Literacy Blogs

Teacher question: I’m an avid reader of your blog. I know that your focus is on teaching reading, but what about fostering a love of reading? Recently, the news has reported that no one is reading anymore. Shouldn’t we do something about that? Shanahan responds: You’re right about the recent news. The headlines have been incessant: A Third of Americans Say They’re Reading Fewer Books (CBS News) Gen Z is Reading Less. What That Means in the Age of Ready Answers. (Forbes) Reading for Pleasure is Sharply Down Among Schoolkids, Report Shows. (NBC News) Fewer People Are Reading for Fun, Study Finds (New York Times)  Reading for ...

Teacher Question: I know you say students learn more when taught with grade level texts than texts at their reading levels. That may be true but won’t frustrating kids like that make them hate reading? Shanahan responds: I don’t want to undermine anybody’s motivation or love of reading. Though reading experts have long labeled some texts as “frustration level,” I hope you won’t take that moniker too literally. To be fair, your concern does seem justified according to some studies. For instance, middle school students say that when texts are difficult, their interest declines (Wade, 2001). Correlations among reading comprehension and affective variables like ...

Blast from the Past: This blog entry first posted on June 22, 2019, and was re-issued on September 21, 2024. The reason I’ve resurrected this one is because recently many of my podcasts have been greeted by jeers on social media claiming that pretty much any research-proven approach to reading instruction would be better replaced by opportunities for independent reading in the classroom. I agree that the more students read the better readers they are likely to become, but that is not best accomplished by sacrificing instructional time since instruction does more for reading achievement growth than does independent reading. ...

Teacher question: I understand your claims that teaching students with grade level texts instead of instructional level texts increases children’s opportunities to learn. However, what about children’s emotional needs, self-esteem, motivation, and self-starting skills when text is challenging. Children who struggle with sight words or sounding out words who are given a hard piece of text will shut down and refuse to try or will act out in the classroom. I always thought that the purpose of avoiding frustration level texts was to avoid frustrating children who were trying to learn to read. What am I missing? RELATED: Teaching Students to Use Context Shanahan ...

Teacher question: My 8-year-old grandson is a second grader who's been reading quite a while now. However, his reading diet comprises almost exclusively graphic novels, some of them intended for much older children, and he has little to no interest in making the transition to text-only books. We were all so pleased that he was an early reader, but now it's very hard to unstick him from the graphic novels he's so fond of. I would love to know your thinking about this and what might be done to bring him to the larger world of books. Shanahan response: You’ve raised a great question ...