Inspired by the book “Harnessing the Science of Learning” by Nathaniel Swain, I am sharing practices that I have de-implemented along my #ScienceOfReading learning journey. This is the fifth of five practices I have de-implemented… De-implementation practice #5: Spending hours of instructional time on Phonologcal Awareness skills, such as syllable deletion tasks and rhyming tasks, believing that students had to master those skills before moving onto phonemic awareness tasks, such as blending sounds and segmenting words into their individual units of sound! The research of Dr. Susan Brady posits: “We can really improve the situation if we focus on phoneme knowledge right from the start of school, especially if we link it immediately to letter knowledge.” Dr. Susan Brady, 2023 So now, instead of spending hours of precious instructional time on phonological awareness without letters, I spend my instructional time on developing students’ phonemic awareness skills USING letters! @NathanielRSwain