Sold a Story is important I’ve just finished listening to all six episodes of Emily Hanford’s masterful podcast, Sold a Story. Should educators and concerned parents listen? Yes. Should they take it as gospel truth? No! Keep reading… Children have been harmed! Hanford is a talented and courageous journalist. I am grateful to her for […]
Reading Wars are Pointless After thirty-five years of teaching reading, I can absolutely say we need to quit fighting over which method is “the science of reading” or “research-based.” Information on reading outcomes for every imaginable method is available if you care to read it. I have. I actually enjoy reading dissertations and meta-studies. Weird, […]
What is Tracking? In reading instruction, tracking refers to readers watching the words on the page while someone else says them aloud. This can be done in person or with an audiobook. Audiobooks provide students with more independence and more reading time than most parents or teachers can spare. I recommend using both and responding […]
You Keep Saying That Word… I hear “science of reading” everywhere in education lately. It’s used to stop conversations about outcomes: “I’m using the science of reading in my classroom, so if they don’t learn to read it’s not my fault.” I see it in papers and professional development materials: “Buy and use only this […]
Judge this book by its cover, not by its fonts Opening How Tony Learned to Read: Growing Up Dyslexic, by Tony and Judy Fishel, was a bit of a shock. I was confronted with some paragraphs in large print Comic Sans. It was stunning since I expected another sober case study by a dyslexia researcher. […]
Reading Equals Academic Success Reading success means academic success. So, parents and teachers feel fear and frustration when a child seems unable to learn to read in spite of being bright, inquisitive, and having a great teacher. This situation generally indicates dyslexia. Dyslexia just means “doesn’t learn to read despite normal intelligence and education.” Dyslexic […]
Should I Homeschool My Dyslexic Child? Are you wondering if homeschooling your dyslexic child is a good idea or the worst idea you’ve had this decade? In this post, I cover four great reasons to consider homeschooling as an educational option, and one overpowering reason not to. Here’s what I cover in this post. Experts […]
The Third Grade Wall I’m a dyslexia tutor. I get most of my new students around third grade. Why? Because they hit the “third-grade wall.” The wall refers to what happens to bright curious kids with dyslexia when the learn-to-read stage of school ends and the read-to-learn expectations start. The wall shuts them out of […]
What is LARA? Listen and Read Along (LARA) proves to be an outstanding tool for teaching reading. LARA is a collection of YouTube videos consisting of text on a screen, with words highlighted as a reader says them. As a reading tutor, specializing in dyslexia, I find older students happy to read things with substance. […]
Talk About Dyslexia A huge mastodon stomps around in the dyslexia education living room. Schools in the United States have done a surprisingly poor job of addressing it. Even though about 15% of students are dyslexic, dyslexia accommodation isn’t part of the regular classroom. Instead, students with the lowest reading scores are pulled out into […]