This week, a podcast came out that is most definitely worth sharing: it’s called Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read?
The author, Emily Hanford, is a correspondent for APM’s (American Public Media) EDUCATE podcast. In a recent email sent to researchers and literacy professionals, she wrote something that I wholeheartedly agree with, and that I think all parents should read:
What I have taken away from nearly two years of reporting is what many of you have known for a long time — we need to train teachers on the science. And we need to have a productive conversation about how to get rid of ill-informed ideas that guide reading instruction in so many schools. The teachers I have talked to want to know how to help their students learn how to read, and as a country (as a world) we should be teaching them how to do that.
Emily’s podcast highlights why it is so important for parents to know enough about how children learn to read that they can support their babies and toddlers and preschoolers before they get to school, and then work in concert with schools to make sure that their elementary-school children get the kind of rigorous instruction they need to become strong readers. It’s not a parent’s job to teach a child to read. It is a parent’s job to help set children up to be successful readers.
To that end, this podcast is worth the 50-minute it takes to listen to. It’s well done, and accessible to all.
Note that there is also a text version with a link below, but it is less comprehensive.
On Educate podcast: https://www.apmreports.org/educate-podcast (Hard Words, 9/10/18)
Hard Words: Why aren’t our kids being taught to read?
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read