From Knowing Better to Teaching Better "They can read all the words." It's one of the most common phrases educators hear. But accurate reading and fluent reading are not the same thing. In this installment of The Science of Reading in Action, Doc Holbrook explores why fluency is the bridge between decoding and comprehension, practical routines teachers can use tomorrow, and how school leaders can recognize strong fluency instruction in action. Read the full post on Substack a

From Knowing Better to Teaching Better Most educators know phonics instruction should be explicit, systematic, and cumulative. But what does that actually look like in practice? In this installment of The Science of Reading in Action, Doc Holbrook explores what effective phonics instruction sounds like in classrooms, why consistency matters more than finding the "perfect" program, and what administrators should be looking for during classroom walkthroughs. Read the full post

Why so many bright students reach high school without ever truly learning how to write The other day, my daughter announced that she wanted to apply to a few Ivy League schools. And of course, Oxford. (I mean… who doesn’t want to go to Oxford?) She is in ninth grade. Extremely bright. School has always come easily to her. She was one of those children who, at four years old, simply started reading. No struggle. No intervention. No concern. Like many parents of high schoolers,