonemic awareness is coupled with letters. Dr. Reutzel suggests teaching three consonants and two short vowels, then making words right away.
- Use small groups. Unlike phonics, phonemic awareness instruction has its largest effect size in small groups, where children can actually hear sounds in a noisy classroom.
- Treat segmenting as the harder skill. Segmenting is more cognitively demanding than blending, which is likely why DIBELS uses phoneme segmentation fluency as its end-of-kindergarten indicator.
What is the best way to teach alphabet letters?
The strongest letter instruction teaches every part of a letter at once, at a pace of one letter per day. Dr. Reutzel cited a meta-analysis by Shayne Piasta and Richard Wagner showing that multicomponential instruction works best.
That means a single 10- to 12-minute lesson covers the letter's shape, name, sound, and formation, along with uppercase and lowercase forms, a picture association such as a turtle for T, and quick sorting and discrimination tasks. Knowing a letter is a surprisingly complex act, and the ability to learn letters is highly related to the ability to learn advanced mathematics, because both are formal, abstract learning.
A letter a week
Students move through the alphabet about one and a half times a year. There is little spaced practice or interleaving, and a child who changes schools midyear may miss a letter entirely.
A letter a day with distributed review
Students cycle through all 26 letters every 26 instructional days, reaching six or seven repetitions a year. Spaced practice strengthens memory, and a child who arrives midyear still meets every letter.
Preschool looks different. Dr. Reutzel does not recommend daily letter lessons for pre-K. Instead, he advises exposing children to letters through alphabet books and songs, and teaching each child to write their given name. Drawing on research by Laura Justice and others, he noted that writing their own name is the number one reason young children want to learn letters.
What makes phonics instruction systematic?
Systematic phonics follows a planned, shared sequence of phonics elements that every teacher in a school follows. There is no research-proven order for teaching letters and sounds, Dr. Reutzel stressed, so the sequence is a decision, but it must be a decision everyone plays along with.
Incidental phonics, where the week's letter depends on the book being read, leaves gaps. If no book contains a Q or an X, those letters never get taught.
"Phonics taught after there's a reading difficulty loses half its effect on kids. It's more powerful as a prevention than as a cure."
Dr. D. Ray ReutzelThe research he summarized is encouraging. Systematic phonics is effective whether taught to individuals, small groups, or whole classes. It helps kindergartners and first graders spell, and it helps children at every socioeconomic level. Children from low-income families showed the greatest gains, with an effect size 50% greater than for other students.
He also offered constraints that make the work manageable for teachers:
- Six syllable patterns for early reading, starting with the short-vowel CVC pattern and moving through final silent E, vowel teams, r-controlled vowels, diphthongs, and consonant-le.
- Marilyn Adams's 37 common chunks, which students can use to read and write about 1,000 words.
- About 44 sounds and roughly 96 spellings, a known set size that should be covered by the end of second grade, with morphology taking over from there.
- Reliable patterns first. Teach the most useful, dependable patterns early and bring in the exceptions as students meet harder, uncontrolled text.
How many sight words do students actually need?
Students need far fewer sight words than most lists suggest. Dr. Reutzel pointed to a 1990s word-count study showing that just 107 words make up 50% of the words adults read.
That is all it takes to cover half of adult reading. Earlier studies by Thorndike and Lorge found that 25 words account for 33.4% of all reading, and a single word, "the," accounts for about 5%.
A target of 107 words from kindergarten through second grade is one teachers can actually reach, while lists of 300 or more are not. His test for mastery is simple: if students cannot write a sight word, they do not yet know it.
How can districts move teachers from knowing phonics to applying it?
Districts move teachers toward application by building connected text and writing into every single phonics lesson. One district leader in the audience said her team had agreed on a scope and sequence but was "stuck on just knowing it." Dr. Reutzel's answer was a daily routine with four non-negotiable parts.
Blend isolated words
Students blend words that match the pattern being taught, such as the EA vowel team. Start with words that conform to the pattern, then teach a strategy for trying another sound when the pattern does not hold.
Why it matters: blending is the daily game, and it gives students a reliable foothold.Read a decodable with that pattern
Students immediately apply the pattern in connected text. As Dr. Heidi Anne Mesmer of Virginia Tech has explained, decodables help children become more accurate, rely less on the teacher, and apply phonics more often.
Why it matters: no phonics lesson should end without reading a text.Spell individual words
Students flip the process, segmenting words into sounds and writing the letters that represent them.
Why it matters: reading goes one direction and writing goes the other, and students need both.Take written dictation
Students write sentences that combine the new pattern with patterns learned earlier.
Why it matters: dictation shows whether students have fully processed the code in both directions.Dr. Reutzel connected this routine to a familiar pain point. Many first graders struggle the first time they take the DIBELS oral reading fluency measure midyear, because they have not been applying phonics in text during kindergarten and early first grade. The fix is to get students into text sooner and have them read more of it.
His partner schools also set clear benchmarks: kindergartners blending 30 correct nonsense words per minute by year end, and students spelling eight dictated CVC words in one minute. He proposed reading targets that climb evenly, 30, 60, and 90 words correct per minute across kindergarten, first, and second grade, so each grade carries the same weight.
What should districts stop teaching?
Districts can strengthen instruction by removing lessons that do not help children read words. Dr. Reutzel recommended the idea of de-implementation: go through the scope and sequence and carve out what does not belong.
His examples included finding the accented syllable, labeling open and closed syllables, and memorizing long lists of syllable division rules. A reader only knows whether a syllable is open or closed after pronouncing the word, so the label does not help a child get to the word. Instead, teach a few flexible rules and let students try pronunciations until one sounds right.
Central offices can also take work off teachers' plates. Because no publisher can match every district's sequence, Dr. Reutzel advised districts to choose a sequence and bring the books to it, ideally with a district-made list of which decodables fit each point in the sequence. He pointed to Success Academy in New York, where central office staff build these resources so teachers can focus on teaching.
How can teachers build their own knowledge of reading?
Teachers can close gaps from their preparation programs through focused professional learning in language and linguistics. Dr. Reutzel identified two "gaping holes" in most teacher preparation today: applied linguistics and the cognitive science of how the brain processes language.
He recommended LETRS training or Dr. Louisa Moats's earlier books on language for teachers. Utah, where he helped author Senate Bill 127, now requires LETRS for every administrator, teacher, and coach, and holds preparation programs to a mandatory pass rate on a Science of Reading foundations exam. "You can't teach reading without a knowledge of language," he said.
How can districts support struggling and multilingual readers?
Districts support struggling readers best by targeting instruction to a small number of reader profiles, not by treating every student as a unique case. Dr. Reutzel cited a 2004 study by Sheila Valencia and Marsha Riddle Buly in The Reading Teacher, which found only six types of struggling readers, one of whom has a true disability that requires specialist support.
He has helped middle and high school teachers use their PLC data to sort struggling readers into those profiles and teach to each one. The teachers "are loving it. They feel empowered by it."
For multilingual learners and dialect differences, his guidance was specific:
- Point out phonological differences. Languages differ most at the sound level, so English learners need explicit help hearing and producing English sounds that do not exist in their home language.
- Respect the dialect. Children should learn to hear the sounds in the spoken language they are immersed in, not a standard pronunciation layered over it.
- Get close to the ear. Noisy classrooms distort sounds, so small groups and quieter settings help children hear what they need to hear.
Older struggling readers bring one more consideration. They often choose information books they cannot read in order to look like capable readers. Age-appropriate, high-interest decodables let them practice without feeling singled out.
What does this look like in a real district?
Fulton County Schools in Georgia shows what a sustained, district-wide Science of Reading effort can achieve. As shared during the session, the district's 11 transformational schools had reached 55 to 56% of students reading on grade level in 2018 before the pandemic pushed that figure down to 42.1%.
The district responded with a major investment in Science of Reading work, including LETRS training and our Take-Everywhere Literacy Packs™, which sent personalized, data-matched decodables home with every student across 11 rounds during the year. Students in those schools rebounded from 42% to 47% reading on grade level.
The work was many-sided, and the district is continuing it in the five schools still on its priority list. It reflects the heart of Dr. Reutzel's message: when instruction is systematic and children practice in real text at school, home, and everywhere, reading growth follows.
Frequently asked questions
How much phonemic awareness instruction do students need?
According to the National Reading Panel findings Dr. Ray Reutzel shared, about 18 to 20 total hours of phonemic awareness instruction is enough. After roughly 20 hours, the effect size drops by 65%. Spread from late preschool through the middle of first grade, that equals about four to five minutes a day.
Which phonemic awareness skills matter most?
Blending and segmenting individual phonemes matter most. In the National Reading Panel meta-analysis, blending and segmenting alone produced an effect size of 0.67, while adding every other phonemic awareness task only raised it to 0.76. Segmenting is the harder of the two skills.
Should teachers teach a letter a day or a letter a week?
Research shared by Dr. Reutzel shows a letter a day produces significantly better results than a letter a week. A daily pace lets students cycle through the alphabet six or seven times a year, giving them spaced practice. A weekly pace covers the alphabet only about one and a half times.
Should preschoolers get daily letter lessons?
Dr. Reutzel does not recommend daily letter lessons in preschool. Instead, preschool teachers can read alphabet books, sing letter songs, and teach each child to write their given name. Research by Laura Justice and others shows writing their own name is young children's top reason for wanting to learn letters.
How many sight words should K–2 students learn?
About 107 high-frequency words make up 50% of the words adults read, according to a 1990s word-count study Dr. Reutzel cited. That makes 107 words a realistic kindergarten through second grade target. Students should be able to write each word, not just read it.
What should every phonics lesson include?
Every phonics lesson should include four parts: blending isolated words with the target pattern, reading a decodable that features the pattern, spelling individual words, and taking written dictation. Dr. Reutzel said no phonics lesson should end without students reading connected text.
Is there a research-proven phonics scope and sequence?
No. Dr. Reutzel explained that research does not identify one correct order for teaching letters and sounds. What matters is that a district chooses a planned, logical sequence, that every teacher follows it, and that decodables are matched to it.
When should phonics instruction end?
Dr. Reutzel said phonics instruction should generally be complete by the end of second grade, covering about 44 sounds and roughly 96 spellings. After that, instruction should shift toward morphology, unless a student has a diagnosed reason to continue phonics work.
Dr. D. Ray Reutzel
Senior Research Fellow, Center for the School of the Future, Utah State UniversityDr. Reutzel has published more than 235 articles, chapters, and books on early literacy and received over $17 million in research funding. He is former dean of the College of Education at the University of Wyoming and held the Emma Eccles Jones Endowed Chair and Distinguished Professorship at Utah State University for 14 years. His K–3 literacy research earned the International Literacy Association's William S. Gray Citation of Merit, and he is an elected member and former president of the Reading Hall of Fame.
Building a Strong Reading Foundation for District-Wide Success
Hear Dr. Ray Reutzel walk through the research on phonemic awareness, letters, and phonics, and answer questions from district leaders in the live Q&A.
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