I Wasn't Taught How to Teach Reading: What to Do Next

If you graduated from a teacher training program feeling unprepared to teach children how to read, you are not alone. Many excellent, certified teachers enter the classroom only to find their training lacked the concrete tools needed for struggling readers.

This guide will help you understand why this gap exists and show you how to build your own toolkit. You do not need to restart your degree to become an expert in evidence-based reading instruction.

The unspoken truth about teacher training

Many teachers enter the school system with a shiny new credential but quickly realize they were trained for the wrong things. You might have spent semesters learning about high-level literacy theories, yet never learned how to explicitly teach a child to decode a word.

This experience is incredibly common. In fact, many educators describe feeling certified but completely unprepared for the reality of a diverse classroom. According to an article published by Reading Rockets, many teachers enter the public school system with a provisional or full credential, only to realize their intensive preparation programs skipped the actual mechanics of reading instruction.

This is not your fault. For decades, teacher preparation programs have favored "whole-language" or "balanced literacy" approaches. These theories assume that reading is a natural process, much like learning to speak. We now know this is not true. Reading must be explicitly taught.

What is missing? The gap in our training

To help struggling readers, we have to look at how the brain actually learns to read. This is often called the science of reading.

Balanced literacy often relies on guessing. You might have been taught to ask students, "Look at the picture," or "What word would make sense here?"

Structured literacy does the opposite. It is an approach based on Orton-Gillingham principles. It focuses on:

• Phonemic awareness: Hearing and manipulating individual sounds in spoken words.
• Phonics: Connecting those sounds directly to written letters in a systematic order.
• Syllable instruction: Helping kids break longer words into manageable parts.
• Explicit teaching: Never assuming a child will just "pick it up." We teach every rule directly.

When we teach children to guess, we disadvantage those who struggle with working memory or processing speed. When we teach them the code of the English language, we give them a tool for life.

Your self-training roadmap

You do not need to wait for your school district to fund a costly training course. You can begin building your knowledge this weekend with manageable, high-quality resources.

1. Read the foundational articles

Start with free, high-quality websites. Reading Rockets is an excellent place to begin. Read about the "Simple View of Reading" and the "Scarborough's Reading Rope." These two models explain how decoding and language comprehension work together.

2. Learn the phonics rules yourself

Many adults do not know why words are spelled the way they are. Spend some time learning basic spelling rules. For example, do you know why we double the 'f', 'l', 's', and 'z' at the end of words like cliff, hill, miss, and buzz? (This is the FLOSS rule). Learning these rules makes you a more confident teacher.

3. Listen to teacher podcasts

Listen to podcasts about the science of reading during your commute. Hearing other teachers share their classroom shifts can make the transition feel much less overwhelming.

Classroom shifts for Monday morning

You do not have to throw out your entire curriculum by Monday. You can make small, powerful shifts in your daily reading block right away.

Replace guessing with decoding

When a student gets stuck on a word, do not tell them to look at the picture. Do not let them guess. Instead, point to the letters. Say: "Look at the letters. Let's sound it out together."

Switch to decodable texts

If you have readers who do not know their phonics rules yet, pause the leveled readers. Leveled books often contain words the student cannot yet decode, forcing them to guess. Use decodable books that only contain the letter sounds you have already taught them.

Add a daily sound drill

Spend five minutes at the start of your reading block doing a quick flashcard drill. Show a letter or letter combination (like sh or ch) and have the whole class say the sound. It is fast, high-energy, and builds automatic memory.

How technology can assist you

As you transition your classroom to a structured literacy model, high-quality tools can save you valuable preparation time.

We designed our app, Lexy, to support this exact transition. It is built on Orton-Gillingham principles, offering structured phonics practice and reading fluency support. It is not a replacement for your instruction, but it is an excellent tool for independent practice while you work with small groups.

If you want to see how this fits into a school environment, you can read more about Lexy for schools, which offers classroom management tools and is free for your first five students.

Be kind to yourself

Shifting your teaching practice is a journey. It takes time to unlearn old habits and build new ones.

Celebrate the small victories. Every time you help a child sound out a word instead of guessing, you are changing the trajectory of their reading journey. You are doing the best you can with the knowledge you have, and your students are lucky to have a teacher who is willing to keep learning.