In 1997 Congress asked the National Institute of Children’s Health and Development to work with the U.S. Department of Education to establish a National Reading Panel. Their task was to evaluate existing research in order to find the best ways of teaching children to read. In 2000 the panel issued their 500-page report (National Reading Panel, 2000). This report has been widely cited in books and journal articles related to reading instruction. The NRP describes five-pillars...

Questions: How is it that one interprets the same thing differently across time? How is it that one can read a book, have an experience, or observe phenomena and draw completely different conclusions when the only thing different is the time in which it was read, experienced, or observed? Is time a variable in comprehension or understanding? Is it a variable in constructing meaning? A book that seemed so insightful at one point, with the passage of time, can become meaningless. Likewise,...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

In this podcast I interview Sven Johnson to talk about creativity and the creative process.

There's a literacy inquisition going on in Minnesota. Science of reading zealots are on a holy crusade. They are banning books, banning words, and banning ideas. Books, words, and ideas are dangerous things. They could enable people to think – to think about things – and to think critically. There is a law now in Minnesota, based on the Read Act, sponsored by Representative Heather Edelson that I am NOT to teach the 3-cueing system. I cannot say it. I cannot mention it. I cannot have it on my...

Minnesota passed legislation, The Read Act, manding that I lie to my preservice teachers. It's the law, that I must ignore my 30 years as a scholar, teacher, and tutor and tell my students things that are not true.

Lucy Calkins has made some tremendous contributions – but at the end of the day, she does not represent balanced literacy or a meaningful-based approach to literacy instruction. At the end of the day, Lucy represents Lucy. She speaks for Lucy Calkins. She’s promoting her books, her programs, her products, and her Units of Study. And that’s good. Meaning-based literacy educators are not reliant on any external products. She doesn’t represent the ILA, the ILEC, or anybody else She does...

I’m spending time analyzing Jessica Winter’s article in a series of podcasts because it accurately represents the dis-representation and un-understandings of literacy instruction being portrayed by the SoR community as well as other media outlets who are willing to stray far outside the boundaries of accuracy and journalism. They are obviously willing to write or say anything to boost their readership or viewership. In this podcast, I unpack some of her whacky, zany, nutty comments related to...

The podcast looks at two different types of systems. Arthur Combs (1999) described two common types of systems used in organizations: top-down (managed) closed systems and person-centered open systems. This podcast contrasts the effects of a top-down closed system and a person-centered open system applied in an educational setting

Reading workshop is an approach to reading instruction that falls within the parameters of whole language. It may seem more complicated, but once you understand the process and structure of reading workshop, a lot easier, and a lot more effective to implement. And it is multilevel and can be individualized to the specific needs and interests of your students. Reading workshop is not a method with step-by-step procedures that must be followed (with fidelity) like a recipe. Rather, it is an...

Beware of simplistic answers for complex problems. They are alluring but alluringly ineffective. One of these simplistic, alluringly ineffective answers to a complex problem is the idea that we can fix all problems in education by holding somebody “accountable.”

This is an interview with Marvin Melvinhaus from the Moms for Liberty. In this podcast we discuss freedom, schools, and LGBT rights.

In the 1980s, basals were the main tool used to teach reading (they still are). A basal is a teaching manual for reading. It includes an anthology of stories for students to read, a teacher’s manual with directions for how to teach reading, and consumable workbooks to use to teach reading subskills. This podcast describes the beginning of my journal from basal instruction to reading workshop.

Corrine Hess published an article titled, Teacher Prep Programs Not on the Same Page as Wisconsin’s New Reading Law on the Wisconsin Public Radio website. I'm analyzing this article because the severe un-understandings of the reading, reading science, and reading instruction displayed here is illustrative of what we see on the national level.

I used to think the world existed to make me happy. I looked for happiness and wondered why I couldn't find it. Eventually, I learned that I exist to make others happy. I discovered that happiness had been there all the time, waiting for me. This is something I wish my literacy professor had told me 40 years ago.