Here is Gloria. In grade three, she could not read or write anything but her name, despite above average intelligence. She has an exceptional vocabulary and background knowledge, but reading the word "and" or any other word seemed impossible. Within a few weeks of using a structured literacy approach, she was shocked. She thought that reading was about guessing and memorizing words - as she had been taught. Many students with word-reading problems use strategies like guessing and memorizing more than other students because they have very weak phonological processing skills and challenges connecting sounds to letters. As decades of high-quality research has demonstrated, challenges with word reading can be reduced significantly, and even eliminated by using structured literacy approaches.
Kovack, M. (27 Jan 2019). Gloria Feelings about Learning to Read. [Video]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3loD7gunlhE
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If you are curious about how a Kindergarten teacher could implement structured literacy in a play-based and inquiry-based learning classroom, Click on the Training tab (on this website), and watch the video "Structured Literacy in Kindergarten".