There’s a Montessori notion out there that we shouldn’t teach letter names along with letter sounds to our young learners. We’ve often heard that children don’t need to know the names of letters to read a word. And while that’s technically true, the Science of Reading suggests we should reframe our thinking around letter names.

In today’s episode, I’m talking to Zil Jaeger, an experienced Montessori teacher, consultant and coach with a passion for literacy and steadfast commitment to anti-biased and anti-racist education. Zil shares what we can learn from the growing body of science about how children learn to read, how we can support learners who don’t have foundational literacy skills, and what Zil thinks educators should stop doing when it comes to literacy for young learners.

Zil also emphasizes how important repetition is to children learning to read. The more exposure they have to letter names and sounds, the better for their reading journey.