Reading the Brain Science

 Recently the term "the science of reading" has grown to be a common buzz-phrase among those who study reading, and how to teach reading. I came across a great article (ironically on social media,) that I found not only interesting, but relevant and comprehensive. 

There's a difference between knowing and reading about "the science of reading" which by nature is empirical in nature, whereas teachers need practical applications for their daily work with students learning to read. In the article I'm sharing, cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham speaks on this topic. He's been mentioned in podcasts I've listened to before, and now I see the relevancy even more in his work. 

I've shared this before that structured literacy is important to the foundation of learning to read. One point in the article that stood out was the idea that teachers of reading must be able to pronounce all 44 sounds in English correctly. This is understandable when teaching early readers since learning the sounds correctly yields sufficient decoding. 

What I also liked about this article were the knowledge and pedagogy points that the author shared that I feel is spot on for teachers, especially those who are looking for more direct examples how to start teaching reading, what must be known beforehand, and what else teachers can research to understand what they should be looking for and assist students with. 

Reading about how the brain works and how we process reading ( a very un-natural process) is an area of interest to me, but as it's explained in the article, most teachers do not have the time to dedicate to join scientists, or read the wealth of existing research, so we must consistently work together to merge the two fields in order to provide the information needed so teachers can effectively apply it to their work. 

My phrase has always been: We work with the brain, and help it to grow, yet we are never taught extensively how it works and how we can better enable it to function more productively. I'd love to hear what others think about the science of reading; what they have seen and read, and what their thoughts are about how teachers can learn about the studies done, and practical classroom applications. 

In the meantime here is the link to this great article, and it will also be added to my list! 

The Science of Reading