If we use the term Science of Reading and do not extensively focus on the connection of the science of plasticity and neuroplasticity in developing life-long learners with high-level executive functioning skills, then we contradict or misuse the term “science of reading.”
Plasticity is defined as “the ability of any structure weak enough to change by an external stimulus, however strong enough not to mold at once” (Physiopedia, 2024). Neural connections for deep comprehension are only strengthened when we extensively and repeatedly focus on reading in all subjects and every aspect of life.
Our ultimate goal as educators is to help our students develop high-level neural connections and skills for the world, including the workplace. However, this connectedness and big picture goal is so often overlooked, not understood, or cannot be visualized when we engage in reading. If we fail to understand and implement practices that are connected to the science of plasticity and neuroplasticity in our reading practices, then we are also failing our students. We are cheating them of invaluable opportunities to develop deep comprehension, executive functioning skills, and other work-related skills.
A Gartner skills gaps analysis found that “64% of managers don’t believe their employees can keep pace with the evolving skills needed while 70% of employees don’t believe they have mastered the skills needed for the job they have” (Emerging Skill Gaps and How to Deal with It, n.d.). “Reading is not only important for gaining employment but also for retaining it.” (Ashly, 2023). This data and quote support other reports and articles that also share the deep concern about how we are not preparing our students to be innovative and effective in the workplace and society.
Starting now, as educators, we need to prepare students with the deep comprehension and executive functioning skills that are needed to be highly effective in school and their future workplace. To do this, we must focus on reading as an everyday part of life and on its connectedness to brain plasticity and human skills.
Reading Comprehension and Neurons
If we use the term “science of reading,” we must be dedicated to applying practices and behaviors that relate to the science of neuroplasticity and plasticity to help our students acquire deep comprehension. As previously defined, plasticity is the brain’s ability to change because it is malleable. Neuroplasticity, however, “refers to the lifelong capacity of the brain to change by creating new neural pathways in response to the stimulation of learning and experience” (Neuroplasticity, 2010). During neuroplasticity, neural networks are reorganized and rewired, and neural synapses are strengthened. Repeated activation strengthens neural connections.
Placing an intentional focus on deep comprehension, artifact-based learning, and excellent application of knowledge gained in everyday life creates the repeated activations needed to strengthen neural connections for deep reading comprehension. When learners are continually given opportunities to explore, deeply connect prior and new knowledge to create high-quality learning products, and meaningfully apply knowledge gained, they fire and wire neurons together.
It is important to note that low-level repeated activations produce low-level learning products and strengthen low-level neural connections. The bar for creating learning products must always be raised high if we want to create stronger neural networks for high-level products and applications.
Reading Comprehension Designs and The Prefrontal Cortex
The prefrontal cortex is the part of the brain responsible for cellular changes that produce long-term neural networks for executive functions like planning, task initiations, metacognition, attention, grit, connectedness, perseverance, organization, and more. Without assessment that promotes executive functionin,g students will not acquire the higher cognitive skills necessary for the workplace” (Willis, 2009).
There is a wealth of knowledge in this world that can be accessed everywhere and anytime! However, there is a lack of talent for designing curriculum that taps into the stimuli needed to develop executive functioning skills. It is important, then, to ensure that the curriculum is excellently designed, informationally succinct, and rigorously guided enough to strengthen neurons in the prefrontal brain.
While the prefrontal cortex is one of the significant parts of the brain that promotes neuroplasticity, unfortunately, “the prefrontal cortex is actually only 17 percent of your brain; the rest makes up the reactive brain.” (Willis, 2009). Any information entering the brain is channeled to either the prefrontal cortex or the reactive brain, where the latter responds to information instinctively instead of through thinking.
When learners are in a state of stress, anxiety, frustration, and boredom, information entering the brain is sent to the reactive brain because the amygdala filter, the system responsible for routing information based on your emotional state, blocks the entry of new information entering the prefrontal cortex. Are we designing curriculum to invoke deep comprehension, or are we just assimilating overwhelming information together and having students engage in busy work?
To keep the bar high, learning tasks must be rigorous, real-world connected and relevant to students lives, and most importantly, focused on evoking executive process, the “set of control processes that serve to optimize performance in complex cognitive tasks with many components.” (Sutton, 2012). Tasks must also include all components of reading, writing, speaking, and listening and must be of high cognitive demand. We should never act on the viewpoint that learners are not capable of high-demand tasks!
Brain Connections to Writing and Deep Comprehension
Writing is a critical part of assessing learning and strengthening neural networks for deep comprehension and application of knowledge. So, Student Write learning products should be a non-negotiable practice in schools and the workplace.
It is known that writing wires neurons together stronger because “the process of creative formulation and physical writing lights up a whole lot of the human brain. Language, cognition, memory, visual processing, planning and control, and the ability to make associations between unrelated concepts all come into play” (This Is Your Brain on Writing, n.d.). Furthermore, “our brain is one very active organ when we’re writing. Both the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere work together to handle the comprehension, brainstorming, story creation, and physical writing of a story. Not 10% of your brain, ALL of your brain.” (Rasso, 2017).
There are discussions and research about whether handwriting or typing is better, and “there is a fundamental difference in brain organization for handwriting as opposed to typing,” (Lloreda, 2017). Until valid and reliable research proves that typing is definitely not beneficial, we should allow students to engage in both types of writing to represent their deep comprehension and application of knowledge gained. Paper and digital portfolios are great mediums for students to use to accumulate their innovative learning products and incorporate both methods of writing.
To develop high-level neural networks that are strengthened through writing, we must ensure that rigorous writing tasks are always incorporated to heighten students’ executive functioning skills, deep comprehension, and application of knowledge. This does not mean that students will produce high-quality products immediately.
For example, students may initially create a very basic poster to represent their learning. Honor where your students are at that point in their learning journey, but provide feedback to help them grow. A poster might not seem like much, but isn’t a book just a more extensive form of a poster? Many books are written about personal experiences, whether the author’s own or another’s. Your students are creating a poster based on their cultural and personal experiences, learning styles, and interests!
Students must be given multiple opportunities to improve their products and strengthen their neural connections for high-quality creations. Austin’s Butterfly is a great video that depicts how initial learning products are improved. Are you designing writing tasks that command, activate, and strengthen the neural networks in the prefrontal cortex, or are you designing tasks that take learning to the reactive brain?
Our students want us to believe in them, to believe that they want to develop high-level skills to function in the world and workplace. Do you believe in them?
In 2015, my professor shared this keynote speech by Sherman Dalton that still moves me to this day. Does Sherman Dalton’s message touch your heart and deeply resonate with you? We cannot continue to develop the “brain” of artificial intelligence yet deprive students of the practices that will allow the human brain to develop strong neural networks for acquiring deep comprehension, heightening executive functioning, and other valuable human skills required to function effectively in life!
The SAGE Approach to the Science of Reading
Valid and reliable research supports reading practices that focus on depicting deep comprehension. If we want to improve reading comprehension and develop literate readers who can function effectively in school and the workplace, then we must change our reading techniques to a SAGE approach. We must use a blend of valid and reliable research-based reading strategies that focus on the whole brain and allow students to depict deep comprehension through artifact-based reading.
The below SAGE Science of Reading Framework that incorporates true Science of Reading ideas to help learners and educators focus on incorporating research-based reading comprehension strategies which have proven time after time to profoundly increase deep comprehension skills.
Allow learners to select and use Student Write strategies for inferencing and synthesizing and creating artifacts to represent knowledge gained when reading text. Reading goes way beyond phonics, phonemics, fluency, and vocabulary. Therefore, it is very important to go beyond fluency, reading rate, and isolated vocabulary and provide learners with extensive time to use student selected Student Write strategies to represent their deep comprehension of text. The goal of reading is comprehension. The goal of reading is comprehension. How are learners using Student Write Strategies to represent their comprehension of text profoundly?
Give learners time to engage in meaningful “Student Read-Write-Talk-Listen” activities simultaneously. The Wernicke’s area in the brain makes sense of spoken and written language by connecting to images, prior knowledge, learners’ personal experiences, and more. Learners have been naturally immersed in a world of sound from birth, so meaningful spoken language is very important as it incorporates what has already been in place. A Reading-Writing-Speaking-Listening focus develops the process of orthographic mapping and very importantly neuroplasticity to build neural circuitry and stronger neural networks for deep comprehension.
Growth mindset is a neuroscience connected skill focused on the neural growth actions of embracing change and challenges, persisting through obstacles, developing grit, overcoming limiting beliefs, and so much more. Learners need ongoing guidance on how to develop and focus on a growth mindset when creating high-level and excellent comprehension artifacts. Representing comprehension is not and will never be a one-time practice. Learners must embrace the growth mindset of editing and revising multiple versions of initial written drafts to create excellent learning products by engaging in ongoing self-reflection and metacognition, and implementing meaningful feedback.
Student Write reading strategies need to be implemented across curriculum and content, with the premise that all teachers are reading teachers. Increasingly, books and education programs are indicating that reading is no longer a subject, but a profound pedagogical strategy that strongly focuses on having learners represent what they comprehend. To further deepen comprehension, Student Write reading strategies must be coupled with extensive time for students to engage in research, design, revision and revision within and outside of the classroom walls, to support the creation of excellent learning products, and the development of stronger neural connections and literacy skills.
Reading is a part of all subjects, our workplace, and our everyday lives, so why are we designating reading as a subject? When we send the message that reading is a subject, we are telling our students and adults reading should only be focused on during reading class and we are preventing them from developing strong neural connections for deep comprehension and executive functioning skills.
If we believe that reading is a subject, then we are reading the Science of Reading wrong. Subscribe to the K12 Hub or check back soon for A Sage Approach to The Science of Reading: Part 5 — Reading is not a Subject, it is a Curriculum and an Everyday Part of Life.
Did you miss the previous parts in this series, or want to refresh your memory? Catch up using the links below!
Part 1 – A Need for Artifact-Based Reading Strategies
Part 2: A Deeper Dive into Reading The Science of Reading
Part 3: Are We Reading the Science of Reading Correctly?
About the Author
Cherry-Anne Gildharry holds a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics, a Master of Science in Education, and a Graduate Certificate in Instructional Coaching. With 29 years of experience in education, she has worked across various locations, including Trinidad and Tobago, North Carolina, Iowa, Texas, and other parts of the U.S. Throughout her career, Cherry-Anne has held numerous roles, such as High School and Middle School Math Teacher, Department Chair, and Teacher Leader. She has also served as an Algebra 1 and Geometry Lead Teacher, Workshop Creator and Facilitator, and Marzano’s Demonstration Teacher. Additionally, she has been a School-Based and District Coach, Leadership Coach and Collaborator, Learning Design Strategist, Virtual Instructional Coach, Professional Development Auditor, and Professional Development Content Creator.
Cherry-Anne has established a notable record of success both as a teacher and a coach. In North Carolina, 100% of her Algebra 1 and Geometry students achieved passing scores for consecutive years. Furthermore, teachers she coached, including those from Teach for America, saw their students achieve similar success rates.
Fun Fact: Cherry-Anne loves globe-trotting with her wife Melanie Gildharry! To date, they have traveled to all 50 states and 53 countries with 25 of them being European countries. Cherry-Anne took her first international flight from Trinidad and Tobago at age 9 to the United Kingdom to visit Edinburgh and Glasgow in Scotland, and four places in England.
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