Occasional Paper Series #55
“It Was Hard, But It Worked:” Children’s Theories on Learning to Read
by Cristina Valencia Mazzanti, Laura Tiktin-Sharick, Madeleine Zuck, and Tiphareth Ananda
If you didn’t know how to read life would be hard.
—Fifth-Grade Student
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, a movement popularly named the “science of reading” gained momentum in the media and in political discussions, thus bringing debates about reading education into the public sphere and reshaping the way it is currently approached in schools across the United States (Ballenger, 2025). Although it is hard to define and there is disagreement about what it entails, the science of reading has become commonly understood as an approach that advocates for models of language and reading composed of discrete skills that need to be taught explicitly and systematically in order for students to achieve proficiency. The impacts of the science of reading are currently widely evident in schools and educational systems, with a wide range of approaches to implementation, creating a need to more closely examine how it is shaping children’s learning experiences.
In this paper, we come together as teachers, a school leader, and a professor to paint a vivid picture of what children have to say about reading and learning to read. We examine children’s theories about learning to read, captured in written and illustrated texts created by 143 children enrolled in kindergarten through sixth grade during the 2024–25 school year. In doing so, our hope is to humanize current debates about how reading should be taught. We also hope to offer a counternarrative to the dichotomies currently shaping reading education, particularly those based on ideas about the science of reading. To this end, we first briefly describe our school and its reading curriculum, detailing the impact of the science of reading and our intentional response to it as educators. We then discuss children’s theories about learning to read. We close with a section that briefly highlights the possibilities that children’s theories about reading create for education.
Cristina Valencia Mazzanti is assistant professor of education and child study at Smith College. She studies the social construction of languages as a multifaceted phenomenon that shapes children’s experiences of learning as well as the work of educators and researchers. Currently, she is researching young children’s experiences with multilingualism, multimodality, and learning through a series of interdisciplinary longitudinal studies involving kindergarten students, elementary school teachers, and Latine families. Cristina teaches classes in the areas of early childhood and elementary education as well as educational research.
Laura Tiktin-Sharick is the assistant head of school at the Campus School of Smith College. Prior to this, Laura has served as an assistant principal, an instructional coach, and an elementary school teacher in the New York City Department of Education. Laura earned an EdM in Leadership for Educational Change from Bank Street Graduate School of Education, an MSEd in Childhood Education from CUNY Brooklyn College, and a BA from Wesleyan University. Laura is a progressive educator and school leader who believes in the power of authentic collaboration among children and adults as a critical way to create dynamic teaching and learning communities.
Madeleine Zuck is a s
econd grade supervising teacher at the Campus School of Smith College. This is Madeleine’s ninth year in the classroom. In 2006, she graduated from Brown University with a BA in Public and Private Sector Organizations. Then in 2015, Madeleine received a dual MSEd in Childhood General and Special Education from Bank Street Graduate School of Education. Upon graduating, she began working as a kindergarten/first grade teacher at Brooklyn Compass, a progressive charter school in New York City. Six years later, she moved to the Pioneer Valley and joined the Campus School’s teaching team. Madeleine is a progressive educator who works to center joy and equity in her teaching practices and classroom life.
Tiphareth Ananda is a fourth grade supervising teacher at the Campus School of Smith College. Beyond working with children, she mentors preservice teachers, co-facilitates a professional learning community for other mentors, and occasionally serves as an adjunct professor for methods courses. She started her teaching career working with 10- to 12-year-olds at The Common School, an independent school in Amherst, Massachusetts. Tiphareth found her intellectual home when she joined the Smith College community, completing the M.A.T. program, and dedicating decades to creating a responsive classroom culture, teacher research, and curriculum development. Tiphareth earned a BA in Elementary Education and African American Studies from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst.