The Reading Instruction Show

There are conditions that tip the scale in favor of some groups and restrict or disadvantage others. There are communities, that seem to get the economic opportunities, good schools, good teachers, health care, good nutrition, housing opportunities, small class sizes, community libraries, well-stocked school and classroom libraries … Go to a 3rd-grade classroom in a poor, inner-city school, or poor rural district. Now go to a 3rd grade classroom in a weather suburb. It's like going to a different planet.

Not everybody has the same opportunities. A person is privileged because of their environment and station in...

The Minnesota Department of Education has become the Evangelical Department of Education of Minnesota. It takes a deficit view of teachers. They know nothing. They do the wrong thing. They must be saved by the Great State

Recently, the Minnesota State Legislature passed the Read Act, sponsored by Democratic representative Heather Edelson. It’s a law based on the fad of the day; the shiny new thing called the “science of reading”. Ironically, this law is based on misconceptions and un-understandings related to both science and reading. This law states that I and other literacy professors in Minnesota must follow, with fidelity, the mandates put forth by state lawmakers. These are lawmakers who have never taught a kid to read, who have never read a research article related to reading instruction, and whose knowledge about reading instru...

I could live with a science of reading if the SoR zealots applied the scientific principles they claim to worship and adore to all of reading reality.  That is, if the scientific principles that they insist be used to determine what is effective reading instruction were also used to establish cause and effect, I could live with the zealotry.   But, they abandon their cherished scientific ideals when identifying problems and evaluating solutions to problems.  Look at the reading laws passed by 32 state legislatures.  Look at the testimony by “experts”.  You will see the word “science” used a lot, but science if muc...

Dance has much to teach us about five areas of reading instruction:

1. Motivation. 

2. Practice. 

3. Dance dyslexia

4. Whole dancing.

5. Context. 

Whenever a new SoR reading law is passed, the SoR zealots gather a bunch of children together for a picture, and they’re told to smile.  And you get pictures of happy smiling children with happy parents all smiling and being happy.  Wonderful.  It’s a joy façade.

Behind the façade is an unwritten narrative.  These children were once unhappy and oppressed because of reading instr...

There is only one emotion that is good for learning: happiness and all its derivations.  Joy is a derivation of happiness.  Joy is pleasurable.  Humans are rewarded by their emotions for doing things that bring them joy.  They tend to repeat these behaviors.  Fear keeps us from doing certain things.  Fear of failure.  Fear of humiliation.  Also, things that make us sad or unhappy keep us from doing certain things.  Being forced to sit in a chair and perform like a trained seal creates sadness, boredom, and frustration.

The SoR zealots fail to realize that we’re teaching ch...

There are five kinds of time in a reading class.

Allocated time.  There is the amount of time allocated for instruction.   

Off-task time (OTT).   There is OTT when students are doing things unrelated to the lesson or learning objective. 

TOT.  There is also time on task (TOT), where students are actively engaged in learning activities. 

AET.  There is Academic Engagement Time (AET). This is the time when students are cognitively and behaviorally on-task or engaged in learning activities that are within their zone of proximal development. 

Flow state time.  Here the st...

In becoming responsible consumers of educational research, we must ask four questions when claims are made that research has “proven these expensive, code-oriented, one-size-fits-all reading programs to be effective.

1. Are the results of these code-oriented reading programs persistent?  That is, do they last after the code-oriented instruction has been discontinued?

2.  Do the skills learned in these code-oriented reading programs transfer to real-life situations? 

3. Do these code-oriented programs enhance students’ ability to create meaning with print?  There’s a difference between scores on a DIBELS test and creating meaning with print.

4. Are these expe...

The Science of Reading zealots in Minnesota and in other states around the country (Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio, and others) have done something pretty remarkable.  (It’s remarkably bad, but still remarkable.)  They have banned words.  It is now against the law in Minnesota for me to include ‘the three cueing systems’ on my syllabi, reading assignments, or course outlines. 

Imagine that.  A law telling me what I can and cannot say or can and cannot teach in my literacy methods class.  A law put together by people who know nothing of literacy instruction or research.  A law put together...

It’s an emotional response, make no mistake about that.  The decision to abandon good reading instruction and move to what the SoR zealots call structured literacy is an emotional response.  The decision to use hyperbole and pejorative statements to dismiss that with which you are unfamiliar is an emotional response.  The decision to take the argument out of an academic realm to a political realm, and to threaten and bully those who disagree is an emotional response.   The decision to give credence to a radio journalist and ignore real literacy experts is an emotional decision.  Now, there’s nothing wr...