The Reading Instruction Show

Why is it that reading instruction sometimes ineffective? This podcast addresses two reasons: (a) the myth of standardization and (b) a lack of understanding related to the reading process,

Children naturally want to learn. They want to make sense of their environment. They naturally want to create meaning with print. However, when you teach children in ways that don’t align with their natural inclination, you make learning harder. You create more frustration and failures. And when children communicate their frustration with their behavior, you use PBIS to try to make the behaviors g...

Point #1: Teachers and administrators must become informed and responsible consumers of educational research. When somebody says, “research shows this” or “research proves that …” We must always ask, “What research? Give me a citation. Effective for what? At what level? For what purpose? How?” And then we must look at the research study. Point #2: State and federal legislators, those who want to i...

Knowledge is important in any endeavor. It’s what separates novices from experts. Experts have more of it. Novices have less of it. Expert teachers have four kinds of knowledge:(a) content knowledge – knowledge of what they’re teaching. This would be math, if you’re a math teacher. Science if you’re a science teacher. And everything if you’re an elementary education teacher. (b) pedagogical knowle...

There are two basic approaches to literacy instruction for students in the early grades: a skills-based, Humpty-Dumptian approach and a child-centered, meaning-based approach. Both approaches involve explicit skills instruction. The difference is not in the ‘ what ’ of explicit skills instruction; rather, it’s the ‘ how ’, and the ‘ how much’ of explicit skills instruction.

I’ve been blocked from posting comments on some literacy Facebook groups and other websites related to reading instruction. They don’t want my words to appear on their pages. I had the temerity to post thoughts with which they disagree. Imagine that. I had an idea that was a bit different than theirs. As a matter of fact, it pointed out some of the possible science of reading shortcomings. They wo...

If you are going to embrace the science of reading, you can’t be just a little bit SOR. You can’t be partial SOR, or somewhat SOR. You can’t be semi-science of reading. If you are going to be a SOR advocate, you must embrace and apply SOR principles completely and consistently. In other words, if you are for the SOR and support related legislation, then you would use the same SOR principles to ide...

In order to understand the science of reading, and how this term is misused, we must first get a better handle on science. I will cover some of the basics and end with a description of 7 questionable claims, based on I-think-isms, often brought up by Science of Reading advocates.

Despite having the word “science” in their title, the ideas put forth by the Science of Reading are not grounded in science at all, but in pseudo-science, I-think-isms, and anecdotal evidence. In fact, they are promoting an ideology. An ideology is a system of ideas and beliefs. Hence, the SOR would be more accurately named, the Ideology of Reading. What the SOR promotes is based far more on a rea...

This podcast explains what reading science is, how data collected from research studies are used to create theory, how theories are used to inform practice, and how one should used research to inform policy, practices, and programs.

In this podcast, I offer a definition of reading science that I got from an article written by Tim Shanahan. And since the Science of Reading clown club seems so enamored with phonics, we'll look at what the National Reading Panel Report actually says about phonics and balanced reading instruction. Spoiler alert: heads will explode.

Comprehension means total or complete. In defining comprehensive reading instruction, I will rely heavily on data from the NRP report. I would encourage all to read it. Not the executive summary, but the actual report. The five pillars of reading instruction are usually attributed to this report. However, to be comprehensive, a reading program needs to include 10 pillars. These are described here.

A variety of research studies conducted over the years have shown that of all the variables impacting the quality of teaching and the amount of learning that goes on in the classroom, the most significant variable is . . . the teacher. Yet, we underpay, undervalue, and disempower this most significant of significant variables and expect them to come back year after year because they “love” kids. I...

The essence of science is this: you ask a question and then collect data to answer that question. That is science. It’s a process. It’s a verb. To science. With science, the data can’t just be collected higgily-piggily. There must be an approved method and that method must be systematic. There are many systematic methods that can be used to collect the data used to answer questions. And there are...

Tim Shanahan, Louisa Moats, Linnea Ehri, Wilson Reading Systems, Orton-Gillingham profiteers, SOR advocates, the International Dyslexia Association, and other plucky little phonics penguins are advocating that we teach children to read by guessing at words. Their skills-first approach to reading instruction is based on the phonological processing model. Sometimes called the simple view of reading,...

The language arts is the study of grammar, punctuation, composition, spelling, and speech that’s usually taught as a single subject in elementary and middle school. This chapter is not about this. I’m taking a bit of a different approach. This podcast is about language art (emphasis on ‘language’). Language art is art that uses language to create an aesthetic response. It is the act of putting wor...

The impact of academic standards on students’ ability to write is questionable. Some believe that they impede more than enhance effective writing instruction. However, academic standards are part of our current educational life, thus this podcast I will (a) present some ideas for evaluating and assessing academic standards related to writing and (b) describe how you might pragmatically document st...

The purpose of this podcast is to provide an overview of portfolios, checklists, and anecdotal records used to document students' growth as writers. These are some healthy alternatives to standardized tests, writing tests, and rubrics. Six points: 1. To be of use; however, these healthy alternative assessment strategies must reflect your values, philosophy, teaching style, and students (Calkins, 1...

Why do we assess? For what purpose? In terms of writing, I hope the answer is this: We assess so that we can help students become better writers. If not, we’re wasting our time. We assess to determine strengths to build upon and weaknesses to address. We assess to document growth. But ultimately, we assess to find out what we can do to help students become better writers. However, too often assess...

This podcast will clarify a couple of un-understandings related to whole language reading instruction: (1) Cueing is NOT an approach to reading instruction. (2) We do NOT teach children to guess as words. (3) Tinfoil hats do NOT keep the FBI from reading your mind.

The Four Nonsensical Statements Related to Whole Language: (1) Whole language has been debunked. Nope. Hasn't happened. If so, send me a research study. Not data. Not something somebody else has said, but a research study published in a peer-reviewed academic journal debunking whole language. (2) Phonics is more effective than whole language. That's like saying long division is more effective than...

During the process of writing, students are taught if they don’t know how to spell a word, they should give it their best shot, or use enough letters to temporarily hold the idea until they come back and edit the piece. This is called temporary spelling. This is done so as not to ruin the flow of the writing. This enables students to focus on the higher-order thinking involved in the composing pro...

Traditional grammar instruction takes an isolated approach. It describes the rules for conjugating verbs, un-dangling participles, and coordinating conjunctions. This is done in isolation, apart from real writing and speaking. This approach may be effective for completing grammar worksheets, but it does not address the process of communicating effectively. In other words, teaching grammar instruct...

Chapter 1 - In which a nanny goat sings. Andy experiences an emotional trifecta: fear, shame, and disgust. He also discovers the time travel wires in his brain.

In this podcast, I examine (a) Ken Goodman, (b) penguins, (c) the psycholinguistic guessing game, (d) Emily Hanford, (e) American Public Media, (f) some flawed ideas about reading instruction, and (d) some flawed ideas about flawed ideas.