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What Teachers Know of Structured Literacy and The Most Common Ways That

Structured Literacy Is Being Incorporated Into Curriculum

Brooke Harris

Longwood University

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Dr. Wendy Snow

April 4, 2021
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Abstract

The ways in which teachers are known to vary in their literacy teaching practices

continues to change and evolve from year to year. Literature plays a significant role in all of the

primary subjects that students are learning in school as well as what they are encountering

outside of school. It is essential that students obtain the strongest foundational grasp on literacy

that they can through the knowledge of phonemes, letter–sound relationships, syllable patterns,

morphemes, vocabulary, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structure, all of which

could be best achieved through structured literacy so that students can carry this information with

them as they venture through life. Structured literacy refers to evidence-based instructional

approaches that incorporate all aspects of spoken language into the teaching of reading, spelling,

and writing (Fallon & Katz, 2020). Within this research we dive into the structured literacy

approach in order to learn: what this approach consists of, what teachers know of this approach,

and what the most common ways are that teachers are incorporating structured literacy into the

curriculum.
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Literature Review: Introduction

As we know, literacy proficiency plays a key role in all subject areas. Unfortunately,

despite this factor, “more than 8 million American students in Grades 4 to 12 are not fluent

readers” and consequently, “more than 3,000 students drop out of high school every school day”

due to contributing factors related to poor reading and writing skills (Joshi et al, 2009). Of these

3.000 students that drop out of high school every day, “over 75% report difficulties learning to

read” (Joshi et al, 2009). Furthermore, “at least half of the adolescents with criminal records or

histories of substance abuse reportedly have reading problems” (Joshi et al, 2009). Lastly, when

examining the time through which students are in school “only 2% of the students who receive

remedial instruction for reading difficulties complete a 4-year post–high school degree” (Joshi et

al, 2009).

Literature Review: What Is Structured Literacy?

It is essential that efforts to improve education reform be put in place in order to change

the statistics mentioned above and to ensure that the focus is centered around the role of

literature in schools and the literary practices that accompany it. In order for literacy instruction

or intervention practices to be effective there should be an explicit linguistic focus just as there is

with structured literacy. Structured literacy refers to evidence-based instructional approaches that

incorporate all aspects of spoken language into the teaching of reading, spelling, and writing

(Fallon & Katz, 2020).

Structured literacy is set up in such a way that it is designed in a format that is meant to

be taught in an explicit, systematic, and sequential manner that is interactive at multiple levels;

sounds (phonology), letters (orthography), meaning (morphology), vocabulary (semantics),

grammar (syntax), syllable patterns, sentence structure, paragraph structure, and text structure
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(Collins et al, 2020). Furthermore, this instruction should encompass guided practice and direct

supervision with immediate feedback. This needs to be done in order to reach various types of

students by narrowing in on the development of morphological skills in students with spoken and

written language impairments, especially those with dyslexia (Fallon & Katz, 2020).

Structured literacy uses increased student-teacher interaction to ensure cumulative

practice of examples, nonexamples, decodable text, and corrective feedback that will then be

incorporated into an ongoing review of content (Spear-Swerling, 2019). Additionally, students

need to learn self-monitoring and self-regulation skills effectively as well in order to ensure that

they are aware of their own difficulties, can think critically to solve problems they encounter,

and can appropriately solve those problems as they come upon them.

“Structured literacy programs that emphasize development of phonemic awareness to an

advanced level may be more effective than other structured literacy programs in helping poor

decoders attain automatic word recognition” (Spear-Swerling, 2019). Structured literacy can be

differentiated for high-achieving students as well, while at the same time targeting the originally

intended at-risk students in an effort to get them identified earlier (Spear-Swerling, 2019).

Literature Review: What Do Teachers Know of Structured Literacy and What Are The

Most Common Ways That Structured Literacy Is Being Incorporated Into Curriculum?

After investigating teachers' knowledge of structured literacy, I have found that the

knowledge of teachers within the field is growing; however, there is still much work to be done.

Many teachers are aware of what structured literacy is and what the benefits are but a disconnect

remains. Teachers don't know enough about structured literacy to feel confident that they can

successfully incorporate it into their classroom and use it effectively to ensure their students'

success so they choose instead to stick with methods that they are familiar with. Ultimately, this
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remaining disconnect proves that there needs to be an increased focus on providing teachers with

professional development opportunities centered around how to incorporate structured literacy

into curriculum.

Literature Review: What Would It Take To Implement System Wide Structured Literacy?

The consensus of research concurs that “Multilinguistic structured literacy intervention

with a morphological awareness focus is an ideal approach to improve literacy skills of children

and adolescents with language literacy deficits” (Collins et al, 2020) there just needs to be

higher levels of effort put into its implementation if we expect to ever see the true outcomes of

such an approach within schools.

Efforts towards implementation should start in teacher preparation programs but then

primarily focus on sending professionals in the instruction of structured literacy out to various

schools in order to host professional development opportunities centered around how to

incorporate structured literacy into curriculum.

These professional development opportunities should not only go the distance to provide

these teachers with some examples of lessons that they can then use within their classrooms but

also as a model when planning future lessons of similar content. By providing teachers with

model lessons as to how they themselves can then replicate such lessons and expand on them in

order to take their instruction to another level, it is in this way that teachers will really grasp the

concept of structured literacy so that it can be incorporated into curriculum in schools across the

country.
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Methods

Research Question What Would It Take To Implement System

Wide Structured Literacy?

Methodology Interviews, Intervention, & Follow Ups

Participants Teacher prep program directors from colleges

and universities across the country will be
interviewed regarding what they are doing to
teach teachers structured literacy as well as
how they are ensuring that these teachers are
confident to continue teaching literacy in this
manner after they leave the program. School
districts and school principles from various
areas and socioeconomic areas will be
interviewed regarding what it will take within
their schools to get the positive outcomes of
structured literacy into their teachers
“toolboxes” and how to best support these
teachers in implementation of such content.

Context These interviews will be conducted within

group settings grouped upon similarities so
that teacher prep programs, school districts,
and schools that may face similar difficulties
in enforcing structured literacy will be able to
bounce ideas off of each other as to how to
best accomplish this goal.

Outcome Measure Outcomes of the effectiveness of the efforts to

the implementation of structured literacy will
be measured throughout the year. (October,
December, March, May)

Hypothesis I predict that the monitoring of structured

literacy teacher prep preparation, teacher prep
confidence, teacher knowledge, teacher
confidence, and teacher support of
implementation will all lead to significantly
more structured literacy found in schools
across the country and therefore increased
student literacy rates.
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References

Collins, G., Wolter, J. A., Meaux, A. B., & Alonzo, C. N. (2020). Integrating Morphological Awareness

in a Multilinguistic Structured Literacy Approach to Improve Literacy in Adolescents With

Reading and/or Language Disorders. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 51(3),

531–543. https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1044/2020_LSHSS-19-00053

Fallon, K. A., & Katz, L. A. (2020). Structured Literacy Intervention for Students With Dyslexia: Focus

on Growing Morphological Skills. Language, Speech & Hearing Services in Schools, 51(2), 336–

344. https://doi-org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1044/2019_LSHSS-19-00019

Joshi, R. M., Binks, E., Hougen, M., Dahlgren, M. E., Ocker-Dean, E., & Smith, D. L. (2009).

Why Elementary Teachers Might Be Inadequately Prepared to Teach Reading. Journal of

Learning Disabilities, 42(5), 392–402. https://doi-

org.proxy.longwood.edu/10.1177/0022219409338736

Macdonald, Pam. (2010). Paired Reading: A Structured Approach to Raising Attainment In Literacy.

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Pittman, R., Zhang S., Binks-Cantrell E., Hudson A. (2019). Teachers' knowledge about language

constructs related to literacy skills and student achievement in low socio ‐economic status schools.

Wiley Online Library, 26 (2), 200-219. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/dys.1628

Spear-Swerling, Louise. (2019). Structured Literacy and Typical Literacy Practices: Understanding

Differences to Create Instructional Opportunities. Teaching Exceptional Children.

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(2020).Translational Science: A Road Map for the Science of Reading. International Literacy

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