My favorite thing to do is read. I am utterly enchanted by the written word and have been a voracious reader since second grade (before that, to hear my mom tell it, it was like pulling teeth to get me to read). I guess something just clicked in second grade. So when a long-ago friend posted on her social media account about a podcast called Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong, I was immediately intrigued.
First, Some Background
Before we get into the nitty-gritty, let me be honest about an important detail: I am not an educator. Although I am pursuing an MSEd in Learning Design and Technology, I always have worked in and plan to return to corporate training and development, not K-12 or higher education. I am by no means an expert in how to teach children to read. But I am a parent of three children who have learned to read and are currently being educated in the public school system. In that way, I feel I have a voice in this discussion. Furthermore, the point of this piece is to share what I learned, how I see it playing out in my own home, and provide avenues for others to explore the information.
How I (and Probably You) Learned to Read
When I learned to read, I remember phonics instruction. Phonics is the “understanding that there is a predictable relationship between the sounds of spoken language, and the letters and spellings that represent those sounds in written language” (Phonics and Decoding, n.d.). You probably remember this too – “sound it out – C-A-T, cat!” We learned the sounds that the letters make and our brains were able to connect those sounds to the letters we knew and the knowledge we already had – which includes the whole word “cat” and the general concept of “cats.”
According to Schunk’s explanations of research beginning with Chomsky, “researchers have investigated the role of deep structures containing prototypical representations of language structure…Chomsky postulated that the capacity for acquiring deep structures is innately human” (Schunk, 2020, pp. 223-224). So, basically, how I interpret this, is that human brains are made for understanding language. But according to the Sold a Story podcast:
Research shows that learning how to say words is different than learning how to read them. We are not born with brains that are wired to read. Human beings can get really good at reading. But our brains have to change for us to become good readers. And sounding out written words is a key part of this process. (Hanford, 2022)
Is That How Kids Are Still Learning to Read?
I guess that explains the role of phonics in reading instruction, but according to Sold a Story…that’s not the whole story. In the podcast, Emily Hanford, the host, says that a New Zealand educator named Marie Clay developed a method of teaching reading that was founded on an idea: “Beginning readers don’t have to sound out words. They can. But they don’t have to because there are other ways to figure out what the words say. That’s it. That’s the idea” (Hanford, 2022).
What Other Ways Are There?
Hanford goes on to explain the three-cueing system that sprung out of this idea. By looking at context (meaning), syntax (sentence structure), and visual information (letters in the word – importantly, not the sounds, but the visual), kids can figure out what words are and what sentences say (Hanford, 2022).
Later in the podcast, Hanford goes on to reveal that these strategies used by readers actually represent strategies used by struggling readers and that “by the 1990s, it was clear form the research that Clay’s theory of how good reading works wasn’t right” (Hanford, 2022). The body of research referenced, and discussed at length throughout the podcast, is the evidence-based “science of reading.” It has become a hot-button issue in the last few years.
How My Kids Read
My boys all read well. But they’re not equally strong readers. While this is obviously expected because they are different people, I notice that one of my sons uses one of the cueing strategies frequently when he encounters large or complicated, unfamiliar words. I noticed it before but prior to listening to the Sold a Story podcast, I didn’t think much of it, assuming he would move past it. But after listening to this series and understanding a little more about why he uses that strategy, I now focus more intentionally on steering him towards “sounding it out” and actually reading the letters rather than simply guessing a word with some of the same letters in it that he thinks might make sense in the context.
How Does the Story End?
I can’t tell you how this story ends, since the public education system has been affected by legal requirements regarding the science of reading (check out this EdWeek article for more information). I also encourage you to listen to the Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong podcast. It was fascinating, even for me – a parent who is not an educator, and the Sold a Story website provides a variety of resources for additional information on the subject.
Hanford, E. (Host). (2022, October 20). The idea (No. 2) [Audio podcast episode]. In Sold a story: How teaching kids to read went so wrong. American Public Media. https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2022/10/20/sold-a-story-e2-the-idea
Krukau, Y. (2021, July 4). Woman reading a book to the children. [Photograph]. Pexels. https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-reading-a-book-to-the-children-8613089/
Phonics and decoding. (n.d.). Reading Rockets. Retrieved April 9, 2024 from https://www.readingrockets.org/topics/phonics-and-decoding
Schunk, D. H. (2020). Learning theories: An educational perspective (8th ed). Pearson.