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Better Together
Blending the Science of Reading and Professional Learning Communities at Work®
Elevate reading performance through collaborative action. This guide explores how schools using a PLC framework grounded in the science of reading can improve reading outcomes. Discover how collective efforts and the five pillars of literacy instruction drive impactful change.
Benefits
- Discover well-supported, evidence-based strategies to teach and assess literacy.
- Encounter real-life examples that demonstrate the benefits of these strategies in action.
- Learn how to implement these valuable strategies in classrooms.
- Employ ready-made lesson plan templates to jump-start new strategy implementation.
- Lead a school through the challenges of implementation with the help of the PLC process.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Part 1: Literacy Instruction at the Leadership and Teams Level
Chapter 1: The Case for Change
Chapter 2: Successful Schoolwide Implementation of the Science of Reading
Chapter 3: A System for Transitioning Schools to Evidence-Based Reading Practices
Chapter 4: The Work of Teacher Teams
Part 2: Classroom Implementation Using the Science of Reading
Chapter 5: Phonological Awareness
Chapter 6: Phonics
Chapter 7: Fluency
Chapter 8: Vocabulary
Chapter 9: Reading Comprehension
Appendix A: Phonological Awareness Lesson Plans
Appendix B: Phonics Lesson Plans
Appendix C: Fluency Lesson Plans
Appendix D: Vocabulary Lesson Plans
Appendix E: Reading Comprehension Lesson Plans
PRINTABLE REPRODUCIBLES
Chapter 3: A System for Transitioning Schools to Evidence-Based Reading Practices
Chapter 4: The Work of Teacher Teams
- Figure 4.1: Sample Essential Standards Selection
- Figure 4.2: Example of Grade 3 Essential Standards
- Figure 4.3: Unpacked Essential Reading Standards Sample
- Figure 4.4: Essential Standard Proficiency Scale
- Figure 4.5: Grade 4 Target 1 Common Formative Assessment
- Figure 4.6: Learning Target Proficiency Charts
- Figure 4.7: Sample of a Multiple-Round Intervention Schedule
- Figure 4.8: Intervention Group Planning Chart
- Figure 4.9: Unit Plan Template
- Figure 4.10: Morphology Lesson Using an Instructional Framework
Chapter 6: Phonics
Chapter 7: Fluency
Appendix A: Phonological Awareness Lesson Plans
- Phonological Awareness: Syllable Awareness
- Phonological Awareness: Onset and Rime
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolation—Where’s the Sound?
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Isolation—Say the Sound
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Blending
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Deletion
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Segmentation
- Phonological Awareness: Phoneme Substitution
Appendix B: Phonics Lesson Plans
Appendix C: Fluency Lesson Plans
- Reading Fluency: Word Triangles
- Reading Fluency: Sentence Triangles
- Reading Fluency: Expressive Fluency
- Reading Fluency: Punctuation Practice
Appendix D: Vocabulary Lesson Plans
Appendix E: Reading Comprehension Lesson Plans
- Text Comprehension: Self-Regulated Development Strategy—Summarizing Text
- Text Comprehension: Self-Regulated Development Strategy—Making the “Clunk” Click
SUGGESTED RESOURCES
BOOKS
- Buffum, A., Mattos, M., & Malone, J. (2018). Taking action: A handbook for RTI at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Conzemius, A., & O’Neill, J. (2014). Handbook for SMART school teams: Revitalizing best practices for collaboration (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. (2006). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (1st ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. W., & Mattos, M. (2016). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. W., & Mattos, M. (2020). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (3rd ed., Canadian version). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Many, T. W., Mattos, M., & Muhammad, A. (2024). Learning by doing: A handbook for Professional Learning Communities at Work (4th ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., Mattos, M., & Muhammad, A. (2021). Revisiting Professional Learning Communities at Work: Proven insights for sustained, substantive school improvement (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- DuFour, R., & Marzano, R. J. (2011). Leaders of learning: How district, school, and classroom leaders improve student achievement. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Hall, B. (2022). Powerful guiding coalitions: How to build and sustain the leadership team in your PLC at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Kramer, S. V., & Schuhl, S. (2017). School improvement for all: A how-to guide for doing the right work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Mattos, M., Buffum, A., Malone, J., Cruz, L. F., Dimich, N., & Schuhl, S. (2025). Taking action: A handbook for RTI at Work (2nd ed.). Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Mattos, M., DuFour, R., DuFour, R., Eaker, R., & Many, T. W. (2016). Concise answers to frequently asked questions about Professional Learning Communities at Work. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
- Muhammad, A., & Hollie, S. (2012). The will to lead, the skill to teach: Transforming schools at every level. Bloomington, IN: Solution Tree Press.
WEBSITES
Chapter 1
- Moving the Needle on Literacy (Georgiou, Kushnir, & Parrila, 2020)
- Teaching Students to Read (National Reading Panel, 2000)
- Lost in Translation? (Seidenberg, Borkenhagen, & Kearns, 2020)
Chapter 2
- Adaptive Teaching for English Language Arts (Athanases, Bennett, & Wahleithner, 2015)
- Replication and Analysis of Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve (Murre & Dros, 2015)
- Influence of Teachers’ Participation in Professional Learning Communities on Their Teaching Skills (Ohayon & Albulescu, 2023)
- From Teacher Isolation to Teacher Collaboration (Ostovar-Nameghi & Sheikhahmadi, 2016)
Chapter 3
- Does Lesson Study Work? (Cheung & Wong, 2014)
- Effective Teacher Professional Development (Darling-Hammond, Hyler, & Gardner, 2017)
- Collaborative Leadership and School Improvement (Hallinger & Heck, 2010)
- The Relationship of Distributed Leadership and Professional Learning Community (Hamzah & Jamil, 2019)
Chapter 4
- Cognitive Rigor Matrix
- Priority Standards (Ainsworth, 2015)
- Teacher Professional Development and Student Reading Achievement (Didion, Toste, & Filderman, 2020)
- Fostering Independence While Teaching Students With or At Risk for Reading Disabilities (Hall, Dahl-Leonard, Denton, Stevens, & Capin, 2021)
Chapter 5
- Phonological Awareness Screening Test
- Abecedarian (Wren & Watts, 2002)
- Really Great Reading
- DIBELS (University of Oregon)
- Heggerty
- Key Knowledge to Support Phonological Awareness and Phonics Instruction (Piasta & Hudson, 2022)
- Is Phonological-Only Instruction Helpful for Reading? (Stalega, Kearns, Bourget, Bayer, & Hebert, 2024)
- Florida Center for Reading Research
- Heggerty
- ABRACADABRA Interactive Games
- Reading A–Z
- Sightwords: Phonological Awareness Activities
Chapter 6
- Teaching Irregular Words (Colenbrander, Wang, Arrow, & Castles, 2020)
- Everybody’s Selling It—But Just What Is Explicit, Systematic Phonics Instruction? (Mesmer & Griffith, 2005)
- Phonological Recording and Orthographic Learning (Share, 1999)
- Phonics (Torgerson, Brooks, Gascoine, & Higgins, 2019)
- Strict Phonics Beats Mixed Phonics (Ziegler, Gioia, & Deauvieu, 2024)
- Florida Center for Reading Research
- Kiz Phonics
- Turtle Diary, Phonics
Chapter 7
- Reading A–Z
- Prosodic Competence as the Missing Component of Reading Processes Across Languages (Wade-Woolley, Wood, Chan, & Weidman, 2021)
- Really Great Reading: Heart Word Magic
- Timothy V. Rasinski
Chapter 8
- Online Etymology Dictionary
- Improving Comprehension Through Vocab (Foorman, 2022)
- How Morphology Impacts Reading and Spelling (Levesque, Breadmore, & Deacon, 2021)
- Vocabulary Assessment (Pearson, Hiebert, & Kamil, 2012)
- A Systematic Review of the Research on Vocabulary Instruction That Impacts Text Comprehension (Wright & Cervetti, 2017)
- Florida Center for Reading Research
- Structured Word Inquiry
- Online Etymology
- Jason Wade Education (original page is no longer available)
- Scholastic: Most Common Prefixes and Suffixes
Chapter 9
- The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction (Duke, Ward, & Pearson, 2021)
- Reading Comprehension Research (Elleman & Oslund, 2019)
- A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Reading Comprehension Interventions on the Reading Comprehension Outcomes of Struggling Readers in Third Through 12th Grades (Filderman, Austin, Boucher, O’Donnell, & Swanson, 2021)
- Improving Comprehension Through Vocabulary (Foorman, 2022)
- Understanding Specific Reading Comprehension Deficit (Landi & Ryherd, 2017)
- What Works Clearinghouse
- Florida Center for Reading Research
- Reading Universe: Graphic Organizers
- Self-Regulated Strategy Development
- ReadWorks
