![]() In 1980, it was nearly impossible to find a contemporary high-quality article on phonics teaching. That produced a lot of terrific studies, and for a while it dominated the reading journals – both the research journals and those aimed at practitioners. The federal government invested heavily in research on reading comprehension. As interest swings one way or the other, instructional practice gets twisted out of shape. Reading instruction over my career has tended to follow a pendulum. However, I’ve been hearing about this “decoding first” or “decoding only” action often lately – from parents, state department of education officials, and teachers. Most people would chalk this overreach up to “reading wars.” That could be what’s happening maybe there’s a “true believer” in your district who thinks that only decoding matters – and is willing to make that happen no matter the costs. They’ve left the “bop out of the bop-sh-bop-sh-bop.” Or, more accurately, they’ve left the science out of the “science of reading.” I agree with your district that young readers – if they are going to be young readers – need to learn to decode and phonics and phonemic awareness instruction is essential during the primary grades to ensure that students develop proficient decoding ability.īut it seems to me that in your school district’s prodigious and well-meaning efforts to ensure that happens, they are ignoring Scarborough’s rope, Gough & Tunmer’s simple view, Duke & Cartwright’s active view model, the report of the National Reading Panel, $100 million worth of research from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and a slew of other more recent research studies. It was the greatest disaster in Chicago history and the greatest loss of life of any single shipwreck on the Great Lakes…. ![]() In 1915, near where I’m writing this, a passenger ship, the SS Eastland sank, drowning 844 passengers – many of them children. At what grade levels is it appropriate to teach the “language comprehension” portions of the rope? Shanahan responds: They’ve sent us to LETRS training, purchased instructional programs on phonics, and require testing students’ “nonsense word fluency” frequently. Nevertheless, when it comes to daily instruction, we (the primary grade teachers) have been told that decoding is the most important thing and that we are to emphasize that. At my school, the district inservice has made a big deal out of Scarborough’s rope.
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