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The Reading Canon Wiki!

 

 

  • The purpose of this wiki is to develop a list of authors and works that teachers of reading in k-5th grade should have read

 

 

In this study, the National Council on Teacher Quality makes a unique effort to learn what aspiring teachers are taught about reading instruction. From a randomly selected, representative sample of 72 education schools, NCTQ reviewed 222 required reading courses, including evaluations of syllabi as well as 226 required reading texts. Schools were scored on how well their courses presented the core components of the science of reading. The findings are alarming. Only 15 percent of the education schools provide future teachers with minimal exposure to the science. Moreover, course syllabi reveal a tendency to dismiss the scientific research in reading, continuing to espouse approaches to reading that will not serve up to 40 percent of all children. Course texts were equally disappointing. Only four of the 226 texts were rated as “acceptable” for use as a general, comprehensive textbook. This distressing trend in teacher training demands attention from federal and state governments, professional organizations dedicated to improving and supporting education schools, textbook publishers, and educations schools themselves. The report closes with recommendations to ameliorate this serious failure in adequately preparing teachers in the best practices of reading instruction.

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The philosophy behind this wiki is that a well-educated person has read authors on,and considered both sides of, any given position (assuming that there were only two).

 

In this context, we reject the labels "whole language" and "phonics" because those terms short-circuit thinking. I propose new labels: the "natural school" and the "learned mastery school"?

 

The Natural School's presuppositions

  • Reading is a natural act, analagous to the mastery of spoken language
  • Children will learn to read without explicit instruction if exposed to good literature

 

The Learned Mastery School's presuppositions

  • Reading is a cultural construct, not an innate human skill like language mastery
  • Reading is comprised of specific sub-skills, which need to be taught explicitly

 

 

Wikis are community works. If you would like to edit this page, or add another page, the password is canon.

 

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