The Reading Instruction Show

if you want to help students become better writers, you must teach them the process. The five-step writing process as described by Donald Graves (1983) has been around for a while. This podcast will expand on the brief outline of the five-step writing process, it will describe tips for teaching the 5-step writing process, and it will identify six types of writing that should be included in a writi...

Throughout my series of podcasts related to writing instruction you’ll encounter six reoccurring themes: 1. Everyone can write . Writing is creating meaning with print and sharing that meaning with others. Everyone can record or express an idea on paper (or computer). Young children may use more pictures and squiggly shapes than letters and words, but they are creating meaning with print and shari...

• Students need their own writing topics. Students should be encouraged to express their thoughts and describe their experiences to the greatest extent possible. This is called authentic writing or authentic writing experiences. Not all the time, but much of the time. When I sit down to write a book or a journal article, nobody assigns me a topic. I get to write about what interests me. I get to r...

Learning to write is a lot like learning to make raspberry jelly. You need to be shown the process, not just given a list of ingredients. Too often students are never taught the process used to create a finished written product. They are not shown the steps. This lack of instruction related to process is just as detrimental to jelly-making as it is to writing.

The test data didn't tell me the full story. Sally was a 1st grade girl with whom I was working last year during covid. I was doing online tutoring with kids. Before working with her, her parents sent me her test data. I read through them. There were fancy charts and colorful graphs that showed Sally’s scores on a whole array of meaningless reading subskill – They measured her distance from averag...

Five things cause ineffective reading instruction: 1. The myth of standardization. 2. Lack of understanding related to the reading process. 3. Teacher disempowerment. 4. Over-crowded classrooms. 5. Testing madness.

How is it possible that so many people believe that Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election? How is it humanly possible? How is it possible that some still believe that getting vaccinated for COVID-19 is a bad thing? After all the information published, all the data available, how is it possible that there are people walking about who fervently believe such things? And I am not talking abo...

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This short podcast looks at language learning and the implications for reading instruction.

Language learning is a universal human function. People around the world, in different environments and with different abilities seem to acquire their primary language in essentially the same sequence and the same way. This tells us that humans are hard-wired to learn language in some form (Chomsky, 1968) Four elements There are four elements connected with language learning (Ormrod, Anderman, & A...

Emotions can be better understood if viewed from an evolutionary perspective. Our current human emotions are a result of thousands of years of human evolution. They are part of our ever-evolving human brain. As stated above, they are a physiological response to some external stimuli that facilitated actions beneficial for the survival of the group or the individual. We have six basic emotions hard...

At their core, emotions are a physiological response to stimuli that enable humans to react to events of biological or individual significance. From an evolutionary perspective, these physiological responses promoted survival behavior of the individual or the group

This podcast is designed to help white people understand systemic racism, white guilt, shame, and the history of the United States of America. That's quite a lot for an 11-minute podcast -- but I think I pretty much cover it all.

This podcast is designed for white people. Full disclosure: I am a white man. It also describes just some of the basic elements of systemic racism. It also differentiates between the word "equality" and "equity".

Critical Race Theory has been much maligned, discounted, and discredited without fully understanding exactly what it is. It has been presented as a bad thing, a dangerous thing, a nefarious thing by conservative groups such as The American Experiment. Disinformation, misinformation, and distortion are used under the guise of patriotism and Christianity. What is presented as Critical Race Theory is...

Reading programs need to be balanced (Cunningham & Allington, 2007te). This means that it’s is not all just one thing (like all phonics instruction, or all reading, or all writing, or all anything). Instead, there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You may not have noticed, but children are not standardized products. Children learn differently, in different ways, and at different rat...

One of the ideas for getting more teachers of color into the classroom has been to look at fast-track alternative teacher preparation programs such as Teach for America. These kinds of programs are usually based on the spaghetti model: Throw enough spaghetti on the wall and some of it will stick. In other words - throw a bunch of low-paid, poorly prepared teachers into the classroom and some will...

Problem: Only 16% of the US teacher force are teachers of color. This is a problem. On Saturday, May 1st, 2021 a group of teachers, teacher educators, administrators, and others from around the state of Minnesota and three other states met for conversation. The purpose was to address the problem related to the lack of teachers of color in our classrooms in Minnesota and around the country. Three q...

The old, weekly spelling tests just don’t work. I have found no research to indicate that they do anything to improve students' ability to spell under real-life writing conditions. Word Class is a self-selected approach to spelling instruction that meets the needs of spellers at all ability levels. Here students select the words they wish to study each week. This podcast describes a variety of act...

Reading programs need to be balanced. This means that it’s is not all just one thing (like all phonics instruction, or all reading, or all writing, or all anything). Instead, there’s a little bit of this and a little bit of that. You may not have noticed, but children are not standardized products. Children learn differently, in different ways, and at different rates. Thus, in learning to read, so...

Weekly spelling tests have been the staple of elementary education for the last 100 years. Here students memorize a list of words each week and then take a test on Friday. Tests are corrected, scores are taken, and one is deemed either a good spelling or not good speller. This would be a great way to teach spelling except for one thing: it’s not very effective. Studying a list of words out of any...

Editing checklists and peer editing tables are great ways to reinforce grammar skills - and they also provide the structure necessary for students to successfully edit their papers.

Listed below are seven simple tips for helping students to develop an awareness of grammar in their speaking and writing. 1. Use lots of real writing . Authentic writing with feedback and response from classmates and teachers is most effective in developing grammar awareness. Feedback, versus just correct mistakes, makes the writing come alive. 2. Use worksheets judiciously . There’s nothing wrong...

learning about grammar doesn’t have to be boring and meaningless. This chapter starts by dispelling some myths, otherwise known as silly grammar ideas. It then describes three approaches to grammar instruction

This question often arises: Should you insist on correct spelling when children are getting their initial ideas on paper? Short answer: no. • Real writers edit last. There’s a time and a place to look at spelling, grammar, and punctuation errors: in the editing stage (the 5-step writing process is be described below). We want students to view their writing as a way to capture and express their ide...