There's Research for That: Your K-5 Literacy Instruction Questions Answered

by Heidi Anne E. Mesmer

A practical and understandable guide to navigating and integrating the Science of Reading. This book addresses common literacy teaching queries, like the optimal weekly letter introduction pace and the relevance of teaching handwriting in today's digital era. The Science of Reading significantly impacts K5 educators' roles, and this book provides a solution, offering accessible explanations, examples, and strategies to help students develop literacy skills.

208 pages, Paperback

Published February 25, 2025

Reviews

[Lisa Roppel]

There's Research for That is a good overview of many of the questions and concerns that teachers have when teaching Literacy. I found each section relatively short and to the point. There were also many helpful graphics/tables that will act as a quick reference point for busy educators.
With the emphasis on research based instruction, this book provides many references in the research to access more information and/or check the validity of approaches shared.

Thank you Net Galley, Heidi Anne Mesmer, Katie Hilden-Clouse and Teacher Created Materials for the opportunity to preview this title. The opinions shared are my own.
There's Research for That is now available.

[Lisa]

This is a well organized book pointing to best practices in research. I wish I would have had a book like this throughout my career. However, because it is research on best practices and the most updated research, it will need to be updated often. I would like to see an online update link as new research develops and changes.

[Katie]

This practical and well-organized book impressed me with its thoughtfulness. I'm a secondary teacher and this book is for K-5 teachers - but I have a preschooler, so I was hoping this book could help me learn what to expect with reading instruction and possibly do some fun practice at home. I was not disappointed! This research-based book cuts through the controversy around the Science of Reading to get to strategies that have been actually tested in the classroom. This book seems great for busy teachers (and busy parents like me)! I appreciated that everything is clearly backed by research and has practical applications. The suggestions of how to play with phonemes are great, and I love the organization by questions.

Thank you to NetGalley and Teacher Created Materials/Shell Education for the free eARC. I post this review with my honest opinions.

[EmG ReadsDaily]

A factual and well-organized book, that breaks down the best practices and evidence about the Science of Reading, in an accessible and practical way.

The authors have addressed 20 common questions from classroom teachers, offering information about what the research suggests, accessible explanations and examples, as well as realistic ways to incorporate that research into classroom literacy instruction.

The book is well-organized, with each chapter covering a single question, and accompanying best practices. This makes it very easy to navigate through the book and read or re-read what is relevant at the time. The added benefit is that the suggestions throughout the book can be used with varying literacy curriculums or reading programs.

This book is a brilliant resource for busy parents and teachers, with clear and actionable practices for evidence-based literacy instruction.