Bridging LETRS and Practice: How Literacy Geeks Brings Structured Literacy to Life in Secondary Classrooms

As schools across the nation increasingly adopt the Science of Reading and invest in Lexia® LETRS® professional learning, a clear challenge emerges: how to translate this research-driven approach and professional development for grades K-5 into everyday classroom practice—especially beyond elementary school. LETRS (Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling) offers a deep, theoretical understanding of what literacy skills should be taught, when they should be taught, why they matter, and how students acquire them. Yet LETRS is not a curriculum or set of lessons; it is professional knowledge that must be transformed into purposeful instruction.

While LETRS is designed for PreK–5 educators, its foundational principles—explicit phonics, morphology, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction—are just as critical for students in grades 6-12, many of whom are still developing foundational reading skills or struggling with comprehension. Literacy Geeks® uniquely bridges this gap for secondary teachers by offering a practical, high-impact instructional system aligned with LETRS principles. From adaptive reading practice and strategic assessments to scaffolded reading routines and text-dependent writing, Literacy Geeks empowers secondary teachers to confidently deliver evidence-based reading instruction that supports all learners, including multilingual students and older striving readers.

Turning LETRS Knowledge into Classroom Action

LETRS gives educators the knowledge base to understand how reading develops—from phonemic awareness and phonics to morphology, fluency, and comprehension—and how to respond to student needs with precision. Literacy Geeks operationalizes this knowledge through concrete, classroom-ready routines and tools that delivers LETRS principles and outcomes in secondary classrooms. Consider the following features of Literacy Geeks' supplemental curriculum:

Explicit Reading Strategy Instruction: Students learn how and when to apply deep reading strategies like activating prior knowledge, summarizing, questioning, and visualizing. These skills are taught directly and practiced repeatedly in context, mirroring LETRS’ emphasis on strategic, purposeful comprehension instruction.

Foundational Skills for Secondary Learners Including Multilingual Learners: LETRS stresses that foundational reading instruction must be delivered to any student who needs it, regardless of grade level. Literacy Geeks supports this with age-appropriate phonological awareness and syllabication lessons tailored to the needs of middle and high school students, ensuring access without stigma.

Vocabulary and Morphology Development: Through high-interest, content-rich texts, Literacy Geeks embeds explicit vocabulary instruction and exposes students to morphological patterns that enhance both decoding and comprehension.

Reading-Writing Integration: LETRS promotes integrating writing to deepen comprehension. Literacy Geeks invests in the read/writer relationship and develops these essential skills through text-dependent writing routines, teaching students to analyze texts, construct arguments, and cite evidence—essential skills for college and career readiness.

Practical Tools for LETRS-Aligned Instruction

One of the most common implementation barriers for LETRS-trained teachers is the lack of curriculum and tools to support their new knowledge. Literacy Geeks addresses this with a suite of embedded, pedagogically aligned tools:

Teacher-Driven Lessons: These provide clear instructional moves, helping teachers deliver effective lessons in comprehension, text analysis, and academic discourse—ensuring that what teachers learn in LETRS can be used immediately in class.

Ongoing Assessment and Skill Diagnosis: LETRS emphasizes diagnosing and responding to reading difficulties. Literacy Geeks embeds assessments into instructional practice, offering real-time data that helps teachers group students, target interventions, and track progress.

Skill Connect Curriculum: Literacy Geeks' targeted lessons ensure that students who have not yet mastered key skills—whether phonics, fluency, or comprehension—get the focused instruction they need, when they need it.

Multilingual Learner Success and Language Development

LETRS emphasizes the importance of developing spoken language, background knowledge, and academic vocabulary, particularly for multilingual learners. Literacy Geeks aligns closely with these goals by ensuring that MLLs are supported through structured literacy routines:

Language-Rich Texts and Scaffolded Tasks: Students read authentic, content-rich texts and engage in routines that build both conceptual understanding and academic language.

Cognitive and Linguistic Supports: Highlighting, rereading, questioning, and modeled responses provide structured entry points for MLLs and support productive struggle.

Positive Messaging and Asset Mindset: Literacy Geeks nurtures an environment where students feel confident to take risks, supporting both emotional safety and academic growth—critical for language learners.

A Pathway for Secondary LETRS Implementation

In practice, LETRS provides the “why” behind structured literacy. Literacy Geeks delivers the “how”—through practical tools, scaffolded routines, and data-driven insights that secondary educators can use to deliver rigorous, equitable, and engaging reading instruction. This makes Literacy Geeks a powerful implementation partner for schools and districts working to extend the Science of Reading—and LETRS-informed practice—into grades 6–12.

By bridging theory and practice, foundational skills and deep comprehension, and reading and writing, Literacy Geeks ensures that all students—not just those in early elementary—have access to the full promise of structured literacy.