Teaching children to read is definitely a scientific art for elementary teachers. The science of reading (SOR) focuses on the development of the brain as the primary basis of effective teaching practices.
Scarborough’s Rope illustrates each strand that must be explicitly and systematically taught for early and primary readers to develop into fluent and skilled readers. Long gone are the memorization and reciting of sight words and using pictures in the text to guess the words. Now, teachers only use research-based practices to support each strand of the reading rope.
The next time someone says teaching little ones is not “rocket science,” remind them that teachers are indeed scientists in the art of reading! 🍎