Understanding Reading Progress Without the Panic
A conversation about trust, time, and urgency in reading instruction
This week, I read an article about everything ChatGPT has learned about us from all that we feed it.
So naturally, I asked it what it had learned about me.
Chatty’s response:
“Katie, you run hot, cognitively.”
This did not feel like a compliment. But it’s also… not wrong.
In my world, especially the parts of my life connected to my greatest loves (literacy equity and family), I am a cocktail of intensity, curiosity, and anxiety. So it felt particularly fortunate that this week’s podcast episode features someone who seems to operate in a very different state.
John Bennetts knows his stuff when it comes to literacy leadership and the systems that make the right to read possible for all students (he was personally trained by the great Linda Farrell). But John also brings something that many of us in education, myself included, struggle to maintain at times: calm. A sense that we can move this work forward without losing our heads along the way.
Our conversation covered a lot of ground. But three ideas kept resurfacing. The first was the importance of clear information for families without unnecessary panic. The second was the powerful role of early language and read-aloud routines. And the third was the importance of coherent literacy systems that support both students and teachers.
Along the way, we returned to a question that many parents ask themselves without knowing the answer: How do I know if my child is progressing “normally” in reading?
1. Information Without Panic
In many states, including Massachusetts, children are screened multiple times each year beginning in kindergarten. These screenings are designed to help schools identify students who may need additional support early. This is fantastic.
However, as John pointed out, the way that information is communicated can sometimes create more confusion than clarity. A dyslexia screener report that simply arrives in our email showing a color, percentile, or benchmark score often leaves us wondering what it means for our child.
John notes that screeners are not meant to be verdicts. They are meant to raise a flag, prompting educators to look more closely at a child’s skill development. When families receive screening results, the most helpful response is usually curiosity rather than alarm. Instead of asking “Is my child behind?”, the more useful questions sound like this:
• What specific skill is this measure assessing?
• How many of those skills does my child currently know?
• How many have already been taught in class?
• What instruction will the school provide to help build that skill?
• When will we check progress again?
A kindergartener receiving a low score early in the year is not automatically cause for concern. What matters more is whether instruction is happening and whether progress is monitored over time.
John shared a simple example.
If a class has been taught ten letter names and sounds and a child still cannot identify any of them, that is a signal that the student may need additional support. But if a child is still learning the school routines and already knows most of the letters taught so far, the situation looks very different.
Clarity matters because children can feel adult anxiety quickly. When reading becomes a source of worry at home, it can unintentionally change the relationship between parent, child, and books.
While families deserve accurate information, they also deserve reassurance that development does not unfold at exactly the same pace for every child.
2. The Role of Early Read-Alouds
Another part of our conversation moved even earlier, long before formal reading instruction begins. John currently serves as chair of the board for Reach Out and Read Rhode Island, a program that partners with pediatricians to support early literacy development from birth.
At every well-child visit from infancy through age five, families participating in Reach Out and Read receive a book. Pediatricians use those visits to model simple early literacy practices, such as:
• narrating what a baby is noticing on the page
• following the child’s curiosity
• building consistent routines around shared reading
The goal is to help families establish a daily habit of reading together. Research consistently shows that early language exposure and shared reading experiences shape children’s later literacy development. At the same time, recent studies suggest that fewer families are reading aloud regularly than in previous generations.
Programs like Reach Out and Read help bring books back into everyday family routines. They also ensure that families have access to books in the languages spoken in their homes, including Haitian Creole and many others. And the advice itself is really refreshing. You do not need hundreds of books or elaborate teaching strategies. You just need a few beloved stories and the willingness to read them again and again.
3. Why Coherence Matters in School Literacy Systems
The final theme of our conversation was how literacy instruction is organized throughout the day. John spends much of his time helping districts strengthen their MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support). MTSS is a structure that schools use to ensure that students who need additional help receive it. It typically includes:
Tier 1: Core classroom instruction
Tier 2: Additional small-group support
Tier 3: More intensive intervention
The idea behind MTSS is that most students will develop the skills they need through strong whole-group instruction. But children learn at different rates. When schools identify students who need additional support early, they can provide more practice, more time, and more targeted instruction to help those foundational reading skills develop. The challenge arises when those layers of instruction are not aligned.
John described real situations in which a struggling reader might encounter four different instructional systems in a single day.
For example:
• whole-group phonics instruction using one program
• a small-group intervention using a second program
• a computer-based intervention with different terminology
• tutoring outside school using yet another approach
Each program may use different terminology, routines, and explanations for the same concepts. One program might refer to a silent e. Another might call it a bossy e. Another might teach vowel patterns in a completely different way. For children who are already struggling, this lack of coherence creates unnecessary overload on working memory.
Schools are responsible for getting this right, and my dear friend Rosy discussed how to do so on Episode 7. But parents can help bring clarity to this situation by asking questions such as:
• What specific skill is my child working on during intervention?
• How does that instruction connect to what happens in the classroom?
• Are the programs using the same language and routines?
• How will you know if the intervention is working?
• Will my child miss other important learning opportunities, such as science or social studies?
To be clear, these questions are not meant to place blame on teachers. In many cases, fragmentation reflects broader system design rather than individual decisions. Reading instruction is only one piece of what teachers are responsible for each day. When schools provide aligned curriculum, shared planning time, and clear assessment systems, teachers are far better positioned to help every student succeed.
Why Clarity Matters
Early reading difficulties can compound if left unaddressed. But urgency does not require panic. What children and families need most is clear information, strong instruction, and coherent systems that allow teachers to do their work well. When those pieces are in place, progress becomes much easier to see. And perhaps most importantly, reading can remain what we hope it will be for children: a joyful pathway into knowledge, curiosity, and learning.
If you would like to listen to the full conversation with John Bennetts, you can find the episode here.
And if you are new here, you can subscribe to this newsletter for weekly deep dives on reading development, assessments, and practical ways families and educators can support children on their path to becoming skilled readers.
P.S. One thing I hear from parents all the time is some version of:
“I have this assessment report… but I don’t really know what it means.”
If you ever find yourself in that position, I offer one-on-one parent consultations where we sit down together and walk through your child’s reading profile. We can review screening results, discuss what appears typical (and what might need attention), and outline the most helpful next steps. My goal in those conversations is the same as in this newsletter: replace confusion with clarity so you can advocate for your child with confidence.
If that would be helpful for your family, you can learn more or book a session here.
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