Literacy Blogs

Blast from the Past: Over the past several weeks I've been contacted by educators interested in addressing the language needs of young children. This is great, but it is important to remember that we still lack direct evidence that improving young children's language enhances literacy. We think it does, and there is a lot of correlational evidence showing a connection between oral language development and later reading comprehension, but none of the studies that have examined interventions that improve language have yet shown consequent literacy improvements for first-language learners. Whether you dedicate specific time to oral language teaching or whether ...

This entry was first published on October 11, 2015; and it was issued again on March 11, 2023 (it was also reblasted on August 24, 2017). Last week, Nell Duke, issued a Tweet that encouraged the teaching of literacy to young children. Judging by some of the responses you'd have thought my esteemed colleague was encouraging child abuse. Some of the responses claimed there was no value to early teaching since the kids in Finland do so well -- and they don't receive reading instruction at school until the kids' reach age 7. This blog entry is relevant to that ...

Teacher question: Our district is wrestling with how much emphasis to give rhyming as an early literacy skill. We had previously downplayed rhyming as a necessary focus but the new CA ELA/ELD Framework and CCSS where rhyming is specifically called out has resurfaced old questions.     Our struggle is this.... with our very high (87%) English Learner population, rhyming is one of the later skills acquired for these students in Preschool through grade 1.  Reading research seems to support the idea of rhyming as a pre-requisite to reading; exposure to this kind of play with words and "word families" gives children another pathway ...

Blast from the Past: I've received several notes during the past weeks challenging my advocacy for early reading instruction. Some have related horror stories about how children are being emotionally crushed by being taught to read. I took another look at the research -- this piece has been out for quite a while. There are many more studies now supporting my position: correlational studies showing a the close relationship between kindergarten reading attainment and high school success; studies showing the powerful early payoffs from kindergarten reading instruction; studies showing the retention of these benefits through 3rd and 4th grade, especially ...

Last week I did a webinar in which I shared the results of the National Early Literacy Panel (NELP), which reviewed research on literacy development and instruction with preschoolers and kindergarten (there is a link to the report in the right hand margin of my site).   I was asked if I would answer questions mailed in by the audience. I agreed, and below have included my answers. Thought they might be interesting to a larger audience, so here they are: 1. In our preschool classrooms, what are the top 5 techniques we should being using?   Staying very close to the findings I would ...

The winter issue of The California Reader includes a spirited response by Glenn DeVoogd to an article that I published in that outlet this fall. Nothing wrong with differences of opinion, so I’ll not use this space to try to argue that I’m wrong and he’s right on those issues. However, I will address some egregious errors in his claims. Glenn says the National Reading Panel (NRP) promoted “a more skills-based approach to reading rather than a meaning-based approach focusing on comprehension” (p. 5). In fact, NRP looked at 205 studies on the teaching of reading comprehension, all with reading comprehension ...

Last week the National Early Literacy Panel released its report synthesizing research on the teaching of literacy and literacy-related skills to young children (preschoolers and kindergartners). The event got some press coverage, and that has given the denouncers a new platform from which to shout that everyone should follow their lead--rather than following the research!   For example, in an article by Kathleen Manzo: http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2009/01/08/18read.h28.html   former Assistant Education Secretary Susan B. Neuman, is quoted as saying, “The report is all about code because code is what has been studied, but what we know is that code alone is not going to solve our educational ...