How the College of Education Draws on Research-based Practices to Prepare Effective Literacy Teachers

In Assistant Teaching Professor Jill Jones’ classroom, a group of college students decode multisyllabic words. With the guidance of a classmate, they identify word elements, such as the prefix, suffix and root, in order to determine the word’s meaning. 

The room is filled with pre-service teachers in the NC State College of Education’s elementary education program. Although, as college students, they already know how to read, the exercise is helping them determine words in a passage that fourth grade students might find challenging, and, with the help of Jones, giving them an opportunity to practice how they would work with young students to decode those words. After practicing this routine in the classroom, they go on to implement these practices in lessons they design for elementary students in their field experience classroom.

“The pre-service teachers in my class are proficient readers at this point, so they’re having to go back to a place of remembering what it’s like when you’re learning how to read,” Jones said. “I begin the semester having them recall what they remember from their own elementary school experiences, but they don’t always remember the processes they went through, they just know they are able to read. So, helping them think through the lens of their students is important.” 

The course is one of three literacy methods courses students in the elementary education program take that focus specifically on literacy and are paired with field experiences in an elementary setting. 

“Before my methods courses in the elementary education program, I felt unprepared to effectively teach literacy, specifically phonics,” said Evi Ng ’25, a student in the elementary education program who is currently completing her student teaching in a first-grade classroom. “Following these methods courses and my in-the-field experience, I feel confident in my ability to teach students literacy effectively. In addition, I have learned how to scaffold instruction in literacy to best support all the needs of my students.” 

Preparing Future Teachers with Research-Based Practices

All of the literacy courses Ng and other undergraduate students take are aligned with North Carolina state standards as well as the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction K-2 and 3-5 literacy instructional standards, and the UNC System Literacy Framework. They also rely heavily on research-based practices to ensure graduates are equipped with the most effective tools for teaching literacy. 

“All of those literacy methods courses are aligned with our own research and that of the scholars of the field who we network with and are in professional organizations with to make sure we’re touching on the science of reading, scientifically-based or research-based reading practices that have strong evidence for efficacy,” said Associate Professor of Literacy Education Jill Grifenhagen. 

One of the central tenets of effective, research-based literacy instruction, said Goodnight Distinguished Professor in Early Literacy Devin Kearns, is targeted instruction that focuses on foundational skills, including phonological awareness, word recognition and comprehension, without spending too much time on any one element. 

“What’s really key is making sure you provide enough of that beginning instruction,” Kearns said. “A real emphasis in the science of reading movement has been to make sure that we don’t forget about those foundational pieces because when you try to get kids to comprehend without giving them the ability to read the words, it doesn’t work. If you can’t read the words, you can’t do anything else.” 

Abigail Cook ’24, a third-grade teacher at A.B. Combs Magnet Elementary School, relies heavily on the research-based techniques she learned during her time in the College of Education. 

“I am incredibly grateful for the literacy program at NC State, as it has truly molded me into the literacy teacher I am today. The program emphasizes research-based instruction while also recognizing that every student has unique needs,” Cook said. 

The foundation she received in the College of Education, Cook said, has not only helped her to grow as an educator but taught her to differentiate instruction for her students, who have a wide range in reading abilities. 

Working in a variety of grade levels and settings during more than 900 hours of field experiences during her time in the elementary education program, Cook said these experiences, combined with her coursework, helped her learn how to identify and address gaps in children’s literacy understanding. 

“One thing that stood out to me during my literacy classes at NC State was the importance of meeting students where they are,” Cook said. “The knowledge I gained from taking both K-2 and 3-5 classes has been invaluable in preparing me to support every student, regardless of their needs.”

To help identify where children of all ages may struggle in literacy, pre-service teachers in the elementary program take a class related to student assessment, with a strong focus on literacy assessment. In this course, pre-service educators learn about the qualities of good assessments, how to design high-quality assessments that genuinely gauge student mastery of literacy concepts and about how assessment practices intersect with multi-tiered systems of support. Additionally, all pre-service teachers in the program take a course focused on working with students with disabilities, which touches on supports for students with disabilities and difficulties related to literacy. 

“We know a lot from research about the best ways to promote reading development for the greatest number of kids possible, and it’s important that our teachers know practices and knowledge that align with that evidence base so that they can provide high-quality instruction for all the kids they’re going to work with,” said Associate Professor of Literacy Education Dennis Davis. “They’re going to be in classrooms with all sorts of different learning needs, all sorts of different contextual constraints on learning and teaching, and the science of reading is the evidence base that gives them the best set of tools possible to be effective educators in those situations.”

Cultivating Literacy Leaders

In addition to training pre-service teachers with skills for effective literacy instruction, the College of Education also works with in-service teachers to advance their skills in literacy education. 

Sarah Lester ’25MED enrolled in the College of Education to earn her Master’s of Education with a concentration in reading education after the COVID-19 pandemic, when she noticed a dramatic change in her students’ reading abilities and wanted to learn more about research-based practices that could help her achieve her goal of becoming a reading specialist. 

“What I love most about the science of reading is that it is nothing new, it just takes what we already know to be true and solidifies our knowledge and puts best practice in front,” Lester said. “I treasure that my education and what I have learned [in the College of Education] is exactly what I was searching for in my career path.”

The graduate program focuses on reading development across the K-12 span and helps in-service teachers understand the context and evidence-based literacy practices seen in the early elementary grades as well as reading across content areas, such as science and social studies, in all grades. Courses also focus on developing writing skills for young children and reading assessment and intervention.

“If we think about reading as something that is very challenging and has a lot of components and that doesn’t work the same way for every child, even with that strong foundation, then we need specialists,” Grifenhagen said. “The goal in the master’s program is to create or prepare educators who have that deeper and more specialized understanding of the science of reading and related areas, so that they can be the leaders within their school to provide specialized instruction and support other teachers with reading instruction.”

Since enrolling in the College of Education, Lester has used her knowledge to take on a new position as a K-2 intervention specialist on the Instructional Leadership Team at South Elementary School in Mooresville. It’s a position that not only helped her achieve her career goal, but one where she has used what she learned in the College of Education to support students, including a recent case where she was able to support a student who was diagnosed with dyslexia. 

“I was able to share my knowledge with confidence because I knew I was sharing information that was not only helpful but was correct and research-based,” she said. “This position would not have been a possibility for me if I had not been attending NC State.”

This post was originally published in College of Education News.