What is the Science of Teaching Reading?

In this blog post, I break down the science of teaching reading as both a certification exam and an instructional method. You will learn what the Fab Five components are, what explicit, systematic, and recursive instruction really means, and how to apply it all to two practice questions from my Science of Teaching Reading Study Guide.

Whether you are preparing for the Texas exam or another state's reading assessment, these concepts show up again and again. Let's get started.

What Is the Science of Teaching Reading?

The science of teaching reading means two different things, and it helps to keep them separate.

1. It's an exam. If you're becoming a teacher in Texas, there's a good chance you'll need to pass the Science of Teaching Reading (293) exam. Teachers in other states take different reading exams, but they all assess the same body of knowledge.
2. It's an instructional approach. The science of teaching reading is a research-based method of explicit, systematic, and recursive reading instruction. The goal is to build students' foundational skills so they can move along a continuum toward the real goal: reading comprehension.

If this feels different from how you learned to read, you're not imagining it. When I started elementary school in the 1980s, we had phonics, but it wasn't taught explicitly the way it is today. We didn't zero in on phonological and phonemic awareness or the more nuanced phonics skills. Fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension were part of the picture, but they weren't taught with the intention and structure they are now.

The Fab Five Components of Reading

Research, including the landmark 2000 National Reading Panel report, shows that five core skills are essential for learning to read. You'll often hear them called the Fab Five:

Each component has its own continuum, approaches, and strategies that you need to know for the exam. If you want to go deeper, take my free Teaching Reading Practice Test to see where you stand on each component and what to focus on next.

Explicit, Systematic, and Recursive Instruction Explained

Open the test specifications for this exam and you'll see the phrase explicit, systematic, and recursive over and over. Here's what each word means and what it looks like in a classroom.

Explicit: teach the skill directly

Explicit instruction means you isolate a skill and teach it directly through clear modeling, guided practice, and lots of repetition. Nothing is left for students to figure out on their own.

In phonological and phonemic awareness, for example, that might mean using nonsense words, calling out onset and rime, and asking students how many sounds they hear in a word. You keep going until students can identify, blend, segment, and delete sounds with ease.

Systematic: follow a planned sequence

Systematic means skills are taught in a deliberate order, from simple to complex. Think of it as a staircase. Students build on foundational skills step by step, climbing toward comprehension, which is the goal of everything we do.

The foundational skills generally build in this order: phonological and phonemic awareness, then phonics, then fluency. Vocabulary and comprehension sit at the top of the staircase, but they aren't saved for later. We build them from day one through read-alouds and rich oral language, even before students can read on their own.

This is a shift from older thinking. Many teachers once believed that simply immersing students in books would make them better readers. Immersion doesn't hurt, but research shows that pulling skills out and teaching them explicitly and in sequence is far more effective.

Recursive: go back to move forward

Recursive means revisiting and applying previously learned skills so students can tackle harder tasks.

Imagine a third grader who has mastered most grade-level phonics skills and reads at a strong words-correct-per-minute rate. Then she hits complex vocabulary in an informational science text. To tackle those words, she leans on skills she already knows: morphemic analysis (breaking words into prefixes, roots, and suffixes), orthographic mapping, and familiar phonics patterns.

Teaching students to draw on what they already know is exactly how they grow into more complex reading.

Becoming a Reading Scientist

The science of teaching reading asks you to act like a scientist in your classroom. Knowing how to teach each skill is only half the job. The other half is letting assessment drive your decisions.

That means using a mix of formative and summative, formal and informal assessments in a continuous cycle:

1. Collect data on what students can and can't do yet.
2. Analyze it to find each student's specific needs.
3. Group students flexibly, moving them in and out of groups as they grow.
4. Teach the exact skills each group needs.
5. Collect more data and start again.

You do this every single day. And it takes practice. You won't be a renowned reading scientist in your first year of teaching, and that's okay. For the exam, what matters is understanding how this cycle works and recognizing it in the answer choices.

How to Approach Exam Questions: Think Like a Test Maker

Before we dig into the practice questions, here's my strategy. I work backwards. I think like a test maker, not a test taker, and scan each answer choice for words to eliminate and words to zero in on.

Words that should catch your eye (in a good way): explicit, systematic, targeted, flexible grouping, ongoing assessment, progress monitoring, scaffolding, differentiation.

Red flags:

• Extreme language like always, never, only, and all. It's rarely correct.
• Delay or wait. This exam wants you to keep instruction moving and support students with scaffolding and differentiation.
• Routine for routine's sake, like "weekly practice" with no clear link to a specific need.
• Rigid grouping that stays the same for weeks regardless of student growth.
• Answers that don't match the problem. A good practice that targets the wrong skill is still the wrong answer.

And remember: the exam describes a best-case scenario. Answer as if you have every resource and all the support you need to help every student reach their potential.

Practice Question 1: Phonics and Spelling

Scenario: A first-grade teacher notices that several students can accurately read simple CVC words but frequently misspell those same words in writing, such as spelling ship as sip. The students say the words "sound right" to them. The teacher wants to address this with research-based, developmentally appropriate instruction.

Question: Which instructional approach best reflects effective use of linguistic knowledge and supports both reading and spelling development?

A. Increase exposure to target spelling patterns by having students read short decodable passages that contain the pattern.

B. Provide weekly spelling practice on words that follow the target pattern and use a teacher correction and rewrite routine.

C. Use an explicit word study routine where students say the word, segment the sounds, and map sounds to letters.

D. Select grade-level text and pre-teach keywords so students can recognize them automatically during guided reading.

Try it yourself before reading on.

Breaking it down

First, name the problem. These students can decode (read) the words but struggle to encode (spell) them. Writing sip for ship tells us they aren't yet connecting the /sh/ sound to the digraph sh. That's a foundational phonics issue: letter-sound correspondence.

A: Eliminate. "Target" and "spelling patterns" sound promising, but decodable passages lean toward fluency practice. Reading more doesn't directly fix a spelling problem.

B: Eliminate. Anything done just because it happens every week is a red flag on this exam. Weekly spelling practice is fine in real life, but it isn't an intentional, targeted move.

C: Strong contender. The word explicit jumps off the screen. Mapping sounds to letters is letter-sound correspondence, which is exactly where these students need support.

D: Eliminate. Pre-teaching keywords isn't a bad practice, but it doesn't target the problem. These students can already read the words.

The answer is C. Linguistic knowledge lives at the foundational level, with sounds in words and how they map to letters. An explicit word study routine targets exactly that and strengthens both reading and spelling.

Practice Question 2: Assessment and Flexible Grouping

Question: Which method reflects an asset-based approach to early reading instruction for pre-K students with a wide range of language backgrounds?

A. Group children by overall reading readiness and keep groups consistent for the first grading period.

B. Delay explicit instruction until all children show readiness for early reading skills.

C. Require all children in a group to demonstrate a skill before the group moves on.

D. Use ongoing observation and short assessments to adjust small groups and match instruction to each child's current strengths and needs.

Breaking it down

First, define the key term. An asset-based approach starts with what a child can already do and uses those strengths to build new skills. With pre-K students from many language backgrounds, that means seeing their home languages and experiences as resources, not deficits.

A: Eliminate. "Overall readiness" is too general, and locking groups in place for a whole grading period is rigid grouping. We want flexible groups that change as students grow.

B: Eliminate. Delay is a red-flag word on this exam. We keep instruction on track and support students with scaffolding and differentiation instead.

C: Eliminate. Watch for all. Holding an entire group back until every child shows mastery ignores individual needs.

D: Correct. Ongoing observation, short assessments, adjusting groups, and building on strengths: this is the reading scientist at work.

The answer is D. Progress monitoring lets you make instructional decisions in real time and meet every child where they are.

Final Tips for the Science of Teaching Reading Exam

Reading is an invisible, abstract skill, and comprehension involves many processes firing in the brain at once. Our job is to make it concrete by being explicit, systematic, and recursive. Keep these takeaways in mind on test day:

• Name the problem first. Figure out exactly which skill the student is missing before you look at the answers.
• Favor explicit, targeted instruction over general exposure or routine practice.
• Look for assessment-driven, flexible grouping that changes as students grow.
• Eliminate extreme or delaying language like always, never, all, and delay.
• Assume a best-case scenario with every resource you need.

And in your own classroom, give yourself grace. You won't get it perfect right away. If a strategy fails, try again. It may be a great strategy that just needs better execution or more time.

Keep studying

There's much more to cover, and my Science of Teaching Reading Online Course walks you through all of it. You can also explore my full library of Teacher Reading exam prep resources.

🎥 Watch the full video to see me break down both practice questions step by step 🎬