Literacy Blogs

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 ...

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 ...

Becky Schaller recently sent the following note to this blog: I am struck by how different literacy instruction for preschoolers is by your description here than it was ten years ago. Back then, we also included teaching literacy by encouraging pretend writing in the different areas of the room. In the dramatic play area, children might pretend to write out a grocery list. In the block area, they might make a sign. Does literacy during play time count any more? Or is the focus more teacher directed now?   Her question as to "what counts as literacy instruction?" is a fair one. It ...

Recently, I heard about an idea being entertained by government officials in Indiana: improve reading by flunking more kids. The idea is that if a youngster reaches third grade and isn’t reading well enough, you hold the child back to give them the time to catch up.   As you might know, I’m a big supporter of the idea of increasing the amount of teaching that we provide kids: longer school days, longer school years, and, yes, even more school years. So, what of this plan to give more teaching to third-grade laggards?   Well, you also know that I believe in following the ...

I just received this request for information from a friend: The question being posed is, "how many minutes of literacy instruction is  recommended for early childhood, ages such as preschool and kindergarten?" The amount recommended in our district for grades 1-8 is 120 minutes, so we obviously need to rethink our message to the early childhood program. I'm not sure if you are familiar with or if this is relevant, but the early childhood program (preschool - kindergarten) uses Creative Curriculum, which incorporates center choices with whole group reading and writing instruction.  Thank you in advance for your advice! My response: There are no data that I am aware of on that ...

For many years, reading comprehension wasn't taught at all. American students read text aloud for much of the 19th century without a lot of discussion. Early in the 20th century, Thorndike found that if readers were asked questions about what they had read, they understood and remembered more. Soon after, publishers created teacher’s guides (an innovation of the ‘20s and ‘30s), and they all included questions for teachers to ask to facilitate comprehension.   Things began to change again in the 1960s: the idea that we could guide students to think about text more effectively, not just by rehearsing after reading (e.g., ...

For 20 years, my speeches and writing have been heavily oriented towards time--amount of instruction. I have made a big deal that schools with longer school days tend to do better as do countries with longer school years; that summer school programs increase achievement as do many after school programs; that snow days lower school achievement, as do student absences; that extended school years and all-day kindergartens work; that classrooms differ in how much instruction they provide and that these differences are related to student learning, and that guiding teachers to use time better improves achievement.   A policymaker recently pointed out ...

I've wanted to write this blog for sometime. I've was so interested in the role of the brain in reading so I studied it in graduate school. One of my first blogs touted the wonderful book, Proust and the Squid (and it is still on my recommended books list in the right hand column). And I worked with Sally Shaywitz, a famous brain/reading researcher, on the National Reading Panel, and we always got on great. My wife even used to do that kind of work.   Recently, Mark Roth published the article (linked below) about how brains change as they learn to read. Researchers ...