The Reading Instruction Show

Somebody accused me of twisting scripture to fit my political perspective. I didn’t know that wanting to stop the bullying, beating, imprisonment, and killing was a political perspective. I didn’t know that wanting to feed the hungry, attend to the sick and poor was a political perspective. In this Sermon Short I will twist some more biblical scripture at you. Psalm 51:10 says, “Create in me a cle...

Jurnalists should not get a free pass on ignorance. This podcast describes the difference between journalists and literacy scholars.

Just because it says it’s ‘research-based’ or ‘scientifically based’ doesn’t mean that it is. Dr. Louisa Moats’ website states that, “ Moats developed the landmark professional development program LETRS for teachers and reading specialists and the scientifically based LANGUAGE!” This presentation will demonstrate (a) how Moats misrepresents the results of her own research, (b) how she falsifies an...

Evidence and research are at the heart of current SoR mandates. Yet little time and few resources are provided to enable teachers to understand exactly what these terms mean. Worse, it is assumed that teachers must allow the “experts” to read and explain “the research” for them. This patronizing paradigm serves to further chip away at teachers’ autonomy in favor of dependence and subservience. Thi...

There are travelers who have been beaten, robbed, and left on the side of the road. Why are you walking by? Stop the abuse. Stop ICE. Psalm 119:105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path. Matthew 9:17 - Nor do people put new wine into old wineskins; otherwise the wineskins burst, and the wine pours out and the wineskins are ruined; but they put new wine into fresh wineskins, and bot...

James 1:19 says , “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry, for a man’s anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires.” Matthew 23: 27 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of...

“There are six things the Lord hates, seven that are detestable to him: (a) haughty eyes, (b) a lying tongue, (c) hands that shed innocent blood, (d) a heart that devises wicked schemes, (e) feet that are quick to rush into evil, (f) a false witness who pours out lies, and (g) a man who stirs up dissension among brothers.”

Below are eight commonly misunderstood terms related to reading instruction. • Reading. • Word recognition. • Word identification • Decoding • Strategy. • Skill • Systematic phonics instruction. • A balanced approach.

This podcast explains eight commonly misunderstood terms related to reading instruction. • Reading. • Word recognition. • Word identification • Decoding • Strategy. • Skill • Systematic phonics instruction. • A balanced approach.

Below are seven big ideas that you should take from this chapter. 1. Having a body of knowledge is important in any field. 2. Disagreement followed by academic discourse enables a field to evolve. 3. Silencing opposing views results in cognitive inbreeding. 4. Academic journals are essential for disseminating new knowledge and for academic discourse within a field. 5. The process used to get schol...

Let’s review. A couple of months ago, I recorded an online interview for a dyslexia summit. I also put together and recorded a short video presentation. These were both to be shown at a dyslexia summit. I was to then attend the online summit for a live question-and-answer session. On the day of the summit, I emailed to see what time I needed to be online. It was at this point that I was told that...

It is very hard to have a serious and substantive discussion about a topic like reading instruction with somebody whose knowledge base is shallow and disjointed. You end up in a teaching role.

The abrasiveness of a writing tone is determined largely by the cognitive framework held by the reader. A cognitive framework is the mentally constructed structures that guide individuals in interpreting the world. It becomes the lens through which the world is viewed. Much like a theory, a cognitive framework is used to explain facts and understand phenomena. Some see my writing as abrasive and i...

This podcast describes the following: Words - sound groups that represent things in the real world. Buzzwords - are words used to elicit an emotional response rather than accurately transmitting information. Propagating lexiconic locution – an overuse of academic buzzwords. Weasel words - words are used to give the impression of something without really saying something. Strawman argument – Creati...

This podcast defines the following: Words - sound groups that represent things in the real world. Buzzwords - are words used to elicit an emotional response rather than accurately transmitting information. Propagating lexiconic locution – an overuse of academic buzzwords. Weasel words - words are used to give the impression of something without really saying something. Strawman argument – Creating...

In a recent show, I referred to Emily Hanford as the Alexa App of reading instruction. This was a metaphor, a common literary device in which one makes a comparison without using the words ‘like’ or ‘as’. It creates an image. When we say America is a melting pot, we don’t literally mean there’s a big pot bubbling somewhere. Metaphors create images and communicate things that lists of words cannot....

If somebody makes the claim that research says something, one has an obligation to have read a research article at least once in their life. And if somebody says, “Show me the research,” that person should know what research is and how to read and interpret it.

Legitimate professional development for teachers is necessary. I used the term ‘legitimate’ to exclude programs and services that are profit-based. These are usually little more than infomercials disguised as professional development. Here, there is no check and balance. There is no blind peer review of the information provided. Only the information that supports their product or service is presen...

Toadys sometimes call themselves “consultants”. They promote methods and say things that just happen to coincide with the products and services being sold by Big Publishing. Quite a coincidence, yes? Right and wrong are not determined based on what’s right and wrong; rather, by what will sell.

Despite having the word “science” in their title, the proposals put forth by the SoR are not grounded in science at all, but in pseudo-science, I-think-isms, and anecdotal evidence. In fact, they are promoting an ideology. Real science. Real science puts forth conclusions and recommendations based on a wide body of research. Real science uses systematic methods to collect and analyze data. Real sc...

One of the reasons why the Science of Reading people have been so successful is that they’ve been writing to the people over there. They’ve used stories and radio documentaries that sound very much like the way people talk. They’ve enabled the people over there to see and hear real people while our quiet very reasoned third-person voice has been ignored

There never was a reading war. A war assumes there are two armies meeting on a field of battle. This didn’t happen. But there was a reading coup. There was a hostile takeover of the field of literacy instruction by profiteers who saw public education as their own private ATM machine. This group of profiteers is part of the educational industrial complex which includes Cambium-Lexia Learning, Pears...

Neuroscience is a study of the nervous system including the brain, spinal cord, and neurons (NIH, 2025). The neuroscience of reading looks at how the brain functions during reading using imaging techniques to detect blood flow and electrical energy (Gotlieb, et al., 2022). Cognitive science is based on the word ‘cognition’ which means thinking. Cognitive science looks at human thinking (Robinson-R...

In this podcast, I try to make sense of orthographic mapping, a term invented by Linnea Ehri and introduced in Chapter 15 (Ehri, 2014). We’ll start with her definition: “Orthographic mapping occurs when, in the course of reading specific words, readers form connections between written unit, either single graphemes or larger spelling patterns, and spoken units, either phonemes, syllables, or morphe...

The term “direct and explicit instruction” is often used to sell products or to persuade state legislators to make bad decisions. But everybody already uses direct instruction in some form. It's not the 'what' of direct instruction that is in question; it's the 'how' and 'how much' of direct instruction. T