Teaching Less and Learning More: Five Shifts that Maximized Growth

In August 2024, only 47 percent of my new first graders met grade-level expectations. In May 2025, every single one of them was reading at or above grade level. Every. Single. One.

This outcome was both encouraging and surprising to many, but not to me. I knew this progress wasn’t a matter of chance. It was the direct result of a complete shift in how I delivered literacy instruction. When you look at a few of the individual growth stories, it becomes clear just how powerful that shift truly was. Let’s take a closer look at three students who represent very different starting points.

Student 1: The Greatest Gains
Beginning of first grade: 3 words per minute, 43% accuracy
End of first grade: 46 words per minute, 100% accuracy

This student began the year well below grade level, functioning at an emerging kindergarten level. She was withdrawn, shy, and reluctant to participate. By October, she quietly approached me during a lesson and said, “I love reading and writing now!” That’s when I knew this approach was reaching students at all levels. By year’s end, she met grade-level benchmarks on both the i-Ready Diagnostic and DIBELS 8th Edition assessments.

Student 2: The Quiet Middle
Beginning of first grade: 30 words per minute, 83% accuracy
End of first grade: 129 words per minute, 99% accuracy

This student entered first grade on track. He was neither behind nor significantly ahead. What stood out was not his skill level but his relationship with reading. He hesitated to read aloud, guessed frequently, and lacked confidence. It was clear he preferred other subject areas during our school day. Over time, however, he began to trust the processes we were using to become better readers and writers. By midyear, he wasn’t just reading accurately. He was begging for more reading instruction during the day and even choosing it as a class reward! He didn’t simply make gains; he became an avid reader in every sense of the word.

Student 3: The High Flier
Beginning of first grade: 112 words per minute, 97% accuracy
End of first grade: 154 words per minute, 99% accuracy

Students who enter first grade well above benchmark often present a unique instructional challenge. Their needs can be easily overlooked in the effort to support a wide range of learners and help striving readers catch up. How do you continue to grow a student who is already ahead while also meeting the needs of those just beginning to build crucial foundational skills? This year, our core instruction offered meaningful challenge for all learners through strategic scaffolding and high expectations. This high-flier continued to soar and demonstrated that with the right instruction, even advanced students can accelerate their literacy growth.

What Made the Difference

For most of my career, I believed outcomes like these were out of reach. Then I spent ten months learning and implementing a true speech-to-print approach, and the way I approached literacy instruction changed dramatically. As a result, my students didn’t just meet first-grade expectations…they exceeded them. More importantly, they were excited about reading and writing. These results weren’t a matter of luck, but a direct result of consistent, integrated, evidence-based instruction. The turning point came as I made five specific shifts grounded in Evidence-Based Literacy Instruction (EBLI).

EBLI: From Curiosity to Clarity

I discovered EBLI during the summer of 2024, almost by accident. As a lifelong learner, I registered for a free online summit to strengthen my structured literacy routines. What I found was something entirely different. The Structured Linguistic Literacy Summit introduced me to a new way of thinking about instruction, and I quickly realized I had more to learn than I expected.

After watching several sessions, I felt compelled to dig deeper. I purchased EBLI training and decided to implement it as a form of action research in my first-grade classroom. It was a big shift, and yes, I was quite nervous. But I believed it could make a big impact, and it did.

Here are five instructional shifts that contributed to my students’ literacy success:

1. Daily Phonemic Awareness with Purpose

Phonemic awareness was embedded into every EBLI lesson. As EBLI’s founder, Nora Chahbazi, said during one of my first coaching calls, “We don’t have to overdo because we always do.” Students segmented, blended, and manipulated phonemes daily, not as isolated exercises but as part of real reading and writing. They understood why these skills mattered because they used them as tools, not tasks. This purposeful integration built a strong sound-symbol foundation for decoding and encoding.

2. Immediate Feedback and Error Correction

Rooted in cognitive science, EBLI provided consistent and effective tools for error correction. Instead of simply saying “try again,” I gave students just enough information to help them analyze and correct their own mistakes. For example, if a student misread “mission,” I might cover the mi and on, showing only ssi, and prompt them to “say /sh/.” Then I’d reveal the full word and have the student blend to read it accurately. Each EBLI activity had a specific feedback process, and over time, this feedback loop became a normal part of our classroom culture. Mistakes were truly viewed as opportunities to learn, and this shift dramatically improved accuracy and increased student confidence.

3. Integrated Instruction

Every EBLI lesson incorporated multiple components of literacy: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, handwriting, spelling, and writing. Most activities integrated six to eight of these elements at once. Teaching skills in context made instruction more meaningful, improved retention, and streamlined the school day. In a world of limited instructional minutes, this integration was a game changer!

4. Letting Go of Overteaching

I also let go of the pressure to teach an overwhelming list of phonics rules and syllable division strategies. Instead, we focused on transferable skills grounded in consistent principles, tendencies in spelling patterns, and strategies students could apply across all reading and writing tasks. This reduced cognitive load and freed students to focus on reading and writing with greater accuracy, fluency, and understanding.

5. Intentional Reteaching Based on Student Needs

EBLI taught me to be diagnostic and prescriptive in real time. I used a simple tracking form to jot down student errors, such as dropping suffixes when reading, confusing vowel sounds and spellings, or omitting phonemes when spelling multisyllable words. These notes guided quick, targeted reteaching in small groups. This responsive approach helped close gaps without overteaching. Since whole group instruction was highly effective, I actually spent less time reteaching and more time helping students stretch and apply their skills.

Clarity and Confidence

This year, I taught with confidence grounded in knowing exactly what to do, how to do it, and why it mattered. EBLI provided a level of clarity that sharpened my instruction, strengthened my conversations with families, and created a more focused learning environment. That clarity extended to my students as well. They trusted me, embraced the process, and grew more confident in themselves. The resulting joy, independence, and self-assurance were unmistakable.

Letting go of the urge to overteach was one of the most challenging parts of this journey for me. I came to understand that doing less – but doing it better – reduced cognitive load and led to more efficient teaching and learning. This balance of releasing previous practices while embracing new learning through EBLI made all the difference in unlocking each of my students’ full potential.

After 20-plus years in the classroom, I’ve never felt more energized or equipped to help my students reach their full potential. I’m excited to build on this work in year two and hope my story encourages others to explore what’s possible when we’re willing to rethink how we teach literacy. Curious what this looks like in action? Stay tuned for next week’s blog, where I’ll share a glimpse into my classroom instruction.