Literacy Blogs

09 January, 2021

3P versus 3-cueing: Why recommend one and shun the other?

Teacher question: Can you explain the difference between 3P (Pause, Prompt, Praise) and 3 cueing? I know you encourage one and discourage the other, but they seem to be the same thing to me. Help.   Shanahan reply: At Shanahan on Literacy, we strive for consistency. Let’s see if we can get this straightened out. First, let’s make sure we understand what these two trios are about. Pause, Prompt, Praise (3P or PPP or P3) is used to guide oral reading practice (Glynn, 2002). Research has shown that having students read challenging texts aloud with support and repetition improves reading achievement (NICHD, 2000). 3P tells the ...

read more
12 December, 2020

Lets' Be Charitable to Literacy

Each year, Shanahan on Literacy identifies the highest ranked charities that support book distribution and other literacy-oriented initiatives. These are all 4-star rated programs that are national or multi-regional in scope. The high ratings mean they are transparent in their reporting and spend all or most of the money on their mission rather than overhead. That means if you donate to these organization good literacy things happen for lots of kids. I have no connection to any of these organizations, and please remember your local literacy charities, too (I’m not in a position to consider those).  We’ll soon be back to ...

read more
05 December, 2020

Should we use narrative texts to teach science, math, and social studies?

Teacher question: In graduate school, we are being taught that we should use “hybrid texts” to teach content subjects. As a middle school math teacher, I think this is a horrible idea given our scant resources. Where do you stand on the use of hybrid text? Shanahan response: I share your concerns. I think hybrid text or mixed-genre text is an instructional idea that misses the point and leaves kids ill prepared for the future. Hybrid text is an expository text that includes narrative elements. A widely known example would be the Magic School Bus books. Those books present various social studies or science ...

read more
14 November, 2020

What Kind of Early Reading Intervention Should We Provide?

Teacher question: It seems there is currently a focus on intervention solely for the word recognition side in the early grades. The explanation is that most students who struggle, struggle with decoding, and I of course agree. However, I would add that many of those also struggle with language comprehension, with language development deficits that are measurable and observationally apparent in conversation with them as preschoolers, kindergartners, and first graders. The district’s current assessment model pretty much excludes them any assessment of language comprehension. I was told that one of the main reasons that children struggle later with reading comprehension is from ...

read more
07 November, 2020

Should We Alter the Reading Benchmarks Because of the Pandemic?

Teacher questions: Over the past few weeks, I'e fielded many questions about testing – from policymakers and teachers. Here are a couple of examples:  1.     Should schools lower grade level benchmark reading expectations due to lost instructional time during the pandemic? Please advise ASAP. 2.     A question that keeps coming up is, if a student cannot read grade level text on their own, can they then listen to the text and answer the questions on an assessment in order to be considered "meeting" reading standards 1-9 in grades 2-5 since there is a specified Lexile band for those grades through standard 10? Shanahan response: Over ...

read more
31 October, 2020

Does Your Comprehension Strategy Instruction Have this Key Element?

I was observing writing instruction in an 8th grade suburban classroom. The experienced teacher was quite skilled and he both managed his classroom well and was sophisticated in his ability to interpret literary text and to engage students in reading that penetrated deeply into the meaning of the text. On this day his lesson focused providing students with tools that would overcome writing blocks. His students often struggled to figure out what to write about; they agonized when given a writing assignment. He demonstrated his strategy and directed the students to give it a try. One especially bright young man towards the ...

read more
10 October, 2020

Letters in Phonemic Awareness Instruction or the Reciprocal Nature of Learning to Read

Teachers’ question: I’m confused. I’ve heard you say that we should teach phonemic awareness and letters simultaneously. Other “experts” say that phonemic awareness is strictly an auditory skill and that including letters slows children’s learning. Help! I have some children who, no matter what, don’t seem to be making any progress with phonemic awareness. These three are the only ones who have not progressed to phonics instruction. What should I do? Shanahan’s response: This is one of those, “Do we follow theory or data” questions. I’m a data man, myself. Many educators tout the idea that phonemic awareness (PA) is an auditory skill and that ...

read more
03 October, 2020

Why We Need to Teach Sentence Comprehension

“For the want of a nail the shoe was lost; For the want of a shoe the horse was lost; For the want of a horse the battle was lost; For the failure of battle the kingdom was lost;-- And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.”                         -James Baldwin This oft used litany reminds me of reading: For the want of phonemic awareness the decoding was lost; for the want of phonics the fluency was lost… you get the idea. The abilities that comprise reading are hierarchical, each nested in the other (though it is not as linear as the horseshoe nail formula—we don’t completely ...

read more
26 September, 2020

Here's Why I Wouldn't Teach Less Reading to Improve Social Studies

This week the Thomas Fordham Institute released a new provocative report, Social Studies Instruction and Reading Comprehension. It says U.S. schools spend “excessive amounts of time” teaching the English Language Arts (ELA) and not enough time on social studies. In fact, they claim that this imbalance is lowering reading achievement. Kids will read better if they get less reading instruction and more social studies teaching. I’ve long argued for what they call out here as excessive. To reach the reading levels we aspire to, children need lots of reading and writing instruction (and, at least for English learners, lots of ...

read more
19 September, 2020

What about Personalized Learning in Reading?

Teacher question: I would love to know what you think about the movement in personalized learning in K-8 schools. A few schools in my district have been moving to this approach for math instruction and I'd be interested in hearing your ideas of how this would look in reading and writing instruction. Thanks! Shanahan responds: Your question reminds me of the first time I tried to cook chicken. I was in a hurry so I figured if I turned up the heat, I could cook it faster… and that works – but only on the outside of the chicken. The inside, I discovered, was ...

read more
Sorry! No articles found. Please select another topic or category.

One of the world’s premier literacy educators.

He studies reading and writing across all ages and abilities. Feel free to contact him.