Literacy Blogs

I've been reading your blog articles very carefully, and in one entry you recommended having the kids read a lot during the literary block time (and all other subjects), suggesting possibly 50% of the time should be spent reading. My question is how much of that reading time should be teacher-led (for close reading and complex text), and how much should be just independent work?            All of the school reading time—or almost all of it—should be teacher-led. Kids are sent to school to learn things. Teachers are paid to teach things. There is no question that kids ...

  I was making a presentation about how to raise reading achievement. I was taking my audience through research on what needed to be taught and how it needed to be taught if kids were to do as well as possible. I was telling about my experiences as director of reading of the Chicago Public Schools at a time when my teachers raised reading achievement. When I finished, a teacher approached me. “What do you think is the most important variable in higher reading achievement?”         My answer was, “The amount of teaching—academic experience—that we provide to our children.”       ...

Blast from the Past: This blog entry first posted August 21, 2010; and was re-posted on August 16, 2018. Advice for the beginning of another school year.  This week lots of school openings and students returning to the university. I always look at this time of the year with lots of anticipation (and some foreboding); teaching is both something to be looked forward to and to dread. The part I love is the chance to share what I know with students who want to learn it; the chance to make a difference, to help others know something that they haven’t yet figured out. What a joy! The dread? ...

Our university held its graduation ceremony Thursday night. That means that it is almost time for your summer break, and man, have you earned it! I'm sure you're dog tired--the good kind of tired I hope where you can barely see straight, but through it you are proud of how things went for the kids.   And with this terrible economy many districts are laying off teachers (the worst I've seen in my whole career). All the more reason to kick back and take it easy.   But you are a professional teacher. And what is summer vacation for your kids, should really be ...

This week I had the opportunity to spend some time with some old friends. One of them, Mary Beth Curtis, reminded me about a column I had published in Reading Today when I was IRA president. The column was about teaching and teacher education and it provoked a great deal of controversy and comment at the time, so I remembered it quite well. Her reminder seems timely given the big kerfluffle over teacher education right now, so I'm re-issuing that piece here and now (the original title was "More Ideas Not Everyone Will Like"--I've added the post colon description for this wider ...