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One thing that always comes up for me when I listen to this podcast is to always remember that we have to be critical consumers of what is being put into media, research, etc. We have to consider here that while her initial arguments are valid, she has never been an actual educator but an educational reporter. She has a clear side to her podcast and while I listen I like to keep in mind that there is also research on the other side identifying gaps/misconceptions etc. in what she feels is a better approach to teaching reading. Another thing that resonates here with me is the consideration of the use of the word "Science" in the "Science of Teaching Reading". Excited to hear what you all are thinking!

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Hello Everyone! We will use this board as a collaborative space to share our thoughts and ideas as we listen to the podcast "Sold a Story"

11.1.24 Response/Reflection:

1. Share your connections or ideas that are coming up for you as you consider Emily Hanford's discussion on teaching reading and how it may impact your teaching.

2. Response to at least one of your colleagues reflection ideas/thoughts.

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Podcast Reflection on Episodes one & two

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Podcast Reflection on Episodes one & two

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I really enjoyed the first two episodes of the podcast. The part about likening reading to playing “20 questions” struck a chord with me because I realized that’s how I learned to read independently as a child. I also know that I had access to a rich bank of background knowledge that helped me become a good reader. This is a concept I’d love to implement in my classroom, but I know that not all of my students have a rich source of background knowledge. I’d like to start getting better at helping my kids gain that background knowledge to hopefully help them become better readers.

I would also like to focus more on letter sound relationships while teaching more difficult words. I have noticed a significant amount of my students guess the word rather than taking the time to really sound out a word. Many of them focus on how quickly they can read versus the accuracy of their reading. I need to find an activity that really makes them slow down and look at the words.  I think this podcast has really given me a lot to think about the way I teach reading. I’m excited to start implementing some different strategies.

Lucy brought up a valid point that the woman who did the podcast hasn't been a teacher. It's easy to dissect something from the outside without knowing what it's like for us who work with struggling children every day. I do believe we still have a long way to go in learning what is the "best" way to teach our students because every child is different. I do think we are headed in a positive direction and look forward to implementing some of these practices in my classroom.

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I am younger; I attended elementary school from 2003-2009, but I distinctly remember receiving phonics instruction in K-2 when I was a child. I have watched in real time the removal of phonics instruction and switching to whole word reading/3 cueing when I worked in childcare and completed my degree from 2016-2019.

My first year teaching, the reading curriculum in Bastrop ISD was Fountas & Pinnell; all 12 of my third grade students jumped at least two reading levels by EOY. Of course not all of them were on level, but I still saw a drastic difference from BOY, because I made an effort to include phonics instruction in my guided reading groups no matter what. I definitely tried my best, as that year I was fully virtual.

I have only taught reading for a year and a half, and have taught math and science the rest of the time, so my classroom is slightly different. Reading foundation is crucial in my classroom due to the heavy Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary for each subject. I struggled the most with the chunk in episode 2 where Marie Clay found her differences between "good readers" and "bad readers".

Saying that sounding out the word as the absolute last resort and "beginning readers shouldn't be learning to read words, rather than learning the meaning" absolutely hit me like a ton of bricks.

Phonemic awareness is quite literally the foundation for reading. Phonemes are the smallest unit of sound and the "building blocks" (as I used to tell the kindergarteners I student taught/long term subbed AND my now 5 year old nephew) to words. No blocks=no comprehension.

If I ever were to teach reading again, my goal is to continue heavily with phonics practice to continue working with those building blocks. My goal right now is to put more of an emphasis on academic vocabulary (Tier 3 vocab) so my students are being exposed to more grade level vocab foundations to build higher comprehension and work on higher order thinking.

I look forward to continuing with this podcast!

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This podcast was very thought provoking. I have always had questions about how the curriculum side of education works - who does the research to determine best practices, how they select what goes into our curriculum books and instructional guides, and how they prove it to be effective with students. Listening to Emily Hanford dig into some of those questions and ask her own questions about the system was really interesting.

When she talked to parents and used recordings of students, I found it fascinating to hear how some students approached unknown words and what parents were doing on their end to correct these habits. I was able to recognize things I've seen my own students do when working on learning new sounds and words and it provided me with different viewpoints on how beginning readers approach reading.

The dive into Mary Clay was also really interesting, how she conducted her research and came up with strategies that were so readily accepted by schools across the world without taking a closer look at what evidence she had truly gathered during her observations of beginning readers. It is a little mind blowing to look back and see how her research and implementation of her reading strategies really affected so many beginning readers, and, how it affected teachers in their instruction and view of teaching reading.

After listening to this podcast, it may impact my teaching by understanding more of the misconceptions beginning readers have and how to help correct bad habits and build good reading habits. It helped me reflect on my students' reading journeys and what to look for as I continue to guide them through the year and build their skill set. I really enjoyed listening to these two episodes and found it to be very compelling.

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I really enjoyed listening to the first two episodes of this podcast. It caused me to reflect on my ten years of teaching, and how dramatically the way that I teach reading has changed since I was in college learning how to be a teacher. I was taught to teach reading with the Lucy Caulkins method of the reading and writing workshop, which mostly consisted of many of these strategies that showed students ways to guess the word. I had Beanie Babies that helped cue kids to use an "Eagle Eye" to look at the pictures, or be a "Tryin' Lion" and just try out a word that could make sense. I was actively teaching kids how to pretend they knew how to read, and like the podcast illustrated, while many of them ended up guessing their way into figuring out how to read, there were still plenty of kids that were getting left behind.

Once the Science of Teaching Reading started to gain popularity, I really dove into the importance of teaching explicit phonemic awareness and phonics instruction in my classroom, and the difference that I have seen in my students has been tremendous. By focusing on the importance of letter-sound correspondence, chunking words, etc., in conjunction with vocabulary and making sure students understand and comprehend the meaning behind what they are reading, my students are no longer guessing but are READING. While it was a frustrating thing at the time, I am so grateful that the state of Texas required all K-3rd grade teachers to be SOR Certified, because I think it will work wonders in closing the gap or the "Matthew Effect" that was referenced in Episode 2. I am eager to continue listening to the rest of the series and finding ways to continue applying this knowledge to my teaching.

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I really enjoyed the podcast episodes. It reaffirmed the SoR trainings I did two years ago and the SoR trainings I did when I taught 1st Grade. Reading is highly complex and multifaceted but it also has sequential steps that they referenced, like building upon letter and sound relationships. Students need explicit instruction, exposure and various modalities to practice these foundational skills.

When I first started in 2009, I was taught how to 'teach reading' through the mentioned cueing strategies so listening back to the recordings of the teacher asking kids to guess the word by looking for context clues sounded familiar in the most awful way. I am so happy to see a shift in how we instruct students with a focus on phonemic awareness and phonics. I especially have seen the difference it makes since I've started using Heggerty as our PA for the past several years. I also loved hearing from the older man who learned how to read as an adult, referencing how he used his finger to trace letters to help build memory. We use these strategies all the time in class with our kids and give them as many physical ways to practice these skills.

Meg - I totally resonated with your observation about students wanting to read fast and not focusing on accuracy. I noticed that as well with my first graders when I would do ORFs or with my higher Kinder readers. The idea that speed equals 'good reading' is still such a misconception our students have engrained in them. Fluency, like other reading skills, is multifaceted and includes not only rate but accuracy, intonation and comprehension. I strongly feel that when primary can focus on more foundational skills, it can translate up so that our students build their reading skills in a logical order with correct strategies.

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I really enjoyed listening to this podcast. I know several teachers who have used Reading Recovery and swear by it. But I can see how it could be detrimental in helping students learn to read. And I agree with Lucy in that the author does not have an education background and not having been in a classroom can cause some misconceptions on her part. But the research and stories sure are interesting. I was crying when Dan was explaining how he could not write the note for the dying soldier's mother to read. We often see many of the students on campus struggles and the frustrations/anxiety that reading can cause for them. But to actually hear of a real life situation and emotional response that occurs when a person cannot read or write, well now that is so different. My heart hurts for these students and it makes me realize that our jobs as educators do really make a difference (good/bad).

I have taught the stepping stones to learning reading for so long. The fact that the research showed how letter sound relationships increase activity in the brain for reading and memory. Well, that is so exciting. Moving forward I am going to be even more focused on these areas with my little students. I am excited to continue using the reading/phonics strategies we have been using and to introduce some fun exciting new ones.

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I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Marie Clay and her contribution to education. I had no idea who Dr. Clay was prior to this podcast, but I still wanted to come to her defense and throw a small, sharp rock at Emily Handford for critiques.

From my understanding, Marie Clay wanted to find a way to help struggling readers. It seemed like all the science-based evidence that "disproved" Clay's theory was for learning how to read in general. Not everyone learns the same way and trying to discredit someone's work whose focus was trying to help struggling readers is not fair.

After listening to the podcast, I was left with the following questions:

How did I learn how to read?

How do kids learn how to read nowadays?

How do we teach reading at UTES?

What happened to Hooked on Phonics?