At a loss for words

One of the best radio reports I’ve ever heard on what is wrong with reading instruction in American schools is available at the following website:  It will take 52 and a half minutes for you to listen to it, but if you are a reading teacher or a parent of a child learning to read or struggling to read, it is well worth your time.

Or you can read the report at the same website.

“At a loss for words” produced by Emily Hanford describes the correct way to teach reading—the way backed by research.  That way is to teach children that sounds correspond to letters, and that letters when combined, form words.

But despite almost 20 years of research endorsing a sound / letter correspondence, many teachers with the backing of their school districts and teacher education programs teach reading in ways proven not to work, such as memorizing whole words, using pictures as clues, skipping words, and thinking of an appropriate word that begins with the same letter as an unknown word.

In future blogs I will discuss aspects of this excellent radio report.  But for now I recommend you listen to it or read it.

What's your thinking on this topic?


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