Literacy Blogs

18 June, 2010

Summer of a Million Books

As I've written here before, I serve on the Board of Directors of Reach Out and Read, one of the most valuable reading promoters in the world. This summer they have launched a campaign to give a brand-new, age-appropriate book to one million children in need before Labor Day. The Summer of a Million Books campaign unites Reach Out and Read pediatricians and family physicians at 4,500 hospitals and clinics across the country in their mission to prepare America’s youngest children to succeed in school. And you can help.   Reach Out and Read developed the Summer of a Million Books in ...

read more
13 June, 2010

Should We Use Textbooks or Not?

I just read some emails on a literacy listserv that I subscribe to. They were arguing about whether to use textbooks in science. Some of my reading colleagues who are pro reading, and who are even pro reading in science, expressed animosity towards science textbooks. There were all kinds of reasons for this, some stated, some not. For one thing, they were sympathetic with science educators who want hands-on-science, and let's face it, hands on experiments can be cool (let me tell you sometime about burning up my classroom trash pail with a volcano).   The most basic reason these educators oppose ...

read more
02 June, 2010

Getting with the Disciplinary Literacy Fad

Get with the fad folks. It is in now to champion “disciplinary literacy.” I certainly support the idea of disciplinary literacy, but so many of the folks who tout this (that is, those who are in with the fad), don’t seem to have a clue what it is even about.   Traditionally, “content area reading” proponents said the right things about respecting the disciplines, but for the most part their agenda was about teaching reading skills using texts from math, science, and social studies. Their idea was more about how teachers could use K-W-L (or three-level guides or SQ3R) with a science ...

read more
17 May, 2010

How Literacy is Like Leukemia

Blast from the Past: This blog entry posted on May 17, 2010 and was re-posted on March 1, 2018. It explores the complex reasons why students have trouble learning to read—whether the main roots of those problems are due to disabilities (e.g., dyslexia) or social problems (e.g., poverty, racism). However, despite these profound causes of reading problems, there are two certainties: even with big problems kids are pretty resilient and making kids literate requires quality teaching. I love Malcolm Gladwell. He is a regular New Yorker contributor and authored The Tipping Point and Blink. Recently, he wrote about how new drugs are discovered, and as ...

read more
08 May, 2010

12 Ways to Improve Your Literacy Teaching this Summer

Our university held its graduation ceremony Thursday night. That means that it is almost time for your summer break, and man, have you earned it! I'm sure you're dog tired--the good kind of tired I hope where you can barely see straight, but through it you are proud of how things went for the kids.   And with this terrible economy many districts are laying off teachers (the worst I've seen in my whole career). All the more reason to kick back and take it easy.   But you are a professional teacher. And what is summer vacation for your kids, should really be ...

read more
14 April, 2010

Reading Aloud in the High School?

Recently, I came across some interesting stuff in Jay Mathews’s “Class Struggle” column in the Washington Post.   http://voices.washingtonpost.com/class-struggle/2010/04/should_high_schoolers_read_alo.html?referrer=emaillink"   Mr. Mathews explains that he noticed oral reading taking place during a high school classroom observation and he wondered whether this was a waste of time or a good idea. Various teachers chimed in, on both sides, with valuable insights. The column is worth a read—in fact, it would make a great kickoff to teacher discussions.   I’ve been in the field of reading education for a long time (I started tutoring inner city kids in reading 40 years ago). For that entire time, the professoriate ...

read more
04 April, 2010

Literacy in Northern Ireland

Sorry about my absence these past few weeks. I've missed writing here, but it couldn't be helped. We were off to work in Belfast, Northern Ireland for our friends at Barnardos (which is an amazing social service, educational charity/provider agency). And Cyndie and I have been fighting strep throats and bad colds ever since (I might be related to the folks who live in that part of the world, but my immunities are American).   In any event, I am happy to be back to share what I have learned. On my first day in Belfast, I was asked to talk about ...

read more
10 March, 2010

Seven Reasons to Love the Common Standards

Today the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers released the new draft of the common core standards for public comment. Yipee! I'm so happy to see these.   Here are 7 reasons you should be happy, too.   1. They are common! Unlike any reading/writing/language standards that we have had in the past, these are truly going to be widely adhered to. In the past, we never could have common tests or common curricula because everyone had different standards. Now there will be the United States and Texas (and these are such good standards, at some point I think Texas ...

read more
07 March, 2010

Should We Teach Phonics to English Learners?

Blast from the Past: First posted March 7, 2010; re-posted April 25, 2018; and re-posted again on November 18, 2023. I wrote this blog entry largely based on the conclusions that Isabel Beck and I had drawn on behalf of the National Literacy Panel for Language Minority Children and Youth. There were very few experimental studies that looked at the particulars of teaching reading to English Learners, but what was there was consistent: instruction that had been effective with native language populations generally was effective with second language learners, too. There were only three studies of explicit teaching of phonics ...

read more
26 February, 2010

Sight Words for Kindergarten? Yes, But Not Too Many

Blast from the Past: This entry was first posted on February 26, 2010 and was re-issued on February 2, 2019. When this blog entry first posted the only part that was controversial was the number of words recommended (since some of the publishers and consultants were promoting large numbers of sight vocabulary and I was suggesting they were overdoing it). These days the dyslexia-focused advocates would likely fry me for supporting the idea of teaching sight words directly (and not just as an outcome of phonics). Basically, sight words are words students can identify immediately with no evident sounding or mediation. If decoding is taught well and ...

read more
Sorry! No articles found. Please select another topic or category.

One of the world’s premier literacy educators.

He studies reading and writing across all ages and abilities. Feel free to contact him.