With the conversation about the Science of Reading centered on beginning readers, upper elementary educators have been left to wonder what the research says about intermediate reading instruction. This course presents upper elementary teachers with the foundational research, practical strategies, and cheerful encouragement to meet the advancing needs of diverse learners. It is a continuation of knowledge building gathered from the author's first text, which is the anchor for course 5227: Shifting Your Focus to the Science of Reading and focuses on early reading instruction. We encourage participation in both courses (though not required) as each helps educators grow their knowledge to cover the spectrum of skills from the alphabetic principle and phoneme-grapheme connections, to listening comprehension and sight word memorization (included in the PK-3 course). The 6 practical, high-leverage shifts presented in this course, however, will expand your knowledge to answer questions like:

• How can I support background knowledge building to improve reading comprehension?
• What role does traditional strategy instruction (ex. main idea, inferring) play in comprehending complex texts?
• How can I support decoding and word recognition skills for advancing readers?
• What does research say about effective fluency strategies?
• How do I balance independent/silent reading with small group instruction during my reading block?

Through your work in this course you’ll begin to make thoughtful, science-aligned adjustments to your reading instruction that support skilled reading.


This course format builds from module to module in a way that allows you to work through each of the essential ideas in smaller, more focused segments. You’ll find the same great resources and applicable assignments, distributed over 10 modules.