Welcome to the March edition of Structured Literacy with Joy
Allcock — our monthly briefing for educators and school leaders
sharing research, classroom insights, and practical tools for stronger writing and
reading instruction.
This month’s focus is on supporting English learners
and ensuring our instruction accelerates learning for every child.
From the Editor
Each month in Structured Literacy with Joy Allcock we highlight research,
classroom practices, and practical resources that help teachers build strong reading and
writing foundations.
This month we share an article from literacy researcher Susan
Neuman that raises an important question about early literacy instruction.
Why We Keep Asking the Wrong Question About Kindergarten Readiness
Literacy researcher ProfessorSusan Neuman recently challenged a common
debate in education.
Too often we ask:
“Which literacy program should we use?
But the more important question is:
Is our instruction flexible enough to accelerate learning for every
child — regardless of where they start?
Children arrive at school with very different levels of:
alphabet knowledge
oral language experience
phonological awareness
book and print awareness
The challenge for schools is not whether children are ready for school — but
whether instruction is intentionally designed to respond to that variability and
quickly build the foundational skills children need for reading and
writing.
Joy Allcock’s work has long addressed this challenge. Her speech-to-sound-to-print
approach helps teachers build the foundational skills for reading and
writing quickly, explicitly, and coherently, ensuring that differences
in starting point do not become long-term gaps.
Speech sounds vary across languages. Some English phonemes simply do not exist in
other languages, which can affect pronunciation and spelling. That’s why Joy
included a Sound Transfer Issues section in Elevate & Evaluate.
Code-Ed lessons intentionally support:
careful listening
accurate pronunciation
clear sound-to-print connections
This ensures English Learners are explicitly supported, not expected to infer
distinctions that have never been taught.
Structured literacy, done well, ensures every learner can use the alphabetic code
successfully.
What topics would you like us to cover in future editions?
Reply directly to this email — we read every response.
In support of every learner,
Joy & The Code Ed Team
About Joy Allcock and Code-Ed
Joy Allcock, M.Ed. (Hons), is a leading New Zealand literacy educator, author, and
researcher whose work has shaped how literacy is taught in classrooms across New
Zealand, the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.
Code-Ed is built on Joy’s evidence-proven
speech-to-sound-to-print approach and classroom-tested resources,
designed to strengthen teacher knowledge and ensure every learner can access reading and
writing.
Our mission is simple: evidence-proven structured literacy that builds engagement and accelerates
outcomes for all learners.
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