The myth of “first you learn to read and then you read to learn”

By Sarah Scott Frank, PhD
CEO & Founder, OpenLiteracy

There’s a popular myth in education that suggests a clear-cut transition between learning to read and reading to learn. This myth is often expressed as: “First, you learn to read, then you read to learn.” The idea implies that once students master the mechanics of reading, they can seamlessly shift to reading as a tool for gaining knowledge AND that they must first learn to decode before focusing on making meaning from text. However, this oversimplifies the complexities of literacy development.

In reality, learning to read and reading to learn are interconnected processes that evolve together throughout a student’s education. While early readers focus on phonics, decoding, and basic comprehension, they are simultaneously learning new information from the texts they read! As students progress, they continue to refine their reading skills—whether it’s understanding more complex sentence structures or interpreting the nuances of an author’s argument or navigating new genres.

Crucially, this myth overlooks two things: the ongoing support that many students need beyond the early grades and the role of reading comprehension even for our youngest learners. Developing strategic comprehension skills, vocabulary development, and critical thinking require explicit instruction from the earliest grades well into middle and high school. Literacy is not a one-and-done skill; it’s a lifelong process and one that we can commit to supporting for the entire K-12 pipeline.

By understanding that learning to read and reading to learn are continuous and intertwined, educators can better support students at all stages of their literacy journey. It’s not a question of “when” learning happens, but rather how we can scaffold reading instruction along the way to empower students to become lifelong readers. 

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