Phonics & Reading Professional Development Books

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Summer is the perfect time to brush up on your teaching skills and learn about any new or updated teaching strategies. I’m sharing my top recommendations for professional development books for reading and phonics.

I don’t know if you’re like me, but I love a good book on the latest research and recommendations for educators, especially when it relates to reading and phonics. I know this is not for everyone, but I guess I’m a nerd at heart. Some people prefer videos or courses, but I prefer to learn by reading. So if you’re like me, you’ll love this list!

And of course, all of these books follow the science of reading!

Uncovering the Logic of English

This book is SO GOOD and really easy to read! I always recommend this to parents since it’s written for everyone, instead of just for teachers. I love how it breaks down every ‘rule’ and shows how logical English actually is. This is very practical for any educator!

Shifting the Balance: 6 Ways to Bring the Science of Reading into the Balanced Literacy Classroom

This is a great book for anyone new to the science of reading. It’s very easy to read and focuses on 6 manageable shifts you can make in the classroom. It explains everything well without going too deep and will help with the obstacles commonly faced when trying to change our instructional practice.

7 Mighty Moves: Research-Backed, Classroom-Tested Strategies to Ensure K-to-3 Reading Success

If you’re navigating the shift from balanced literacy to structured literacy, 7 Mighty Moves by Lindsay Kemeny is a must-have. This guide offers seven actionable strategies to enhance your K–3 reading instruction. Each chapter zeroes in on essential components like phonemic awareness, phonics, and comprehension, providing clear explanations and ready-to-implement routines. What sets this book apart are the embedded QR codes linking to classroom videos, allowing you to see these strategies in action. Whether you’re a new teacher or a seasoned educator, Kemeny’s practical approach helps bridge the gap between research and classroom practice.

Know Better, Do Better: Comprehension: Fueling the Reading Brain With Knowledge, Vocabulary, and Rich Language

This book shows you how to strengthen your students’ reading comprehension through a knowledge-rich approach. It moves beyond foundational skills to explore how the mind comprehends texts, focusing on vocabulary, knowledge building, and language structures. The authors provide clear, research-based strategies and ready-to-use tools to help teachers put their understanding into action immediately. With classroom-tested activities and downloadable resources, this book is suitable for educators aiming to enhance their students’ reading comprehension skills.

Making Words Stick: A Four-Step Instructional Routine to Power Up Orthographic Mapping

If you’re looking to help students move beyond rote memorization of high-frequency words, Making Words Stick by Molly Ness and Katie Pace Miles is a practical guide grounded in the science of reading. This book introduces a four-step instructional routine designed to support orthographic mapping, enabling students to store words in long-term memory efficiently. The authors provide clear, research-based strategies that connect decoding, encoding, and meaning, making it easier for students to recognize words automatically. With classroom-tested activities and downloadable tools, this resource is suitable for K–5 educators aiming to strengthen their students’ reading and spelling skills.

The Reading Comprehension Blueprint: Helping Students Make Meaning from Text

This book offers a structured, research-backed framework for K–8 educators. Aligned with Scarborough’s Reading Rope, this guide breaks down comprehension into teachable components: vocabulary, syntax, text structure, background knowledge, and inference. Hennessy provides practical tools and planning templates to help you design lessons that build true understanding, not just test-taking skills. If you’re looking for a clear path to support students in making meaning from text, this book delivers.

Redesigning Small-Group Reading Instruction: Structured Literacy Practices for Differentiation, Acceleration, and Intervention

Instead of guessing what might work in small groups, Redesigning Small-Group Reading Instruction by Dr. Julie A. Taylor gives you a plan grounded in how students actually learn to read. This book organizes instruction around the five phases of reading development, helping you tailor support based on where your students are, not where a program says they should be. It’s packed with checklists, lesson templates, and planning guides to make your small group time more effective and focused. Perfect for K–5 teachers who want practical, science-aligned reading instruction without the overwhelm.

Reading Above the Fray: Reliable, Research-Based Routines for Developing Decoding Skills

Reading Above the Fray by Dr. Julia B. Lindsey offers a clear, research-based roadmap for teaching decoding skills that stick. Instead of relying on guesswork or outdated practices, this book provides practical routines and instructional “swaps” that align with how children actually learn to read. Lindsey breaks down complex concepts into actionable steps, making it easier for educators to implement effective strategies in their classrooms. Whether you’re new to the science of reading or looking to refine your approach, this guide helps you focus on what truly works to support young readers’ development.

Reading in the Brain: The New Science of How We Read

If you’re interested in the latest research about how we learn to read, and a more in-depth look at how the brain works when we read, then this book is for you. The second half of this book gets quite scientific but it’s interesting enough that most people don’t mind. It’s a fascinating book that helped make sense of why certain methods of teaching reading work or don’t work.

Multisensory Teaching of Basic Language Skills

This is more of a textbook but it’s chock full of resources and examples. Skim it, highlight, take notes, and keep it as a reference because you will definitely refer to this for years to come. Try finding a used version to save some money because it is expensive.

Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers

This is an absolute must-have for all elementary and ELA teachers! It’s dense but easy to read, has lots of exercises and examples, helpful graphics, and updated research. It covers spelling, phonology, print, morphology, syntax, and how meaning is conveyed. This book will have you putting up a sound wall before the new school year starts!

Teaching Word Recognition

If you teach reading to special needs kids then you need this book! This book gives you step-by-step instructions on how to teach word recognition based on the latest research. It addresses letter-sound pairings, decoding and blending, sight words, multisyllabic words, and fluency. This is another book you’ll keep around for a while.

Unlocking Literacy: Effective Decoding and Spelling Instruction

This is more textbook-like but is also full of practical resources for teaching reading and spelling. It has activities you can use right now, lesson plans, samples, and more references. Definitely take notes, highlight, and mark up this book so you can refer to it for many years.

Phonics and Spelling Through Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping

This is a step-by-step curriculum for k-6 focusing on decoding and spelling that aligns with LETRS science of reading pedagogy. It’s very practical and can be used one-on-one, small group, or even whole group, and doesn’t take up a lot of time. This is where phoneme grapheme mapping came from.

Now whatever you read, make sure you take notes so you can remember to implement all the awesome things you learned!

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