The Science of Teaching Reading: Understanding the "Big Picture"

Presented by Peggy Semingson

This presentation summarizes key ideas on the topic of the Science of Teaching Reading (STR) along with key ideas and implications for classroom teachers with diverse learners (e.g., English Language Learners). As the STR has taken a strong footing in schools across the country, an understanding of “what works” with English Language Learners is needed. Teachers will learn ways to incorporate evidence-based approaches to STR and beginning reading, develop interventions for diverse learners who are learning to read in English, create instructional approaches to thinking about areas that need further implementation in the classroom, and apply suggestions on curricular ways to accelerate the English Language Development for English Learners. Ideas from the late scholar Jeanne Chall’s seminal and historic work on the concepts of “learning to read” versus “reading to learn”, and the “fourth-grade slump” as it applies to English learners will be explored.

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Session Objectives

  • Conceptualize the Science of Teaching Reading in contexts that foster success for English Language Learners and value diverse linguistic experiences of students.
  • Design language experiences that build on the framework of "learning to read" and "reading to learn".

More about the speaker

Peggy Semingson

Dr. Peggy Semingson is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and TESOL at The University of Texas at Arlington where she teaches practitioner-focused courses in TESOL Education. Her Ph.D. is in Curriculum and Instruction with a specialization in Language and Literacy Studies from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008. She has been an elementary bilingual/ESL classroom teacher (6 years), bilingual reading intervention specialist (2 years), and teacher educator (13 years). Her current research interests include digital pedagogies, media-based learning, students who face challenges in literacy, online learning, and remote/virtual ESL teaching and learning. She taught school in Southern California (San Diego and Santa Barbara) and Texas (Austin).