#62: Making the Shift from Balanced Literacy to the Science of Reading with Meghan Hein
Starting Over After 20 Years in the Classroom
If you’ve been teaching for a while, you might relate to this: You’ve poured your heart into balanced literacy, your leveled book bins are perfectly labeled, and your guided reading groups run like clockwork. But then… you start hearing about the science of reading. At first, it sounds like just another trend—until you start digging deeper and realize: This isn’t a trend. It’s a wake-up call.
That’s exactly what happened to second-grade teacher Meghan Hein. After 20 years in education—first as a classroom teacher, then a district math coach, and later a reading interventionist—Meghan made the courageous decision to question everything she thought she knew about literacy instruction.
In this episode, Meghan opens up about what it really looked like to shift from balanced literacy to the science of reading. And spoiler: it wasn’t fast, perfect, or easy—but it changed everything.
What Does It Mean to Shift from Balanced Literacy?
At its core, balanced literacy often relies heavily on leveled readers, guided reading groups, and strategies like three-cueing. While many teachers (including Meghan) were trained to use these methods with the best intentions, research is showing that they don’t meet the needs of all readers—especially struggling ones.
Meghan shares that she used to believe in systems like the benchmark assessment system and leveled books because it was all she knew. But when she began learning about structured literacy—through an Orton-Gillingham training and later podcasts like Triple R Teaching—she realized her instruction wasn’t serving every student.
The biggest takeaway? We can’t reach all kids if we’re only doing what works for some of them.
Practical Shifts to Start With
Meghan didn’t throw everything out at once—and you don’t have to either. Here are the small, beginner-friendly changes she made that had a big impact:
1. Rethinking High-Frequency Words
Instead of memorization, Meghan started teaching heart words using phoneme-grapheme mapping, making the patterns visible to students.
2. Looking at Data Differently
She stopped treating weekly phonics assessments as “one and done” scores. Instead, she used them to identify who needed more practice—and made sure mastery came before moving on.
3. Switching to Decodables (But Not Tossing Leveled Books!)
While decodable texts became her go-to for small groups, Meghan kept her leveled books for building background knowledge during whole group or independent reading.
4. Adding Nonsense Word and ORF Assessments
These tools helped her see beyond surface-level reading success and target specific decoding or fluency needs.
5. Letting Go of the Three-Cueing System
Instead of guessing strategies, her students now get explicit phonics instruction that helps them decode unfamiliar words with confidence.
In This Episode, You’ll Discover:
- Why Meghan stopped trusting curriculum alone—and started trusting research.
- What finally convinced her to let go of guided reading.
- The phonics instruction mistake that kept her struggling readers stuck.
- How data can actually help you differentiate without adding more stress.
- Why shifting to the science of reading doesn’t mean starting from scratch.
Bringing It All Together
Meghan’s journey reminds us that transformation doesn’t happen in a single PD session or book club. It happens one uncomfortable realization, one brave change, and one student breakthrough at a time.
If you’re in the middle of your own shift, take heart: you don’t have to get it all right immediately. Start small. Stay curious. And know that every step you take brings your students closer to the kind of reading instruction they deserve.
Want More Support? Join The Science of Reading Formula
Ready to confidently teach reading using research-backed methods? Join a supportive community of PreK–2 teachers inside The Science of Reading Formula and get the tools, training, and encouragement you need to make lasting change—without the overwhelm.d grade teachers.
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