CHAPTER ONE
Embarking on Your Reader's Journey

If you are reading this, you are likely a skilled reader. The words on this page lift easily, and you require little effort to read them. You might not remember how you learned to read, and you're probably not thinking about what's happening in your brain right now as you read these words. However, what's happening in your reading brain is quite impressive.

As educators and literacy teachers, we need to understand this process. Understanding how the brain works and how our students become strong readers is critical to literacy instruction.

Over the years, many cognitive neuroscience studies have offered valuable perspectives on how reading skills develop and function in the brain. This chapter will explore the research on the brain and how we learn to read.

What the Research Says

Thanks to cutting-edge technologies like functional magnetic resonance imaging and electroencephalogram, researchers can peer into the brain and see exactly which areas are active when we read. Moreover, they have discovered that when reading takes place in the brain, it is not confined to just one area. There are actually many areas in the brain that are responsible for reading, and these areas can be found in the left hemisphere. They are responsible for word recognition and understanding speech sounds. These areas facilitate the crucial connections among letters, sounds, words, and language structures.

FUN FACT Did you know our brains aren't naturally wired for reading at birth? Long-term studies following brain development through reading milestones have uncovered some fascinating findings. As children advance from mastering basic reading skills to becoming fluent readers, their brains undergo significant structural and functional changes. These changes typically happen in the brain's language-processing regions. So, the next time you are amazed by your students' reading progress, remember that their brain is evolving alongside their skills!

Our brains are not naturally wired to read, so we have to repurpose parts of them. Just like a rubber band can change and adapt to fit different objects, our brains can adapt to make room for new knowledges and experiences.

Let us take a deeper look at how the brain works. Cunningham and Rose (2010), Turkeltaub et al. (2002), and Hudson et al. (2016) highlight the different regions in the brain and how they work together. There are three central regions responsible for this:

• The frontal region. The frontal region is situated at the front of the brain and is responsible for processing speech. It enables us to understand and articulate speech sounds while speaking and listening.
• The occipital-temporal region. The occipital region (also known as the letterbox) is positioned at the back of the brain and serves as the space for word appearance and meaning. This area of the brain enables us to recognize letters and words. It is also responsible for automaticity and plays a role in language comprehension.
• The parietal-temporal region. Located toward the back of the brain, the parietal-temporal region takes in the written word and dissects it into the individual sounds, analyzes those sounds, and supports decoding.

Let us break it down (see Figure 1.1).

FIGURE 1.1 Reading in the brain.

As children develop reading skills in the primary grades, these regions are trained to become proficient. Brain imaging studies like those by Turkeltaub et al. (2002), as referenced in Turkeltaub et al. (2003), have uncovered notable changes in the structure and function of these brain regions. These findings show how the brain can rewire and improve its neural pathways in reaction to reading instruction. A significant difference in activation patterns depends on a student's reading ability. Early exposure to rich language experiences enhances the brain's receptivity to developing reading skills, such as phonemic awareness, decoding, and word recognition. Notably, beginning readers exhibit increased activity in the parietal-temporal region associated with word analysis, while more experienced readers show heightened activity in the occipital-temporal region linked to word recognition (Keys to Literacy, n.d.).

When we understand how the brain learns to read, we can tailor our instruction to support it. Using evidence-based practices ensures that our instructional methods are grounded in science and that educators use the best techniques for student success.

What the Brain Imaging Says About Students Who Struggle

Cunningham and Rose (2010) suggest that struggling readers often show different activity than strong readers. Their pathways must be developed more, and they must work hard to read. These students are usually referred to as having dyslexia. They use different parts of their brain. In other words, they overcompensate for the areas that they struggle in.

Why All of This Is Important

When we understand the reading process, we are better equipped to support our students as they become readers.

How We Can Support This Rewire

The Simple View of Reading (SVR), developed by Gough and Tunmer in 1986, offers a powerful, straightforward explanation of how reading comprehension is built (see Figure 1.2). The SVR model breaks down reading comprehension into two essential components: decoding and language comprehension. In mathematical terms, it's represented as follows:

Decoding × Language Comprehension = Reading Comprehension

This equation highlights a critical reality: both decoding and language comprehension must be strong for a reader to fully understand a text. If either of these components is weak, overall reading comprehension will suffer. For example, a student may decode fluently but struggle with comprehension due to weak language skills. However, a student with strong language comprehension but weak decoding skills will struggle to unlock the meaning of the printed words.

FIGURE 1.2 The Simple View of Reading emphasizes the interplay between decoding and language comprehension.

Source: Adapted from Gough and Tunmer's (1986) Simple View of Reading model.

The SVR gives us the big picture, emphasizing that for reading comprehension to be successful, both decoding and comprehension must work together. However, it's not enough to simply know the "what." As educators, we also need to understand the "how"-how these components develop, how they interact, and how we can explicitly teach each element in a systematic way. This is where Scarborough's Reading Rope zooms in and deepens our understanding.

Scarborough's Reading Rope: A Closer Look

Developed by Dr. Hollis Scarborough, the Reading Rope, illustrated in Figure 1.3, breaks down decoding and language comprehension into finer strands, showing how each component intricately weaves together to create skilled reading. The beauty of Scarborough's Reading Rope is in its ability to zoom in on each strand within these two primary components, making it clear how different skills support reading development over time.

FIGURE 1.3 The Reading Rope demonstrates the interplay of word recognition and language comprehension in skilled reading.

Source: Adapted from Scarborough's (2001) Reading Rope.

The lower strands of the rope represent word recognition (decoding), which includes the following components:

• Phonological awareness: recognizing and manipulating sounds, which lays the foundation for decoding
• Decoding and spelling: understanding letter-sound correspondences and being able to decode unfamiliar words
• Sight recognition: automatically recognizing familiar words without needing to sound them out, essential for fluency

The upper strands of the rope focus on language comprehension, which involves the following components:

• Background knowledge: knowledge of the world that helps readers make sense of new information
• Vocabulary: understanding the meaning of words, crucial for comprehension
• Language structures: knowledge of grammar and sentence structure
• Verbal reasoning: the ability to make inferences, understand figurative language, and think critically about what's read
• Literacy knowledge: familiarity with different text structures and genres

Together, these strands are woven tightly, creating a strong rope that supports skilled reading. If any strand is weak or frayed, it affects the overall integrity of the rope, much like reading comprehension suffers when a student struggles with one or more foundational skills.

Why These Models Matter for Structured Literacy

Both the SVR and Scarborough's Reading Rope reinforce the importance of structured literacy-explicit, systematic instruction in both word recognition and language comprehension. Structured literacy ensures that decoding and comprehension are taught as complementary skills. It's not just about teaching students to read words;...