Dysresearchlia is an unwillingness to read or an inability to understand reading research. It impacts 3% to 5% of the population. Contrary to popular belief, it is not a brain disorder. That is, even though brain imaging research has shown there to be anomalies in the brains of dysresearchiliacs; … with a basic educational research course, these anomalies largely disappear. Also, scientists have proven that listening to Dr. Johnson’s podcasts helps mitigate the effects of dysresearchlia...

The educational overlords would have me teach lies to the students in my undergraduate literacy methods course. I am required to lie.

This is an interview with Paul Gardner. He was a lecturer in England before moving to Australia. He describes a reading instruction police state that cost him his job. If we don't continue to act, this is our Christmas Yet to Be.

You may think you’re teaching reading. This may be so on the surface level, but on the deep level, you’re really teaching your students life. Reading good books, talking about good books, writing our stories, and listening to the stories of others is life. Helping students to use literacy to find out who they are and what they may become is helping them come alive. Teaching students to develop their full literacy potential is bringing them fully to life. Teaching students to be and become...

I had an undergraduate class that didn't go as I would have liked. We've all had these. You do a lot of planning, you plan some activities, and it's clear that students are just not that into it. In this podcast, I use cognitive modeling as I go through a simple 5-step problem-solving process. This process can be used to problem-solve in a classroom or any place else. I then demonstrate how to use a Total Literacy Experience (TLE) activity to solve the problem. With modification, you can use...

This is my second podcast looking at reading instruction issues in the state of Wisconsin. I have two behavior objectives for this podcast: (a) Listeners will be able to define balanced literacy and (b) listeners will be able to provide at least two reasons to explain why the Wisconsin State legislature seems to be part of the clown club.

This podcast is about Wisconsin, but it’s also about the various kinds of attacks perpetrated by those within the Science of Reading movement. By the way, do you know how much Emily Hanford charges for speaking fees?

Susan Vincent is a knowledgeable, experienced literacy educator. This is an incredible conversation.

I’m, analyzing all the things that Jessica Winter got wrong in her article, ‘The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy’ because that’s what I do. I’m using my teeny-tiny little podcast to point out the errors and misinformation of her article written for The New Yorker with a circulation of over 1 million readers. I am assuming her errors weren’t intentional. We are left to conclude that that her errors are based on a lack of knowledge, what is sometimes known as ignorance.

Jessica Winter is an editor at The New Yorker, where she also writes about family and education. She wrote an article for the New Yorker entitled, ‘The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy’. I’m spending time analyzing this article in a series of podcasts because it mis-describes reading instruction in a way that’s really hard to imagine. In so doing, it perfectly represents the mis-descriptions and un-understandings of the SoR movement. Normally I wouldn’t waste a lot of time on a clown...

Jessica Winter is an editor at The New Yorker, where she also writes about family and education. She wrote an article for the New Yorker entitled, ‘The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy’. In this series of podcasts, I’m analyzing this article because it describes or mis-describes reading instruction. As I started reading, I soon realized that Jessica Winter had no idea of what she was talking about. Her misrepresentation and un-understanding could have a negative impact if readers...

Yesterday I recorded a podcast that was full of sarcasm and biting comments about an article that Jessica Winter wrote for the New Yorker where she used the term "Vibes-Based Literacy" to demean something she obviously didn't understand. Some have said I was a little harsh. In this podcast I explain why we (I) sometimes have to resort to sarcasm and other childish things.

This podcast examines an article written in The New Yorker called, 'The Rise and Fall of Vibes-Based Literacy'. It was written by Jessica Winter. She's an editor at The New Yorker, where she also writes about family and education. She is also, a clown. A clown, in literacy terms, is a person who thinks they know much about literacy, when in fact, their knowledge base is very shallow and disjointed. What makes a clown a clown is their clownery. This is when they write or speak as if they...

We live in an age of clownery. In today’s clown age, radio journalists (Emily Hanford) get more attention from schools, state legislators, and even groups like the Illinois Reading Council than do teachers, serious academicians, researchers, and scholars when talking about reading instruction. In this age of clownery, for-profit groups are making decisions about what gets taught in our schools and what kind of professional development teachers receive. The voices of teachers and literacy...

00:48 Phonemic Awareness 08:25 Reading 14:04 Word Recognition 26:02 Decoding 29:03 Professional Development 34:28 Dyslexia 40:20 Balanced Literacy 51:10 Reading Crisis 55:57 Orthography 58:10 Systematic Phonics Instruction 1:00:23 Alphabetic Principle

This is a conversation with Anna Hamman, another master teacher. We are looking to have teachers like this impacting our field.

if you’re one of those people running around saying the three cueing systems has been debunked, you might as well get one of those ‘hello’ stickers, and write, “Hello, I’m ignorant” on it. Then stick it right in the middle of your forehead. Because that’s what you’re saying to the world. "Hello, I'm ignorant!"

This is my conversation with Stephanie Fuhr. She is a master teacher who was forced to leave her classroom because she couldn't bring herself to committee educational malpractice. We can't afford to lose our master teachers.

This is my conversation with master literacy teacher, Ronda Schlumbohm. Why in heaven's name are people listening to no-nothing clowns like Emily Hanford and not knowledgeable expert teachers of reading like Ronda Schlumbohm?

This is a recording of a conversation with Dave Boulton. He and I have different views on reading instruction. Hopefully, we are modeling how to have respectful academic discussions.

Why is it that reading instruction sometimes ineffective? This podcast addresses two reasons: (a) the myth of standardization and (b) a lack of understanding related to the reading process,

Children naturally want to learn. They want to make sense of their environment. They naturally want to create meaning with print. However, when you teach children in ways that don’t align with their natural inclination, you make learning harder. You create more frustration and failures. And when children communicate their frustration with their behavior, you use PBIS to try to make the behaviors go away. You seek to suppress and correct the behaviors for which you are largely...

Point #1: Teachers and administrators must become informed and responsible consumers of educational research. When somebody says, “research shows this” or “research proves that …” We must always ask, “What research? Give me a citation. Effective for what? At what level? For what purpose? How?” And then we must look at the research study. Point #2: State and federal legislators, those who want to impose mandates on teachers, telling them what and how to teach. Pull your heads out of...

Knowledge is important in any endeavor. It’s what separates novices from experts. Experts have more of it. Novices have less of it. Expert teachers have four kinds of knowledge:(a) content knowledge – knowledge of what they’re teaching. This would be math, if you’re a math teacher. Science if you’re a science teacher. And everything if you’re an elementary education teacher. (b) pedagogical knowledge. This is knowledge of basic teaching strategies such as discovery learning,...

There are two basic approaches to literacy instruction for students in the early grades: a skills-based, Humpty-Dumptian approach and a child-centered, meaning-based approach. Both approaches involve explicit skills instruction. The difference is not in the ‘what’ of explicit skills instruction; rather, it’s the ‘how’, and the ‘how much’ of explicit skills instruction.