SCIENCE OF READING ALIGNED
Where the Science of Reading Meets the Science of Learning
Explicit, systematic phonics is the what. Secret Stories® is the how: cognitive neuroscience applied so brain-friendly patterns stick the first time you teach them.
- Grounded in cognitive neuroscience and aligned with Science of Reading research
- ESSA Level 1 evidence, the highest standard, with an average effect size of 1.62
- Strengthens any SoR curriculum without replacing your scope and sequence
The piece the Science of Reading identifies but most programs leave out
The Science of Reading established what to teach and in what order. Explicit, systematic phonics is settled. What it does not resolve is the retrieval problem, which is how a seven year old holds dozens of arbitrary patterns in memory and produces the right one at speed while reading for meaning.
That gap is where instruction usually breaks. Secret Stories® addresses it directly by attaching each pattern to a story, a character and a motion, so retrieval runs through narrative memory rather than rote recall. It is designed to sit alongside a systematic program, not compete with it.
Keep your scope and sequence
Your program still decides what is taught and when. Secret Stories does not impose an order and does not ask you to move anything.
Add the reason behind each pattern
Where your program introduces a pattern, the matching Secret supplies the why. That is the part students retain when the lesson is over.
Measure it in transfer, not recall
The evidence that it worked is students applying patterns in unfamiliar text and in writing, not reciting rules back correctly on a quiz.
After 18 years in education, including teaching students with special needs, I know that children need different ways to make phonics stick. UFLI provides explicit, systematic instruction, while Secret Stories gives students memorable connections that help confusing sound patterns make sense.
Common questions
Is Secret Stories aligned to the Science of Reading?
How does it work with UFLI, Heggerty or Fundations?
Does adding stories contradict explicit instruction?
What evidence supports it?
Will this confuse students who are already learning rules?
Best Sellers
