https://www.readingrockets.org/feeds/teachingreading.xml The newest resources and classroom strategies designed to share with teachers what research suggests are the most effective ways to build fluency, vocabulary, comprehension, and writing skills. en https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/more-hanford-phonics-reform-and-literacy-levels 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. Mon, 06 Feb 2023 12:08:57 EST Timothy Shanahan https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/more-hanford-phonics-reform-and-literacy-levels https://www.readingrockets.org/research-by-topic/beyond-labels-and-agendas-research-teachers-need-know-about-phonics-and This article describes the current findings on phonics and phonological awareness instruction. It uses a question & answer format to explore 10 common questions that teachers ask about teaching phonics and phonemic awareness. Here are a few key questions addressed in the article: What are phonics and phonemic awareness? Should phonemic awareness be paired with print and taught together? Should phonological awareness be coordinated with phonics instruction? What is the best sequence for teaching phonics? Tue, 10 Jan 2023 16:16:51 EST Reading Rockets https://www.readingrockets.org/research-by-topic/beyond-labels-and-agendas-research-teachers-need-know-about-phonics-and https://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-reading-african-american-children-when-home-and-school-language-differ Reading depends on spoken language. This is a simple statement with profound consequences for children whose spoken language differs from the language they are expected to read. For most children, the language skills they bring to school will support learning to read, which is mainly learning to understand their spoken language in a new form: print. However, some children’s language skills differ in important ways from the classroom language variety, and teachers rarely receive sound guidance on how to enhance their literacy instruction to meet these children’s needs. Fri, 16 Dec 2022 13:31:28 EST Julie Washington, Mark Seidenberg https://www.readingrockets.org/article/teaching-reading-african-american-children-when-home-and-school-language-differ https://www.readingrockets.org/research-by-topic/rising-star-scaffolding-guide-supporting-young-children-s-early-spelling-skills Encouraging pre-kindergarten children to write affords teachers the opportunity to provide scaffolds to improve spelling development. Teachers, however, tend to provide more support than necessary to guide children's early spelling, which may stifle children's opportunities to engage in important thinking that helps them to grow in their literacy knowledge. Fri, 16 Dec 2022 13:19:12 EST Reading Rockets https://www.readingrockets.org/research-by-topic/rising-star-scaffolding-guide-supporting-young-children-s-early-spelling-skills https://www.readingrockets.org/article/print-speech-and-speech-print-mapping-early-literacy The “Reading Peaceniks” The authors of this article are a group of researchers and practitioners who are looking to end the divisiveness of the “reading wars” — and help children learn to read and write with competence and pleasure. See the list of contributing editors as well as the 25 nationally recognized colleagues who support this effort. Wed, 14 Dec 2022 11:00:57 EST Jeannine Herron, et al. https://www.readingrockets.org/article/print-speech-and-speech-print-mapping-early-literacy https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/right-read/letting-hero-worship-go As discussion of Emily Hanford’s new podcast builds, teachers are questioning stories we were sold by people we trusted. For some teachers, this is the first time they’ve doubted instructional materials that are ubiquitous in elementary and reading intervention classrooms. When we question the tenets of Balanced Literacy, teachers can unearth a trove of information. But how to make sense of it all? Mon, 28 Nov 2022 12:00:42 EST Margaret Goldberg https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/right-read/letting-hero-worship-go https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/shared-reading-structured-literacy-era Teacher question: Can you provide clarification on how to promote shared reading in the structured literacy era and how that differs from shared reading in the balanced literacy era. I would think a teacher could certainly initially read the text aloud to students to model fluency and expression, but then must ensure students can get the words off the page and reread by decoding the words, rather than parroting the teacher or memorizing the shared reading text that may be a rhyme/song that is catchy. Shanahan's response: Wed, 16 Nov 2022 13:46:38 EST Timothy Shanahan https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/shared-reading-structured-literacy-era https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/comprehension-instruction-really-helps-teaching-cohesion Teacher question: One of my colleagues told us that we should not be teaching guided reading lessons or comprehension skills or strategies. We’re using a core reading program that includes those kinds of things. He says that the science of reading proves that we would get higher reading achievement by teaching more social studies and science (he’s our science teacher) and dropping the comprehension instruction that we are providing. He’s really vocal about this. Can you help us shut him up? Shanahan’s response Mon, 07 Nov 2022 13:51:53 EST Timothy Shanahan https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/comprehension-instruction-really-helps-teaching-cohesion https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/teaching-students-use-context I’m writing this blog because of the disarray I see over the topic of context instruction and the poor instructional practice that it seems to manifest. One confusion is already well recognized, but merits some mention here. The other befuddlement usually goes without remark, and yet it, too, has unfortunate consequences for young readers. Tue, 18 Oct 2022 10:42:53 EDT Timothy Shanahan https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/shanahan-literacy/teaching-students-use-context https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/right-read/differentiation-done-right-how-walk-read-works When we’re asked to switch to explicit, systematic instruction, many teachers worry that we’ll no longer be able to tailor our teaching to the students in front of us. Calls for whole-class phonics instruction lasting 30-45 minutes, for example, summon fears that our  students will be bored by concepts they already know or aren’t yet ready for. Fri, 14 Oct 2022 09:46:39 EDT Margaret Goldberg https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/right-read/differentiation-done-right-how-walk-read-works