“The mind is a wonderful thing though it can be tough to change once habits set in, especially those rooted in the body, the brain, and the surround. I worry about overzealous early reading instruction that robs children of the opportunity to build effective habits of mind.”
🙏Thank you for this!! Your posts are so thoughtful, so clearly and respectfully articulated. I have been trying to find my own ‘middle ground’- to navigate the messy slurry of information I feel is being ‘thrown’ at me by some SOR advocates. What I’m realizing is that it’s not so much the ‘stuff’ that’s being disagreed upon, it’s the insistence that THIS is the only path I should be running on (or walking, as it would be in my case as I don’t do ‘running’...😉 ).
Perhaps the focus needs to be turned towards examining the instructional contexts/ patterns of discourse promote BOTH learner agency and skill development? (Interactive writing approaches, shared reading models, etc).
That’s what I plan to do in any case.
In which case, I guess I have found my own ‘middle ground’.
Thank you, Marnie. In many ways, the patented SoR version of reading nowadays is more challenging than it was in the 1990s. The level of organization today, the media biases, and the strategy of using state legislation as a weapon turned the phonics only folks into real trouble. The balance metaphor was the first casualty. You are right on. Teachers need to have a license to practice metacognition, too. Thanks so much for the feedback. I hope I’m able to provide some value for teachers. Teachers in the end will save us.
You’ve got a firm grip on the reality of teaching reading in the context of literacy in a world where agency is a key—just as much as phonics. I’d love to know more about what you think about writing in the classroom. Once I’ve exhausted everything I have to say about this phonics challenge (I shouldn’t blame phonics…) I want to go there. On the metaphor of balance, it seems that there ought to be a way to balance reading and writing on the fulcrum of agency.—always acknowledging the teacher’s role innproviding the pedagogical metacognition.
“The mind is a wonderful thing though it can be tough to change once habits set in, especially those rooted in the body, the brain, and the surround. I worry about overzealous early reading instruction that robs children of the opportunity to build effective habits of mind.”
🙏Thank you for this!! Your posts are so thoughtful, so clearly and respectfully articulated. I have been trying to find my own ‘middle ground’- to navigate the messy slurry of information I feel is being ‘thrown’ at me by some SOR advocates. What I’m realizing is that it’s not so much the ‘stuff’ that’s being disagreed upon, it’s the insistence that THIS is the only path I should be running on (or walking, as it would be in my case as I don’t do ‘running’...😉 ).
Perhaps the focus needs to be turned towards examining the instructional contexts/ patterns of discourse promote BOTH learner agency and skill development? (Interactive writing approaches, shared reading models, etc).
That’s what I plan to do in any case.
In which case, I guess I have found my own ‘middle ground’.
🙏Marnie
Thank you, Marnie. In many ways, the patented SoR version of reading nowadays is more challenging than it was in the 1990s. The level of organization today, the media biases, and the strategy of using state legislation as a weapon turned the phonics only folks into real trouble. The balance metaphor was the first casualty. You are right on. Teachers need to have a license to practice metacognition, too. Thanks so much for the feedback. I hope I’m able to provide some value for teachers. Teachers in the end will save us.
You’ve got a firm grip on the reality of teaching reading in the context of literacy in a world where agency is a key—just as much as phonics. I’d love to know more about what you think about writing in the classroom. Once I’ve exhausted everything I have to say about this phonics challenge (I shouldn’t blame phonics…) I want to go there. On the metaphor of balance, it seems that there ought to be a way to balance reading and writing on the fulcrum of agency.—always acknowledging the teacher’s role innproviding the pedagogical metacognition.