Overview:
True literacy extends beyond decoding print—it lives in the songs, rhythms, movements, and stories children carry from their homes and communities, reminding educators that the real science of reading is the science of being human.
Decoding alone doesn’t capture the rhythms, rhymes, and stories children carry in their bodies and homes.
You walk into a classroom, and you hear the laughter on the faces of the youth. They are clapping their hands, stomping their feet, reciting the songs in their homes, and the dances of the latest dance challenge. I reflect on the vision I am encountering and repeat softly to myself: This is literacy.
Literacy serves as a form of protection in this world and is rightly guided by both imagination and reason, said Gholdy Muhammad. I pose the question: When did imagination only become limited to a biased view of reading instruction? There is much discussion around how reading instruction should evolve with the Science of Reading, and while that may be true in some aspects. The recent wave of the “Science of Reading” has brought important conversations about decoding, fluency, and comprehension. These skills matter, but they also reduce literacy to what can be measured and standardized. This focus often erases other archives of literacy. Those that live in families, in bodies, and in communities. Reading instruction should not only focus on print material, but also on recognizing multiple literacies as archives. This includes oral, embodied, tactile, and digital experiences.
The next phase after the Science of Reading must include cultural and embodied literacies as legitimate forms of reading. Literacy is not simply cognitive; it is cultural, political, embodied, and multimodal. Teachers who tap into those archives (songs, handclaps, family stories, body movement tied to text) expand reading instruction beyond the narrow script. These literacies are not separate from reading; they are the foundation on which reading rests. Scholars affirm what many of us witness every day: literacy lives beyond print. We should be considering the following literacies as well:
- A child who learns rhythm and rhyme through playground chants is building phonological awareness outside of books. Have you ever stood on a playground and listened to the songs children make up or even the hand games that they play? Yet these literacies are included as forms of reading. The handclaps, rhymes, and invented songs on the playground are archives of literacy, yet too often overlooked. This is why so many dance and sound trends go viral on social media. Our youth appreciate the literacies that are not only rhythmic but also embodied. These embodied practices support memory and cognitive skills that are needed for print but they have been erased as literacy requirements and/or methods.
- A student using braille, tactile sign, or AAC is achieving language through different modalities. Not all children have the same access to language, specifically oral language, receptive, and/or expressive, which is centered in the science of reading. For example, the child who uses an AAC device to communicate or the child who uses American Sign Language. When we look at the view of the Science of Reading, we simply look at how well a child can engage with specific types of print. Yet often their literacies are viewed as less than because it is different.
- Families who tell stories orally or through songs are archiving literacy across generations. I can’t count the number of times I hear about family engagement and involvement being a priority, and or the lack there is of family involvement or engagement. We miss the point: families already practice literacy in ways that schools rarely acknowledge or honor.
Endarkened storytelling insists that our stories, songs, rhythms, spirituals, and embodied knowings are not just anecdotes but theory. They are archives of literacy in action. When we listen to these stories, we expand what counts as reading instruction.
After the Science of Reading the “next phase” must include these cultural and embodied literacies as legitimate forms of reading. Educators who tap into these archives such as songs, handclaps, family stories, and body movement tied to text, expand reading instruction beyond the narrow script. If literacy truly serves as protection, then we cannot afford to teach children with a shield made only of print. The next chapter of reading instruction must be written in the rhythms, movements, and stories children already carry in their bodies and homes.
The Science of Reading gave us a chapter. But the story of literacy is much longer. Its archives are in playground chants, family songs, body movements, and digital creations. It is time we teach reading as if the whole story matters. The real science of reading is the science of being human. When teachers honor cultural and embodied literacies, they move beyond scripts and into freedom. That is where reading instruction must go next.
