Center for Early Literacy and Responsible AI
Monthly Talk Series with Dr. Elfrieda “Freddy” H. Hiebert
Friday, January 9
9am PST, 12 noon EST
English orthography is quasi-regular—alphabetic, but with imperfect letter-sound relationships, especially in vowels. The current perspective on text to initiate children into this quasi-regular orthography—the lesson-to-text-model—lacks strong evidence. Yet in the past 25 years since it became the basis for policies in key states, the science of reading has expanded dramatically. This presentation asks a practical question: Can we use this growing body of knowledge—about how students learn, the structure of the English lexicon, and developmental trajectories—to design alternative text models?
The answer is yes. Consider that among the 2,000 most frequent words in English, 250 monosyllabic short-vowel words appear in children’s oral language. By mapping these onto the d-ELP (Developmental English Lexicon Project) difficulty scale, we can create texts that repeat critical patterns while maintaining genuine meaning for young readers.
Related Resources on TextProject.org
