Literacy Blogs

Blast from the Past: This blog was first posted on November 25, 2014; and reposted on January 25, 2018. Last week, several teachers asked me about the appropriate instructional sequence for phonics or which commercial product had the best phonics sequence. This seems like a timely reposting.  Years ago, when the National Reading Panel (NRP) report came out, Congress tried to impose a national literacy sequence on American schools. Their plan only allowed phonemic awareness instruction until kids could fully segment words. Then the law would let us teach phonics… but no fluency until the word sounding was completed. Eventually, we’d ...

      Last week, I focused on a controversy over prior knowledge. Common core has discouraged enhancing reading comprehension through the introduction of information external to a text.            That challenges the most popular ways of introducing texts in schools—such telling students information about the text topic or exploring student knowledge relevant to the topic. CCSS proponents bridle at such practices. They want students to become independent readers, which means they’d be able to read texts effectively without extra information—information not provided by the author.              They also blanch at the idea of students constructing text meanings ...

Blast from the Past: This blog first posted October 31, 2014; and was reposted on May 9, 2018. Over past week or, I've been hearing a lot of grumbling about and a lot of promotion of balanced literacy. Here's a reminder of my thinking on the matter. I hope it is a good reminder of why it is important to place kids' needs above teacher desire.  Want to win an argument about literacy? Just claim your approach is “balanced.”  Balanced is an affirmative term… That’s why Fox-News claims to be “fair and balanced.” It not only makes your position sound reasonable, but implies your opponents may ...

Originally posted October 26, 2014 Reposted October 26, 2014             Let’s be honest. Any woman (or man, for that matter) wants their significant other to be involved enough that they remember both of these dates. Remember my birthday, but forget the day that we linked ourselves together for eternity, and you’re in obvious trouble. Recall the date we connected, but not my special day (all by myself) and I wonder if you think of me only in connection to you. Problem!             Your spouse wants to know that he/she is important to you and not having a premature Alzheimer’s attack ...

            My father, who had no more than an eighth grade education, wrote in a beautiful Palmer hand. His one-room schoolhouse education did not promise to take him far, but it did allow him to place words on paper in an elegant and readable manner. And, this skill had practical utility beyond its aesthetic beauty, since he worked for many years as a bookkeeper.              But the public value of handwriting has diminished during the ensuing century. In fact, the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) don’t even mention handwriting, cursive, or manuscript printing.              Nevertheless, It is evident that ...

            While I understand the purpose of close reading, I don’t understand why you should take the time to read deeper into a document. Some things were written simply and what we now interpret as a symbol may not have been intended to be a symbol. How can we as readers determine what is meant to be read into and what is to be left alone?             Another thing that was mentioned in several of the comments was annotating being a strategy for close-reading. it is a great strategy I am not sure how to annotate, most of my annotations are personal reactions and ...