🌱 A Big Step Forward for Young Readers: Celebrating Structured Literacy in Loomis Schools-THANK YOU!!!!
If you have followed My Learning Farm for any length of time, you probably know that I can talk about Orton-Gillingham structured literacy all day long (why-because it WORKS!). 📚💛 I have advocated for explicit, systematic reading instruction for years because I have seen firsthand what happens when children receive instruction that actually teaches them how our written language works. I have also seen the other side—the frustration, guessing, loss of confidence, and widening skill gaps that can happen when children aren't given the foundational instruction they need.
And yes, sometimes advocating for structured literacy can feel a little like talking to a wall. 😂 So when I see meaningful movement in the right direction, I want to celebrate it!
I am genuinely excited to see our local school district bringing UFLI Foundations into K–2 classrooms across all the district k-8 schools as part of whole-class foundational literacy instruction. This is a BIG step in the right direction for our youngest readers, and I want to commend the teachers, administrators, literacy specialists, and district leaders who are helping make it happen.
🌻 What Is Structured Literacy?
Structured literacy isn't simply another reading trend or a new educational buzzword. At its heart, structured literacy teaches children to read through instruction that is explicit, systematic, cumulative, and carefully sequenced. Rather than expecting children to figure out unfamiliar words from pictures, context, or guessing, we explicitly teach them the skills they need to become independent readers.
Children learn that spoken words are made of individual sounds and how those sounds connect to letters and letter combinations. They learn how to blend sounds together to read words and segment words into sounds for spelling. Skills are intentionally built upon previously taught skills so children aren't continually being asked to make leaps without having the foundation underneath them.
Structured literacy includes important areas such as phonemic awareness, phonics, decoding, encoding and spelling, syllable patterns, morphology, vocabulary, fluency, and language comprehension. It is organized, intentional, and cumulative. Most importantly, it gives children tools they can actually use when they encounter a word they don't know. While UFLI is NOT Orton-Gillingham structured literacy-it IS a step in the right direction-a BIG step and I'll take it and THANK THEM!!!!!
📚 So, What Is UFLI Foundations?
UFLI Foundations comes from the University of Florida Literacy Institute, or UFLI (pronounced “you fly”). UFLI describes Foundations as an explicit and systematic program designed to teach the foundational skills necessary for proficient reading. It was created primarily for core instruction in the primary grades and can also be used as intervention for students who need additional reading support.
One of the things I particularly appreciate about UFLI is how it was developed. The UFLI team spent more than two years developing and pilot testing components of the program, observing instruction, gathering feedback from teachers, refining lessons, and assessing student progress. UFLI describes Foundations as a program developed for teachers, by teachers, with teachers.
That matters. Teachers need instructional tools that are grounded in reading research while also being realistic to implement with an actual classroom full of children.
🧠 What Does UFLI Look Like in the Classroom?
UFLI uses a consistent lesson routine that incorporates phonemic awareness, review of previously learned letter-sound relationships, blending, explicit instruction of new concepts, word work, irregular words, and connected text. Students aren't simply memorizing isolated words or completing random phonics activities. They are learning skills, practicing them, reviewing them, and then applying those skills to actual reading and spelling.
That progression is incredibly important because effective reading instruction shouldn't be a collection of disconnected activities. Children need opportunities to learn a skill, practice it, revisit it, and apply it until it becomes increasingly automatic. UFLI specifically targets skills such as phoneme blending and segmentation, sound-symbol relationships, decoding, encoding, irregular words, and applying those skills while reading connected text.
🌱 Building Reading Skills Brick by Brick
One of my favorite ways to think about structured literacy is like building a house—or, since we're My Learning Farm, maybe building a really good barn. 😉🚜 You wouldn't put the roof on before building the walls, and you certainly wouldn't build those walls without a strong foundation.
Reading works much the same way. When children have gaps in phonemic awareness, sound-symbol knowledge, blending, decoding, or spelling, those gaps can eventually make fluent reading and comprehension much harder. A systematic scope and sequence allows children to build their reading skills gradually and intentionally, with each new skill supported by what they have already learned.
And ultimately, this isn't just about reading scores. It's about confidence. It's about the child who begins raising their hand to read. It's about the child who tries an unfamiliar word instead of immediately saying, “I don't know.” It's about the child who discovers that words aren't mysterious—they have patterns and structures that can be learned and understood.
💛 A Win for Teachers, Too
I'm also excited about what this can mean for our teachers. UFLI provides a detailed scope and sequence along with lesson plans and supporting materials. Its online Toolbox includes lesson slides, decodable passages, homework sheets, games, printable materials, and additional practice activities.
Having a shared program can also provide teachers across kindergarten, first grade, and second grade with a common instructional framework and language. When foundational literacy skills are being taught systematically across grade levels, students have an opportunity to move from year to year with greater instructional continuity.
Of course, this doesn't mean every child will learn at exactly the same pace. They won't. It doesn't mean some children won't need additional intervention. They will. And it certainly doesn't replace responsive teaching, assessment, differentiation, or specialized intervention for students with dyslexia and other learning differences.
But providing strong whole-class foundational literacy instruction gives more children the opportunity to develop solid reading skills from the very beginning—and that is absolutely worth celebrating.
🌻 From My Learning Farm: THANK YOU
I spend a lot of time advocating for kids who learn differently and talking about what we can do better in education. But advocacy shouldn't only mean pointing out problems. It should also mean recognizing progress.
So today, I want to say thank you to our local educators and district leaders for taking this step. Thank you to the teachers learning and implementing a new instructional routine. Thank you to the literacy specialists supporting them. Thank you to the administrators investing in stronger foundational reading instruction. And thank you to every educator who is willing to continue learning and evolving as our understanding of effective reading instruction grows.
Implementing UFLI across Loomis schools in K–2 classrooms isn't the end of the literacy conversation. There will always be more to learn, more children to support, and more ways we can improve. But it is movement. And it is movement in the right direction. 🌱📚
At My Learning Farm, I will continue doing what I love—supporting individual students, filling skill gaps, building confidence, working alongside families, and helping children discover that they CAN become readers. And it makes my heart happy knowing that more of our youngest learners are also receiving systematic foundational literacy instruction in their classrooms.
Here's to strong foundations, confident readers, supported teachers, and communities willing to keep growing. Because when we know more, we can do better.
And our kids are worth it. 💛🌻📚
🔗 Learn More About UFLI Foundations
Parents and educators can explore the official University of Florida Literacy Institute UFLI Foundations Toolbox for lesson resources, decodable texts, printable materials, digital tools, and additional resources.
UFLI Foundations Toolbox:https://ufli.education.ufl.edu/foundations/toolbox/
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