Top 10: SL/SoR Books

In this Top 10 List, we suggest some of the most well-known books on the Science of Reading. Of course, there are a LOT more, as well as new and important works that are coming out all of the time. Our goal here is to not just sound cool but give you direction to some of the most influential books. But our number 10 on our list is another reference to other lists that are cooler than this list.

Number One: Speech to Print 3rd Edition by Dr. Louisa Moats

This books is so awesome that Idaho uses it as the basis for their professional learning for teachers. They (and you) will need to go deeper but there is no better start than this.

Number Two: Reader, Come Home and Proust and the Squid by Dr. Maryanne Wolf

Wonderful books by a wonderful person, who has been championing structured literacy practice for a very long time. Great insight to the Reading Brain!

Number Three: The Reading Comprehension Blueprint by Nancy E. Hennessey

Within the structured literacy world, teaching reading comprehension along structured literacy principles can be one of the most difficult aspects of reading instruction. This book is a great start to wrap your head around teaching reading comprehension.

Number Four: Essentials of Assessing, Preventing, and Overcoming Reading Difficulties by Dr. David Kilpatrick

An intensive look at all the components you are really bringing together to build a full system. This is the nuts and bolts of system work around assessment and intervention. There is a great study guide if you are taking a literacy leadership team through this book.

Number Five: Explicit Instruction by Dr. Anita Archer

No list would be complete without a book from Dr. Archer, a heavy hitter in structured literacy and committed to deep explicit instructional practices.

Number Six: Know Better, Do Better

I don’t know if there is any other book where I hear the title quoted in conversations about systems improvement more than this influential book by teachers turn researchers Meredith and David Liben.

Number Seven: Successful School Change by Claude Goldenberg

Okay, this book is out of print and not really about structured literacy as much as a good full-length narrative about transforming a full literacy system. Along with the Kennwick books, these give you a narrative sense of the work that is necessary for full transformation and how things can fall back to disjointed implementation if not sustained.

Number Eight: The Handbook on The Science of Early Literacy

Speaking of the great Claude Goldenberg, he says of this book, “This volume should explode, once and for all, the unhelpful myth that the large body of research known as the science of reading is a narrow, one-size-fits-all enterprise.” Enough said!

Number Nine: Language at the Speed of Sight by Dr. Mark Seidenberg

This deep book is a great resource and we strongly recommend this study guide to go along with it!

Number Ten: More lists!

The Reading League, Lexia, RI DOE, Neuhaus Education Center, IDA