What Is Structured Literacy?

In June of 2014, I was on the International Dyslexia Association Board and that is when we finally made the decision to use the term “structured literacy.” And what did that represent? Structured literacy represented that there was a body of evidence called the science of reading, a lot of information and research to tell us that there are some essential components for developing literacy.

And it begins with strong language foundations, understanding, just like I told you, the sounds, the words, being able to use how words are formed, that's the syntax, understanding the meaning, understanding that there's even small meaning units like prefixes, roots and suffixes, and that can help you with your vocabulary meaning, but very importantly, our comprehension and our use of the language. And all of that is very important because it's linked to those skills of foundational skills of phonological awareness for reading, phonics, learning the letters and sounds and the syllable patterns, learning about how to be a fluent reader, but all the while thinking about words, building that language to get to that deep meaning and that effective written communication.