Can we Afford to Ignore the Science of Reading? | Melissa Hostetter | TEDxUofISpringfield

[mishnelson]

"we are not hard wired to read" - thank you Melissa for sharing your expertise and advocating for literacy for all

[CharlottaSisco]

“Why do we ignore the data?” The ten million (trillion) dollar question about why the system fails for any middle or lower class individual. And even then - One should question the data and from where it is sourced.

Beautiful delivery and confidence in presentation. ❤️

[tamarabilly]

Sound Walls, not Word Walls, education is always evolving! Thank you for your inspiring words!

[peggyprice]

As an Orton-Gillingham Fellow and parent of a child with dyslexia, I so appreciate the clarity and passion of your talk! Bravo, bravo! I will share this widely with the teachers who are dedicated to learning the science of reading.

[susannah]

We had guess the word introduced in Australia in the early 80's-my nephew used to stare at the page looking for a clue. He didn't read properly until he was 8 after I taught him to sound out the words. That was 1986-later my daughter had mild dyslexia and she was being taught guess the word. The teacher even lied to us & said they were doing phonetics-but my daughter told me what they did [a volunteer would just tell her the word] that is not reading. So again I had to teach her phonetically-she loves reading now. I [1970] was taught phonetics in grade one and was reading by age 5.

[stephaniemalcolm]

Thank you for this! Wonderfully said! Clear, concise, and a call to action! I will be using this video in our local parent advocacy work!

[vag]

As a teacher of young learners in Taiwan, I teach phonics. I teach it slowly and clearly and always review. My students' progress in reading is amazing. My own children learned reading in a different way. I taught them some phonics but I think the real reason they learned was because we read and read. They loved reading so much and eventually it was obvious that there was no need for all the phonics so I dropped it.

[debbiemeyer]

You hit all the points I hit - economic security, health and public health, and democracy! Ballot initiatives written at 15th grade level. Thanks!

[DazzlingKiwi]

Love this TED Talk. Phenomenal information, which I wish more parents and educators knew. I’m currently writing my personal statement for my doctorate to directly address this issue.

[mattrenwick]

The science of reading (SoR) is not phonics instruction. SoR is an accumulated body of knowledge about what we know right now regarding effective reading instruction; phonics is one part of foundational reading skills, which is a part of teaching and learning how to read. It does not help to conflate the two.

[limlisuang]

Agree. The educator should be provided training to know the science of reading in teaching students to be skilled readers.

[harmonyln]

A lot of this seems to be referring to the 1980s and 90s. How did people before then learn to read so well and what changed?

[debbiemeyer]

Why don't we teach teachers how to teach reading?

[anothercitizen]

I must have been doing balanced literacy all wrong because one of the components of my practice was structured and systematic phonics. When I taught third grade this became more word study that looked at word chunks and chunk meanings. After the decoding children need to make meaning of the connected text to label it an act of reading and not word calling. For example I can teach you German phonics. You’ll be able to decode over 95% of the words. You won’t be able to comprehend a great majority of it. Unfortunately, some people, maybe too many, possibly because they didn’t like teaching phonics, called their practice “balanced” when it was anything but balanced. If you don’t teach phonics you can’t call it balanced.

[willmpet]

My aunt taught first grade in the sixties and she wanted everyone to teach phonics.

[vbeall]

So then what are the best research-based programs out there that incorporate all reading essentials? What trainings should we be asking our admin to send us to that incorporate all 5 portions of SOR?

[cherimcmanus]

Superbly done Melissa! Your efforts do inspire-

[chinasacasmir]

Great talk, I'm venturing into understanding phonics more, because this made me see a new light of reading, or better still - how to read!

[sylviagung]

The deeper problem is in the system itself that is controlled by profit oriented politicians and businesses, and teachers' degrading mentality as teacher (themselves coming- suffering through the education they have received that does not support budding teachers to grow into real teachers with full of teacher spirit).

There aren't too many real teachers, nowadays, and most of the teachers' mentality is no more than glorified tutors or subject technicians.

As every area of human society has been going down the road into corruption, teachers' way has left the post of being the lantern of the society, too ... long ago ... most unfortunately, for humanity.

The new beginning point is that the teachers must see this fact by themselves and wake up to regain the original teacher spirit, and unlearn and relearn what it means by being a teacher, individually. Not only no one can help in this way, but rather, whomever or whatever comes forth as helper is/ are traitor or pester, most likely.
Nothing good trying to help them do better.
They must wake up to themselves. Only way ...

[markgalpin]

'teachers need to be taught' / "teachers are not educated on..." WELL after people say these things it is usually followed by is nothing Showing people how to teach it OR for teachers to teach themselves. What do we need to learn? How do we teach it? How about the nuts and bolts of the instructions.