Literacy Blogs

Blast from the past: This blog was first posted on March 31, 2014; and was reposted on November 15, 2017. The reason for revisiting is that over the past couple of weeks these unproven claims against teaching reading to young children have emerged yet again--this time in a posting by Valerie Strauss for the Washington Post. As usual, the press likes a good educational controversy rather than helping a community figure out the best way to address educational problems. Teaching young children to read is not harmful despite the claims.   During both my childhood and the early years of my teaching ...

Blast from the Past: This entry was first posted on March 8, 2014 and was re-posted on August 1, 2020. This posting dealt with perhaps the biggest issue facing all of us today: the amount of reading instruction that students receive. I've long been convinced that amount of teaching is one of the three major tools that we have to improve reading achievement. Now, under the limitations imposed by a pandemic, our kids and grandkids are having their reading instruction greatly reduced. Various school plans for the impending school year are suggesting reductions in teaching by as much as 50%. ...

Teacher question: I've been looking for online and workshop information on close reading and everything I've seen and heard has recommended doing close reading on material that is well above kids independent reading level. Your post talks about the futility of doing a close read on preprimer material, which I completely agree with. What do you think about using higher text, say second grade, with second semester first graders in a teacher-supported group lesson? Shanahan response" The reason why I challenged close reading with young children is because of the lack of depth of appropriate texts for them to read. Close reading requires ...

Teacher question: My question centers on identifying students for special education. Research says identify students early, avoid the IQ-discrepancy model formula for identification, and use an RTI framework for identification and intervention.  That said, I have noticed that as a result of high stakes accountability linked to teacher evaluations there seems to be a bit of a shuffle around identifying students for special education. While we are encourages to "identify early", the Woodcock Johnson rarely finds deficits that warrant special education identification.  Given current research  on constrained skills theory ( Scott  Paris)  and late emerging reading difficulties (Rollanda O’Connor), how do we ...

     "Close reading" is a colloquial term used by scholars in several fields of study. Prior to its re-emergence as a big idea since Common Core has lionized it, Cyndie Shanahan and I did a study with mathematicians, historians, and chemists. Several of these disciplinary experts mentioned close reading, though they clearly didn't all mean the same thing. Only in literature or, more exactly, literary criticism, is close reading used as a term of art.        The conception of close reading that is embodied in the Common Core standards is the one drawn from literature. However, it is ...

Teacher question: I am a reading specialist working in an urban school district with struggling readers in K-5.  Do you have any suggestions on intervention programs that you find the most beneficial to students?  Currently, we are using LLI (Fountas and Pinnell), Sonday, Read Naturally and Soar to Success, at the interventionist's discretion. Is there any research supporting or refuting these programs?  Is there another program that you find more effective?  We also use Fast Forward and Lexia as computer-based interventions.  What does the research say about these tools?   Shanahan response:   The best place to get this kind of information is the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC). ...

Teacher question: I'm a fourth grade special education teacher in NYC. Our school has acquired a new reading/writing program and has discontinued a grammar program we've used for several years. In the new program the grammar component is virtually non-existent. On a gut level I feel that students are struggling with test questions, even math ones, due to lack of practice/knowledge of grammar. They simply don't understand what the questions are asking. I was wondering what your opinion/research shows as far as the relationship between grammar instruction and reading comprehension. Do you have any preference as far as grammar programs/teaching methodologies go?   Shanahan response:  Great ...