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In today’s classroom, improving student outcomes in reading and writing isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about refining the practices you already use — being more intentional, more strategic, and more responsive to what research tells us about learning.

In this article, we’ll explore six powerful strategies that every teacher can impart to lift literacy outcomes. These aren’t theoretical ideas — they’re grounded in cognitive science, explicit instruction, and proven pedagogy.

We have listed only a few key ideas, but it’s a starting point for levelling up your instructional impact.

Focus Area 1 : Engagement and Improving Student Responses

We are passionate about engagement – it’s a huge contributor to real reading progress.  We’ve regularly seen how activating student engagement from the very beginning of the lesson is essential and this is your first step. Aim to prompt a student response within the first few teaching moments — an example can be where learners echo key vocabulary and then share with a partner.

This quick interaction does more than warm students up; it activates the brain’s alerting system, a neurological cue that tells the brain it’s time to pay attention. As highlighted in Stanislas Dehaene’s Four Pillars of Learning, attention is the essential first step — without it, meaningful learning can’t occur.

However, it’s not just about quantity. The quality of responses matters, too. As Anita Archer and Charles Hughes emphasise in Explicit Instruction, a high success rate is vital for learning. Even in the “I do” stage of instruction, students shouldn’t be passive observers. Rather than delivering a long lecture, embed short, interactive moments that maintain attention and ensure students are actively processing the content. 

Focus Area 2: Think about and Manage  the Type  of Student Responses

Closely related to number 1 is strategically managing the types of responses students are asked to give. Not all responses are created equal. A well-structured lesson should mix:

• Simple repetition for attention and fluency,

• Short answers for checking understanding, and

• Elaborative responses to promote deeper thinking and knowledge transfer.

In their book Powerful Teaching, Agarwal and Bain show that elaborative responses help cement knowledge more effectively. For more impactful responses, plan ahead of time (a questioning matrix is useful) and ask: are you wanting responses for remembering content, for applying knowledge or to check fluency?

Focus Area 3: Give Your Daily Review a Makeover

Daily review is a staple in many literacy classrooms — but it’s time to supercharge it. Instead of relying solely on recognition tasks (e.g. matching, identifying), increase the ratio of retrieval-based tasks.

For example:

• Instead of showing a grapheme and asking for the sound, say the sound and ask students to write the grapheme.

• Instead of reading a vocabulary word aloud, ask students to recall the definition or use it in a sentence.

• Replace “recognise and repeat” with “recall and produce.”

Studies show that retrieval strengthens memory and makes learning more durable. Use tools like retrieval question boxes or oral spelling challenges to keep reviews fresh and engaging.

Focus Area 4: Cognitive Connections for Deeper Learning

Learning sticks best when students can connect new information to what they already know. Schema activation is a core component, especially the practice of reviewing previous content at the start of a lesson.

But connection building can go beyond that:

• Ask students to make personal connections: “When have you heard this word before?” or “Have you ever felt like this character?”

• Build cross-curricular links: “Remember how we saw this pattern in Science?” The LFK program integrates topics that align with other curriculum areas, highlighting how literacy underpins all subjects.

• Encourage morpheme recognition: “What other words start with un-?” “Can you give an example of something that you have undone?”

(Be mindful of inclusive practices — avoid personal questions that not all students may relate to. Instead, use universal scenarios.) When students build connections, they’re not just engaged — they’re weaving knowledge into robust schema that supports comprehension, memory, and application.

Shaping practice for every student means providing targeted support that aligns with each student’s individual stage of learning. Cognitive load theory reminds us that students can only absorb a limited amount of new information at once — and what’s considered “new” differs widely between learners.

A core principle of structured literacy is meeting students exactly where they are, which is why LFK offers differentiated literacy levels, according to reading and spelling ability. As a teacher, I wanted to develop a program that catered for all learners and a tool that saved teachers’ time where they can monitor the whole class under one Teacher Dashboard. Personalised practice makes every minute count by ensuring that instruction is both relevant and impactful.