Literacy Blogs

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 ...

Teacher question: I was looking through your site hoping you would have information on the purpose and use of the Dolch word lists. I often see teachers spending time assessing students on their ability to read the lists.  Often, this information is placed on the report card and does not drive teacher instruction. I'm really looking for guidance on the true purpose of the Dolch lists, and wondering if students need to be tested on these words each trimester. Reading Street is our core program and has the high-frequency words embedded into the direct instruction with opportunities to check for mastery ...

Originally posted on August 25, 2014; re-posted on September 21, 2017. Recently, most questions that I have received have been about decoding and fluency. That often means that educators feel confident with what they are doing with reading comprehension. Perhaps this re-posting will encourage some thinking about comprehension instruction. Teacher question: I don’t hear anything about comprehension strategies anymore. Was that idea just another fad or are should we still teach those? Shanahan response:  Your question raises an interesting point about American reading instruction. We tend to chase fads. Instead of building on past reforms and improvements we instead ride the pendulum back and ...