Literacy Blogs

Blast from Past: This blog first posted on October 9 and 16, 2021, and was reposted on June 6, 2026. The original was issued in two parts over two weeks. Those pieces have been combined here. That, along with some minor text revisions and updates, are the only changes. It is not that we have made no progress over the past five years – that would be unfair — but these issues are still annoying. This version includes a link to the 30 and 84 comments elicited by their first appearance. Pet peeves are, by their very nature, complaints. I assume ...

Blast from the Past: This blog first posted on November 3, 2018, and was reposted in revised form on March 14, 2026. The original title was, “The Whys and Hows of Research and the Teaching of Reading.” As you can see, I’ve retitled it. The term “science of reading” is both widely used and widely misunderstood today, so I have provided considerable revision here – though the overall points are the same. If you want to see the original, it is linked at the bottom (along with the more than 50 comments it elicited). I talk a lot about research in ...

Blast from the Past: This entry first appeared on November 6, 2021 and was re-issued on August 2, 2025. We’re at the beginning of the 2025-26 school year. Reading scores haven’t recovered from the COVID debacle, too many kids and teachers are missing school, and many states have adopted laws or policies aimed at beefing up decoding instruction. Concerns about the “science of reading” continue to arise in media coverage and policy debates, so this earlier published article still has relevance. This blog argues that the reform of reading instruction should depend on instructional studies rather than on computer simulations ...

Recently, I wrote about the science of reading. I explained how I thought the term should be defined and described the kind of research needed to prescribe instruction. Today I thought I’d put some meat on the bone; adding some details that might help readers to grasp the implications of a scientific or research-based approach to reading. What does it mean when someone says an approach to reading instruction “works”? The term “it works” has gnawed at me for more than fifty years! I remember as a teacher how certain activities or approaches grabbed me. They just seemed right. Then I’d try them ...

The literacy field has long been beleaguered by generic terms that no one seems to understand – or more exactly, of which nobody agrees on the definitions. Terms like whole language, balanced literacy, direct instruction, dyslexia, sight words, and guided reading, are bandied about in journals, conference presentations, newspaper articles, and teacher’s lounges as if there was some shared dictionary out there that we were all accessing. Even terms that seem like they would be widely understood like research or fluency often turn out to be problematic. This plague of vagueness is exasperating, and I think it prevents productive dialogue or ...

Recently, I posted commentary on Emily Hanford’s reporting and the critical response it received from some in the literacy community. I defended the major thrust of her work and called out criticisms I thought to be illogical, ill conceived, or ill intended – criticism more aimed at maintaining status quo than promoting literacy. I admitted that my endorsement of that journalism was not without limits. I had concerns and said I may write about them in the future. The future has arrived. I expressed two concerns, one substantive and one more stylistic. Let’s get the less important one out of the way ...

Lots of questions about the “science of reading” this week. What is the “science of reading?” That depends on who you talk to. There is no agreed upon definition. Nor is there any official body like the Académie Française that can dictate a meaning by fiat. Last year, Reading Research Quarterly published a science of reading issue (it blossomed into two with more than 50 articles). There weren’t 50 definitions, but it was close. The disagreements turned on two points: the role of instructional research and the scope of reading covered. Some use the term in reference to neurological and cognitive science studies of ...