Transcript
Speaker: 30 years later, we should not still be asking children to guess their way through books. Children deserve everything that Matilda found in books. Comfort, knowledge, imagination, and power. We do not need to keep saying it's easier for to teach them just to memorize or to guess. It seems faster. It sure does seem faster in the short term. It is not what is helpful for kids in the long term. And we want to help kids be successful readers for Hello, hello. Welcome back to the Play On Words podcast from Big City Readers. It's Miss Beth, and it is episode 96. So in honor of episode 96, I thought we could hop in our little time machine and look back at the wonderful year of 1996 and ah what was going on in the wonderful world of literacy. If you also were wondering what was happening in the literacy world in 1996? Well, you're in the right place. Because i was expecting to find some definitely nostalgic children's books um or maybe like a good Julia Roberts movie. my
Speaker: My sisters and I notoriously quote the don't know. there was a big reading reckoning happening because nineteen ninety six was the release of one of the most iconic movies about a child who loves books matilda Matilda was released in August of 1996, which means it just turned 30 years old, which 1996 feels like it was like 10 or 20 years old.
Speaker: 30 years old seems ridiculous. Matilda represents everything that I want children to feel about reading. That books are powerful. That libraries are a safe place. That knowledge gives children independence. That And that caring teachers can completely change a child's life. Okay, maybe that one is something that I want parents to know.
Speaker: So today we're going back to 1996, but this is really about a question that parents are still asking 30 later in How do I know whether my child is actually reading or whether they've just become really good at looking like a good reader?
Speaker: um And maybe you're like, i actually wouldn't even know that's a thing if you hadn't told me that they could fake reading by memorizing words and memorizing books. But let's talk about what what is really happening in reading instruction in the 80s, 90s, and still today. So in the 80s and 90s, many schools started to embrace an approach called the whole language approach.
Speaker: I even misunderstood this when I was teaching and learning how to use the whole language approach. Yes, I paid for a teaching degree that taught me how to use this Terrible approach. But the basic beliefs include that children learn to read naturally, much like they learn to speak, which we know is not true. You know, our we have not just my opinion, but hundreds of years of research that shows us our brain is typically wired to learn how to walk and talk, but it is not typically wired to learn how to read. We have to be explicitly taught.
Speaker: However, there's like, you know, 10% of people do pick it up naturally. um But most do not. So whole language says children learn to read naturally.
Speaker: if children are just surrounded by wonderful books, reading will emerge. Now, I don't think that this is a bad thing to surround kids by books. But it doesn't they don't just pick up. Most kids don't just pick up reading because there's great books around them.
Speaker: um Whole language which also says that enjoyment should be emphasized over isolated skills. And if you know me, you know I think that we want kids to devour books. We want them to be obsessed with it, which is why I talk about how I don't really like Bob books because they make reading more of a task than something enjoyable.
Speaker: So I agree that meaning and enjoyment should be emphasized but not over isolated skills. And Whole Language also believes that explicit phonics instruction has was often viewed as boring and unnecessary and potentially harmful to a child's love of reading, which we know is not true. So loving books, reading aloud, talking about stories are all incredibly important. They are not more important than explicitly learning how to read. The problem was not the books um in this whole language approach. The problem was treating exposure to books as a replacement for teaching children how the written code works.
Speaker: It's just like if your child naturally starts guessing at words or reading the picture at age three, that's great. That's a typical development. The problem is when we... so teach that as a skill. Like, look at the picture. What could it be? That's the problem. so So the problem wasn't that people were wanting kids to love books. The problem was saying that that matters more than an explicit instruction. Instruction, as we know, should look like... um or Before I say that, instruction of whole language, and I can speak firsthand to this, I was taught to teach kids how to this, to instead of decoding every part of an unfamiliar word, sounding it out, um children will be prompted to look at the picture.
Speaker: Think about what word might make sense and guess. Use the first letter to guess. Skip the word and come back to it. And if you figure out what it could be, okay, that's the word. Memorize repetitive sentence patterns and predict the next word using context. I've talked about this a lot in a lot of episodes on 3Qing.
Speaker: and on the blog. So if you want to go to bigcityreaders.com and search 3Qing, those blogs should come up, or I'll link them in the show notes. You know, like these early reader books look like. um The cat will jump.
Speaker: The cat will fly. The cat will play. The cat will roll. And so the pattern stays the same. Just one word is changing and then the word is changing based on the picture. So kids are taught, and I was taught to teach this way, to look at the first letter and look at the picture. And it really does seem like it helps. i am i i i was I was duped. i believed this too, but it's not true. We know that now. I know that now. Some people knew it a long time ago.
Speaker: um These strategies do help kids appear successful, but they don't actually teach kids how to read unfamiliar words. And um when there is no picture or no repeated sentence,
Speaker: In no helpful context, what are kids supposed to do that leaves them feeling frustrated? Okay, so 1996, there was a big reading reckoning. So specifically in California, California had heavily embraced whole language practices. Reading scores it became a serious public concern after the nation's report card released the scores in 1994. So by 1996, state leaders started to hold heated hearings about reading instruction. Parents and educators were questioning whether children had been taught strategies that were helpful and helped them perform reading without actually decoding, which is very similar to what's been happening in the U.S. in the last six years. So you have that in common with parents from 1996. And many of you have probably listened to the wonderful podcast called Sold a Story. But here is a quote from a parent in that podcast.
Speaker: It seemed like they were teaching kids to sound like they could read, not actually teaching them how to read. That sentence is the entire problem. A child can sound like a reader in a familiar, predictable book and still be unable to independently read a word on the next page.
Speaker: This is not just strange education history. Parents still tell me when I have a parent call, when I'm working one-on-one with a student tutoring, in my DMs, parents still tell me that their child reads a book beautifully one night and then cannot read the same word on another page in another story the next day.
Speaker: This doesn't automatically mean that your child is lazy or wasn't paying attention or has a poor memory or isn't smart or just isn't getting reading. It probably means that they aren't being taught how to read the right way in the first place.
Speaker: One thing that whole language almost got right about reading is that one of the most beautiful things that reading can do is make a child feel like they're not alone.
Speaker: But we want to make sure that a child can read. And Matilda appears to teach herself to read effortlessly at an extraordinarily young age. And that makes a wonderful story. But it is not a realistic reading development plan.
Speaker: Reading aloud does build oral language, vocabulary, comprehension skills, and knowledge of and love of books. It is important. Explicit instruction teaches children how speech sounds connect to print.
Speaker: That is necessary for reading. Children need both of these things. Access to books should never be used as a substitute for instruction. Phonics instruction should never eliminate beautiful books and meaningful conversations and being read to by a grown-up.
Speaker: And something that I do want to note that is um so true of Matilda and all of this information is that every child should have access to books, but they should not need to have Matilda's magic to learn how to read them. They should not need to have...
Speaker: to win the lottery of teachers, to have a teacher that knows how to teach them how to read. They should not need to have parents that know how to advocate for proper instruction. It should be the norm for every child.
Speaker: So here's a question in my DMs. How do I know if my child is reading or guessing? Okay, here are some signs that your child may be relying on memorizing. Can they read a word correctly on one page but not recognize it on the next? Can they say a word that makes sense but actually doesn't match all the letters?
Speaker: Are they using the picture to replace the printed word? And if they are, what I like to do is say, you did a great job reading the pictures. Now let's cover the pictures and read it again. Read the words. We don't want them to feel bad about this.
Speaker: Do they guess after looking at only the first letter? Oh, I see this all the time. um Do they read a familiar book perfectly but struggle when the same words are presented separately? So, like, maybe they know that book, but then if you saw if you show them just that word, they don't know how to read it. Yeah.
Speaker: And do they substitute similar meanings? It seems like it's harmless. I just had a student do this, and I was like, oh, go back and read those letters that you see. Do they substitute familiar words like house for home?
Speaker: It seems like it doesn't change it. It doesn't seem like a big deal, but it's a pattern we don't want kids to get into. ah Do they add or remove words to make the sentence sound more natural? um Like that would be like...
Speaker: The mom asked him to do that. They might read it like, the mom said to do that. um Do they become stuck when reading a nonsense word because there is no meaning for them to fall back on?
Speaker: For example, like if the sentence says, the cat sat on the rug, they might read, the kitten sat on the carpet. and The substitution makes perfect sense. The child understood the pictures and the general idea, but they did not read the printed words. Or a child reads the word horse as house. They look really similar at first. The first and the last letters look the same. S-E-H-O and S-E at the beginning and the end. We want them to look at and read the entire word. People always will say, oh my gosh, but it doesn't matter. We don't read the whole word as adults. Right, but when we're teaching kids how to read, we want them to read the entire word.
Speaker: So here are some ways to check without turning everything into a test because we don't want that to happen. So can you move the word? Write one word from a book on a separate piece of paper or a dry erase board. I like to just call it dry erase board time and ah have them read the words or the sentences on the dry erase board and really focus on that and then take that skill into the book. So can your child read that word without the picture, without the rest of the sentence? Instead of like making them feel bad in the book, just do it on the dry erase board.
Speaker: um Can you put that same word in a new sentence? So if they read it the word ship, like the ship is big, can they read it again as I see a red ship?
Speaker: Use that dry erase board. That dry erase board is your best friend in teaching your child how to read. And then use a few nonsense words. Try a simple decodable word like MIP, SHAB, S-H-A-B-M-I-P,
Speaker: F-I-P-V-O-T. We're just following a pattern of one or two consonants at the beginning, then a vowel, then a consonant. And in this test of nonsense words, we're having them read the vowel as a short vowel sound.
Speaker: Nonsense words, um people get confused on nonsense words a lot. They are not meant to trick kids. They briefly remove memory and meaning so that we can see whether the child understands the sound symbol relationship but with any word, whether or not they've seen it before.
Speaker: Okay, so then listen to the mistake they're making. Ask your child, did the word match all the letters you see? did Ask yourself, did your your child look at the whole word? You could ask, did you look at the whole word? You can help them by covering up part of the word so it doesn't seem so big so they can sound out each part.
Speaker: Did they notice the vowel? Did they change the vowel? Did they preserve the beginning blend and or ending sound and skip the middle? Did they correct their mistake by themselves? We're not looking for you to correct everything. So many parents ask, they're like, I don't want to have to correct them all the time. And I get it. And I don't want you to either.
Speaker: So can they can we get them to correct the mistake on their own? This happened in our parent coaching call last week. Parent was like, I just don't want to take away the joy they have of writing.
Speaker: And they ask me, is this right? ah So here's my suggestion for writing and correcting spelling. You're going to keep two different things. One is a dry erase board. You're going to have dry erase board time.
Speaker: And that is when you might give them a sentence or they might write a sentence and ask you. And you're going to teach them in that time to check their own work. So the first thing when they show you their work, you're going to say, did you read it to yourself? Have them touch each of the words as they read it back to themselves. Look at each of the patterns.
Speaker: Because when they just ask you if it's right and you say yes or no, we are not teaching them to trust and rely on themselves. We want them to be able to do this without us. So dry erase board time is the time when you can correct. I would keep it to like under 10 corrections, like two or three sentences that they should know the patterns. We only hold them accountable to spelling patterns they have been taught. If they have not been taught that spelling pattern, then we don't expect them to be able to write it the right way.
Speaker: But then have a journal or something that they get to creatively write in that you do not touch the spelling in. They need to have the the the the freedom that they can write on their own.
Speaker: um Okay, so a reading error just gives us information. There's no reason to panic. Here's what you can say if your child is looking at the picture. If they're stuck there, um try not to say, i see you're looking at the pictures. i Try to say, let's look at the word all the way through.
Speaker: What sound does each letter make? Can you tap the sounds? I teach you how to tap in our kindergarten and first grade courses. Can you find the first vowel? Don't forget the vowel sound. Can you blend it slowly then say it faster?
Speaker: Does what you said match every part of that word? Check it one more time. These are things that I say in all of our tutoring lessons. And I often am saying, i caught myself. I often am saying, you know how to do this.
Speaker: But I recently realized... This is not helping kids. When I say, you know how to do this, they are already mad at themselves. They are already frustrated. there That's not helping them believe in themselves more. That just is like reinforcing that they should know this and it's embarrassing that they don't. So you can just validate their feelings. This feels tricky right now. Let's just do it slowly together or let's take a break and come back to this a little bit later.
Speaker: validating and letting them take a break is how we get them to move through it instead of just shutting down and being so upset with themselves for not knowing how to do it. um If your child reads the word correctly, ask if it makes sense in the sentence. But and don't rely on what would make sense in the sentence over reading it correctly.
Speaker: Meaning is essential for comprehension. We're not saying that doesn't matter. It's essential for self-correction. We just don't want that to replace looking at the word, looking at the sounds, looking at the print.
Speaker: So the sequence is read the letters, blend the word, check that the word makes sense, not think of something that makes sense, guess, look at the first letter and then guess. Okay, I hope that helps. in In 1996, adults were already confronting what happens when children are taught to sound like readers instead of being taught how to be a reader.
Speaker: 30 years later, we should not still be asking children to guess their way through books. Children deserve everything that Matilda found in books. Comfort, knowledge, imagination, and power.
Speaker: And they also deserve a Miss Honey, a teacher who sees what they can do, works hard, notices what they still need, and believes they are capable of learning it. We do not need to keep saying it's easier for to teach them just to memorize or to guess. It seems faster. It sure does seem faster in the short term. It is not what is helpful for kids in the long term. And we want to help kids be successful readers for life Your child does not need to read perfectly to be a real reader, but they do deserve instruction that helps them trust themselves and trust the letters they're looking at instead of guessing.
Speaker: So this week, can you try to notice one thing when your child reads? Try to notice, does their answer match the letters on the page, or does it simply match the story pattern? And I promise you, you will be getting a lot of information if you just try to notice that.
Speaker: All right, my friends, that is all I have for you today. i will link a bunch of resources that I mentioned in this episode in the show notes and the blog post if you want to read more about whole language and 3Qing and the reading wars and how the heck are we still in them. But keep up the good work. Keep on fighting for your child and every child to have proper reading instruction. And please share this episode with a friend if you found it helpful.
Speaker: I will see you next Wednesday with another new episode. And as always, if you have any questions, send them our way. Hello at bigcityreaders.com or send me a message on Instagram. I love connecting with you in my DMs.
