{"id":61957,"date":"2022-09-01T06:00:04","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?p=61957"},"modified":"2022-08-28T18:03:59","modified_gmt":"2022-08-28T22:03:59","slug":"resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Being able to read well is the prerequisite for learning everything else.\u00a0 So teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.<\/p>\n

Time Magazine<\/em>, no less (not a conservative publication) has published an eye-opening article on the subject\u00a0by Belinda Luscombe entitled\u00a0Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read.<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Traditionally, reading has been taught by phonics.\u00a0 That is, attention to the sounds the letters symbolize, which in turn are put together to form words.\u00a0 But since the 1980s, a different approach emerged and came to dominate elementary school reading curricula and classrooms.\u00a0 The whole language<\/a> approach teaches children to recognize entire words visually, by what they look like.\u00a0 Students are also encouraged to identify words by their contexts, to \u201cconstruct meaning,\u201d and to immerse themselves in reading material relevant to them.\u00a0 The assumption is that learning to read can happen \u201cnaturally,\u201d like learning to speak.\u00a0 (See this<\/a> for a fuller account of the approach.)<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, since the whole language approach has been introduced, reading proficiency rates<\/a> have plummeted. In 2019, only 35% of fourth-graders were proficient in reading.\u00a0 Only 21% of low-income children, 18% of black children, and 23% of Hispanic children were proficient.<\/p>\n

Yes, some children can learn to read with the whole language method, but the mental gymnastics it requires are beyond the comprehension of many other children.\u00a0 Good students can figure out how to read no matter what method is used to teach them, but others are at a loss when they are expected to \u201cdrop everything and read\u201d when they don\u2019t know how to read and the ability to do so is not coming \u201cnaturally.\u201d<\/p>\n

As university teacher training programs and curriculum publishers went all in for whole language, classical schools, homeschoolers, and traditionalist teachers stuck with phonics.<\/p>\n

In 2000, the National Reading Panel, consisting of a large group of literacy experts, met to settle the issue of what method of teaching reading works best.\u00a0 Reviewing hundreds of studies, they issued a report<\/a> that concluded that what students need in order to learn how to read well is phonics.\u00a0 That is to say, \u201cphonemic awareness\u201d (attention to sounds), \u201cinstruction in phonics,\u201d the development of fluency, vocabulary instruction (learning new words), teaching the comprehension of texts, and preparing teachers to do all of these things.<\/p>\n

Such a finding should be obvious.\u00a0 Our writing system is alphabetic, breaking down words into their constituent sounds that are symbolized by letters.\u00a0 School-aged children mostly know how to speak.\u00a0 If they learn 26 letters and 44 sound combinations, plus some exceptions to the rules, they can read.\u00a0 If they must learn the appearance<\/em> of words, they will have to memorize thousands of shapes for basic literacy, and they will have no strategy to decode any new words they encounter.\u00a0 Mass literacy arose in the West because the alphabet made reading easy, whereas in, for example, China, whose writing system is based on ideograms\u2013a complicated visual representation of each word\u2013literacy until recently was restricted to a small elite.\u00a0 It is just harder<\/em> to learn to read in the Chinese writing system.\u00a0 Whole language exchanges our alphabetic system for an ideographic system, with predictable results.<\/p>\n

The National Reading Panel report is entitled Teaching Children to Read:\u00a0 An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction<\/a>.\u00a0 This has led to further work confirming the superiority of phonics known as \u201cthe science of reading.\u201d\u00a0 Since the report, some states have called for the implementation of \u201cevidence-based\u201d or \u201cresearch-based\u201d curriculum.\u00a0 All of those are references to the use of phonics to teach reading.<\/p>\n

The Wikipedia article on Whole Language<\/a> gives an excellent summary not only of the approach but also why the science has demonstrated conclusively that it does not work.\u00a0 For example, \u201cUnlike language, literacy is not a human universal but a human invention (much as children learn to walk without being taught, but not how to drive a car or fly a helicopter).\u201d<\/p>\n

The new science of reading has led to a revival of phonics in many schools.\u00a0 Where \u201cevidence-based\u201d approaches have been adopted, reading scores have shot up.\u00a0 Nevertheless, opposition to teaching phonics has arisen from teachers, not because they disagree with the research but because they want to teach something else.<\/p>\n

In the Time article<\/a>, Luscombe reports on what happened in Oakland, California:<\/p>\n

A<\/span>s a teacher in Oakland, Calif., Kareem Weaver helped struggling fourth- and fifth-grade kids learn to read by using a very structured, phonics-based reading curriculum called Open Court. It worked for the students, but not so much for the teachers. \u201cFor seven years in a row, Oakland was the fastest-gaining urban district in California for reading,\u201d recalls Weaver. \u201cAnd we hated it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The teachers felt like curriculum robots\u2014and pushed back. \u201cThis seems dehumanizing, this is colonizing, this is the man telling us what to do,\u201d says Weaver, describing their response to the approach. \u201cSo we fought tooth and nail as a teacher group to throw that out.\u201d. . .\u201cThose who wanted to fight for social justice, they figured that this new progressive way of teaching reading [whole language] was the way,\u201d he says.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After reading rates plunged with the \u201cnew progressive way of teaching, Weaver is working to bring phonics back:<\/p>\n

Now Weaver is heading up a campaign to get his old school district to reinstate many of the methods that teachers resisted so strongly: specifically, systematic and consistent instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Ironically, though teachers invoked \u201csocial justice\u201d to oppose phonics, the NAACP and other civil rights leaders are getting behind Weaver\u2019s attempt to bring it back.\u00a0 This is because improving the lot of black children requires that they be taught how to read.\u00a0 It is not \u201csocial justice\u201d when only 19% of black children can read.\u00a0 As Weaver said, \u201cWe abandoned what worked because we didn\u2019t like how it felt to us as adults, when actually, the social-justice thing to do is to teach them explicitly how to read.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another catalyst for returning to phonics, according to Luscombe, has been the parents of dyslexic children, who simply cannot learn with whole language but definitely can with phonics.\u00a0 Their lobbying has caused state legislatures to call for \u201cevidence-based\u201d reading instruction.\u00a0 Some 30 states have enacted laws or new policies to that effect, and 18 have passed laws requiring that teacher preparation programs make sure teachers known how to teach phonics.\u00a0 Recently, New York City mayor Eric Adams has announced that schools in his city\u2013the biggest school district in the country\u2013would be required to use phonics.<\/p>\n

This is case in which reality has broken in upon progressive educators, but many teachers are still pushing back against it in the name of their ideology.\u00a0 And, to be fair, because they were never taught to teach phonics and whole language is all they know how to do.\u00a0 The blame here goes to university Departments of Education.\u00a0 But things might be changing.\u00a0 Still, what Luscombe said about Oakland\u2019s phonics program is telling:\u00a0 \u201cIt worked for the students, but not so much for the teachers.\u201d\u00a0 She gives Kareem Weaver, the teacher who is working to bring back phonics, the last word:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lament is that when we started using new materials, the kids weren\u2019t learning how to read, and to explain that, rather than looking at our materials and what we were doing, we focused on the kids and said, \u2018Something\u2019s wrong with them. Something\u2019s wrong with our community. They\u2019re too traumatized or too broken. Their families aren\u2019t good enough. They\u2019re poor.\u2019 We explained the lack of learning in those terms, as opposed to saying, \u2018Wait a second, what are we doing? And what did we do when things were working?\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Photo via pxhere, CC0, Public Domain<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p><\/div>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":62098,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[734,12358,12364,2159,12355,12361],"class_list":["post-61957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-educational-reform","tag-phonics","tag-science-of-reading","tag-teacher-education-programs","tag-teaching-reading","tag-whole-language"],"yoast_head":"\nResolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-01T10:00:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-28T22:03:59+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2022\/08\/writing-hand-table-book-person-people-1260704-pxhere.com_-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"768\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"512\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"7 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/\",\"name\":\"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-01T10:00:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-28T22:03:59+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\",\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading","description":"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading","og_description":"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/","og_site_name":"Cranach","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","article_published_time":"2022-09-01T10:00:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-08-28T22:03:59+00:00","og_image":[{"width":768,"height":512,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/305\/2022\/08\/writing-hand-table-book-person-people-1260704-pxhere.com_-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Gene Veith","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Gene Veith","Est. reading time":"7 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/","name":"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website"},"datePublished":"2022-09-01T10:00:04+00:00","dateModified":"2022-08-28T22:03:59+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1"},"description":"Teaching kids how to read is the most important task of primary education.\u00a0 But how to do that has been controversial.\u00a0 Now, though, research has settled the issue about the best way of teaching children how to read.\u00a0 But some teachers and school districts are refusing to follow the science.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2022\/09\/resolution-and-resistance-in-teaching-reading\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Resolution and Resistance in Teaching Reading"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/","name":"Cranach","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1","name":"Gene Veith","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Gene Veith"},"description":"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. He has authored over 25 books on Christianity and culture, literature, classical education, and theology. Dr. Veith previously held academic and editorial roles at Concordia University Wisconsin and WORLD Magazine. A respected voice in Lutheran and classical education circles, he holds a Ph.D. in English and several honorary doctorates. He and his wife, Jackquelyn, live in St. Louis and have three children and twelve grandchildren.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gene_Edward_Veith"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/author\/geneveith\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62098"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}