Weekly Reading Tips to Share and Info about Dr. Mary Ann Wolf
12/27/2020 11:22 am
Weekly Reading Tip to Share
Please feel free to copy and paste into your website and newsletters. In each Letters are Characters newsletter, I will provide text you can use to demystify reading; protect children from reading struggles/failure and help create community solutions for the American reading crisis. Together, we can make a difference.
Reading Tip #1: Reading pathways need to be formed in the brain. Reading acquisition is independent of intelligence. How fast one reads when given instruction depends on neuropathways. This means some children require more multi-sensory, explicit and repetitive instruction. ALL children learn best with explicit instruction on letter sounds and language structure when learning to read and nearly every child can learn to read at an average or better level if taught in a way that enables them to learn. Children who struggle with reading acquisition are often told to work harder but it is the adults that need to teach differently.
Weekly Reading Researcher in the Spotlight - Dr. Mary Ann Wolf
Dr. Mary Ann Wolf is one of the top reading researchers in the world. Listen to or watch her talk:
Wolf, Maryanne. 2008. The Story and Science of the Reading Brain. New York: Harper.
This book presents an important perspective on what reading does for us, how it shapes and changes our minds, thoughts, and brains. The exploration of reading as an occasion with the self that is both generative and transformative is illuminating. The last third of the book presents a comprehensive look at reading disorders/dyslexia. The section first explores the damage that is done to children because educators are often ill-equipped to help them.
“You will never understand what it feels like to be dyslexic. No matter how long you have worked in this area, no matter if your own children are dyslexic, you will never understand what it feels like to be humiliated your entire childhood and taught every day to believe that you will never succeed at anything (p. 165).” (Quote from Jackie Stewart, Scottish race car driver.)
“Children with any form of dyslexia are not ‘dumb’ or ‘stubborn’: nor are they ‘not working to potential’─the three most frequent descriptions they endure. However, they will be mistakenly described in these ways many times by many people, including themselves. It is vital for parents and teachers to work to ensure that all children with any form of reading problem receive immediate, intensive intervention and that no child or adult equates reading problems with low intelligence. A comprehensive support system should be in place from the first indication of difficulty until the child becomes an independent, fluent reader, or the frustrations of reading failure can lead to a cycle of learning failure, dropping out and delinquency. Most important the considerable potential of these children will be lost to themselves and to society (p. 194).”
Wolf stresses the fact that we know how to teach these children, and it is our failure if we don’t. Rapid automatized naming (RAN) tests are discussed as an effective way to identify those who my be struggling readers even before they begin to read (see pages 283–285).
