The Science of Secondary Reading™: Getting Teens to Read, Think, and Engage
Author: Erik Lepis, Kirsten Widmer and Dr. Paul J Bloomberg
The Science of Reading (SOR) movement has reshaped early literacy and brought clarity, coherence, and measurable success to classrooms nationwide. Its foundation in the Simple View of Reading (SVR) along with Scarborough’s Rope model has guided educators toward a more comprehensive approach to literacy instruction that includes teaching the skills necessary for both word recognition and language comprehension. These shifts have brought a more explicit, systematic, and multisensory instructional approach in Word Recognition, resulting in stronger decoding skills. Moreover, teachers have recognized the important role that background knowledge and vocabulary play in reading comprehension over isolated strategy instruction and have made efforts to integrate more knowledge and vocabulary building through interdisciplinary reading instruction.
Recent success stories across districts demonstrate that when SOR practices are paired with a systematic multisensory phonics program, a strong Multi-Tiered System of Supports (MTSS), and high-quality progress monitoring, early readers make considerable gains. Schools are now seeing evidence-based literacy outcomes that reflect both the science and the art of effective teaching.
Yet, as students advance beyond grade two or three, decoding proficiency along with the extra boost in background knowledge and vocabulary that students have acquired, has not resulted in the reading success educators had expected. Educators are continually challenged by students who lack motivation, coherence, and deep comprehension which require more than what the Simple View of Reading offers. Therefore, the Science of Reading must evolve into something more dynamic across the grades–one that addresses active self-regulation along with bridging processes that overlap between word recognition and language comprehension while considering text, task, and sociocultural context.
Additionally, the demands of secondary reading add another dimension–students must consider text type and task as part of disciplinary literacy to construct complex content knowledge to a particular discipline. This is the point at which the Science of Reading must evolve into something multi-faceted: The Science of Secondary Reading™ (SOSR). SOSR provides a deeper examination of language comprehension as well as an understanding of the role that active self regulation and bridging processes play in order for students to become critically literate, advanced readers and writers–all while grappling with the anxiety, fractured attention, and social isolation that comes with a continually online generation.
From Simple View to Active View to Secondary
The Active View of Reading (AVR), articulated by Nell Duke and Kelly Cartwright (2021), builds upon the Simple View with three key understandings about reading, beyond the SVR, derived from scientific research (i.e., the science of reading) that do the following:
Point to causes of reading difficulty within and beyond word recognition and language comprehension
Reflect the considerable overlap between word recognition and language comprehension and the important processes that bridge these skills and/or operate through that overlap
Represent the important role that active self-regulation plays in reading
These understandings—present and vital from K–5—become even more essential as students encounter increasingly complex disciplinary texts in secondary grades. In order for students to comprehend texts well as well as engage in critical thought and debate, success depends on building the higher-order systems that connect active self regulation with word recognition, bridging processes and language comprehension.
At the same time, some learners continue to require Tier 2 or Tier 3 structured literacy interventions, particularly students with either dyslexia, language disorders, interrupted literacy experiences, or those who are new to the English language. And for multilingual learners (MLLs), a differentiated approach to structured literacy—one that honors stages of language acquisition and builds both linguistic and cultural knowledge—is critical. Effective structured literacy interventions pair explicit phonology, sound-symbol associations, syllable instruction with morphology, syntax, and semantics.
The AVR models adds these key systems to the reading equation:
Active Self-Regulation – actively coordinate the various processes and text elements necessary for successful reading, deploy strategies to ensure reading processes go smoothly, maintain motivation, and actively engage with text. Meta-analyses (Cartwright et al., 2020; Connor et al., 2014; Hattie, 2023) confirm that these self-regulatory and motivational systems are powerful predictors of comprehension and academic growth—especially as text complexity increases.
Motivation and Engagement – expecting value in, having interest in, and having a desire to read; motivation facilitates engagement, which is active participation in reading and interaction with text
Executive Function – higher order self-regulatory neurocognitive processes recruited particularly in complex, goal-directed tasks (including reading)
Strategy Use – “Deliberate, goal-directed attempts to control and modify the reader’s efforts to decode text, understand words, and construct meanings of text” (Afflerbach, Pearson, & Paris, 2008, p. 368)
Bridging Processes – understanding that word recognition and language comprehension are overlapping and explicitly identifies processes that bridge these constructs.
Print Concepts – understanding of how print works, such as reading it from left to right and top to bottom in English but also how to navigate increasing complex info graphics
Reading Fluency – the accuracy, automaticity, and prosody with which a person reads
Vocabulary Knowledge - understanding of the denotative and connotative meanings of words and phrases within a language as well as the correct pronunciation of heteronyms
Morphological Awareness - awareness and knowledge of the smallest meaningful units in language, such as recognizing prefixes, roots, and suffixes
Graphophonological-Semantic Cognitive Flexibility – the ability to simultaneously consider and actively switch between the letter–sound (graphophonological) and meaning (semantic) features of printed words
Revisions to Language Comprehension – the ability to understand the meaning of language
Cultural and Other Content Knowledge – body of information acquired over time through experiences, such as formal education and daily activities within one’s cultural group(s)
Theory of Mind – social reasoning that involves “the ability to understand and take into account one’s own and others’ mental states (Premack & Woodruff, 1978)” (Weimer et al., 2021, p. 1), including characters’ mental states (e.g., thoughts, feelings, intentions) to understand, reason about, and make inferences from text
Bridging the Science: From AVR to SOSR
The Science of Secondary Reading™ (SOSR), an action research inquiry through Mimi & Todd Press in partnership with the Core Collaborative Learning Network, extends Duke and Cartwright’s Active View of Reading (AVR) into the middle and high school years, offering educators practical strategies to help students become independent, motivated, and metacognitive readers who can understand, think deeply, and act intentionally when engaging with rich, complex texts across the disciplines.
Research demonstrates that:
Self-regulation fosters independence and comprehension repair through feedback and goal setting (Pressley & Afflerbach, 1995).
Motivation drives persistence, volume, and transfer of comprehension strategies (Guthrie & Wigfield, 2000).
Fluency bridges decoding and comprehension by freeing working memory for deep reasoning (Rasinski, 2017).
Cultural Knowledge greatly influences comprehension processes. Individuals may comprehend information better when they are culturally familiar with the information, that is, when they have the appropriate cultural schemata (Altarriba & Forsythe, 1993).
Theory of Mind supports empathy and inference-making, enabling critical reading (Kendeou et al., 2016).
Together, these findings reinforce Duke and Cartwright’s central insight: reading is not a linear process—it is dynamic, multidimensional, and active. The SOSR framework uses this understanding within a continuum of support that honors the success of SOR and extends its principles through secondary pedagogy.
Structured literacy helps students access text. The Active View helps them understand it. The Science of Secondary Reading™ helps them use it.
What SOSR Is
The Science of Secondary Reading™ is both a book and a movement—the next evolution in literacy practice. It unites the evidence-based practices supported by the Science of Reading with the cognitive, motivational, and cultural dimensions of the Active View of Reading. Moreover, it acknowledges text and multi-media diversity, differences in task and purpose based on discipline, as well as the challenges students face in self-regulation in an age of disconnection, trauma, and anxiety.
It guides educators to:
Strengthen Motivation, and Self-Regulation through metacognitive routines for feedback, reflection, and goal setting.
Engagement through discourse to solidify comprehension and support listening and argumentation while fostering an inclusive and collaborative environment.
Apply Disciplinary Literacy to teach how experts read, write, and reason in each content area.
Foster Critical Literacy so students analyze, empathize, and connect ideas across perspectives.
Integrate Structured Literacy into MTSS frameworks to ensure equitable access.
Differentiate Structured Literacy for Multilingual Learners, aligning phonics and morphology with oral language and vocabulary development.
SOSR is evidence-based yet deeply human-centered—grounded in learning science and the belief that literacy is an act of identity, belonging, and purpose.
Why It Matters
Adolescents are not just readers of text—they are readers of systems, communities, and identities. The Science of Secondary Reading™ equips educators to help students:
Navigate complex texts across disciplines.
Strengthen metacognition and motivation.
Build empathy through the theory of mind and critical inquiry.
Read to learn—and to actively engage in a democratic society.
Learn more at www.thecorecollaborative.com
