#87: How to Know If Your Reading Instruction is Working
Teaching Reading Shouldn’t Feel Like a Guessing Game
You know that feeling when you’ve poured your heart into a phonics lesson… but you’re still not sure if it landed?
You’ve checked off your curriculum box, followed the scope and sequence, and played all the cute literacy games. But deep down, you’re wondering:
“Are my students actually getting it?”
And if they’re not — what needs to change?
You’re not alone. Every veteran teacher has been there — especially those of us who were never trained in the science of reading in our teacher prep programs. We’re constantly making decisions in real time, hoping we’re doing the right thing.
But here’s the good news: you don’t have to guess.
There is a way to know if your reading instruction is truly working — and it starts with using the right kinds of student data.
Let’s walk through how you can pinpoint what’s working, scratch what’s not, and start teaching reading smarter — not harder.
What Does It Mean for Reading Instruction to Be “Working”?
Let’s first clarify what we mean by “working.”
- Your students are making progress toward end-of-year reading goals.
- They are mastering foundational skills in the right order.
- You’re able to differentiate without reinventing the wheel.
- Your whole-class instruction is effective, but you also know how to spot and support students who are falling behind.
Sound dreamy? It’s completely doable — once you have the right systems in place.
And those systems start with assessment.
The 3 Types of Assessments That Tell You If It’s Working
To know if your reading instruction is working, you need to triangulate your student data from three different angles:
1. Universal Screeners: Are You Headed in the Right Direction?
Think of these as your GPS “You Are Here” marker.
Universal screeners are quick assessments you give to all students, multiple times a year — like DIBELS or Acadience — that show you:
- Who’s on track
- Who’s behind
- Where your whole class stands compared to benchmarks
If a large portion of your class is below the expected level, it might be a sign that:
- Your core curriculum isn’t aligned with the science of reading
- Your instruction is missing critical foundational skills
- You need more support or training (not a reflection of you — just a gap in your prep!)
What to do with this data:
Use it to spot red flags early. If your universal screener says 60% of your students are struggling with phonemic awareness in September — it’s time to act now, not wait until January.
2. Skill-Based Assessments: Zoom In on What’s Missing
If the universal screener gives you the zip code, these assessments give you the street address.
Skill-based assessments target specific reading subskills, like:
- Phonemic awareness
- Letter-sound correspondence
- CVC word blending
- Digraph decoding
- Trigraph recognition
- High-frequency word reading
These pinpoint exactly where students are stuck — so you don’t waste time teaching something they already know, or worse, skip over a gap that’s holding them back.
Pro tip: Think of these assessments like sorting Skittles. You want to group kids who need the same skill, so you can streamline your small group instruction without creating 17 different lesson plans.
3. Progress Monitoring: Are They Actually Learning What You Just Taught?
Here’s the one most teachers skip — but it’s the secret sauce to saving time.
Progress monitoring assessments are quick check-ins you give after teaching a skill. They help you answer:
- “Did this student actually master digraph SH?”
- “Is this group ready to move on to trigraphs?”
- “Do I need to reteach or reinforce next week?”
Think of this as the checkpoint at the end of the lesson trail. You wouldn’t go hiking without checking that you’re still on the right path — same goes for reading skills.
Signs Your Instruction Might Not Be Working (Yet)
If you’re seeing any of these signs, it’s worth pausing to evaluate:
- You feel like you’re “teaching it,” but students aren’t retaining it.
- Your small groups feel chaotic or mismatched.
- You spend tons of time planning… and still feel behind.
- You hear the same decoding errors over and over.
- You’re reteaching the same skill for the third week in a row.
These aren’t signs that you’re a bad teacher — they’re signs that you don’t have the right data yet.
Once you start using the three assessments above, everything changes. You can spot what’s missing, reteach with intention, and move on with confidence.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- The 3 types of student assessments that give you real clarity.
- How to use data to group students without 25 separate lesson plans.
- Why it’s okay (and necessary) to ditch strategies that don’t work.
- What progress monitoring actually looks like in a K-2 classroom.
- How to stop wasting time and start getting faster reading results.
Bringing It All Together
Teaching reading doesn’t have to feel like a never-ending guessing game.
You don’t need to rely on “teacher instinct” alone — not when the data can tell you exactly what your students need.
And here’s the magic: once you know what’s working, you can do more of that.
And once you know what’s not working, you can let it go.
No guilt. No shame. Just smarter teaching, faster growth, and more time for the parts of teaching you love.
Want More Support? Join The Science of Reading Formula
Inside The Science of Reading Formula, you’ll get:
- Print-and-go universal screeners
- Skill-based assessments for every level
- Progress monitoring tools you can actually use
- Every single lesson plan, decodable passage, and center activity to match each skill
It’s everything you need to stop guessing — and start growing stronger readers, faster.
LINKS
Become a Science of Reading Formula member!
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