1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,640 This is the Reading Instruction Show. I am your host as always Dr. Andy Johnson. 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:12,980 The topic of today's podcast is Disresearchly. Now, did you ever notice 3 00:00:12,980 --> 00:00:17,860 that those people making all the new laws about teaching children how to read? 4 00:00:17,860 --> 00:00:24,380 See never to have actually taught children how to read? Yet there they go 5 00:00:24,380 --> 00:00:29,220 making all the rules about reading instruction based on a whole lot of 6 00:00:29,220 --> 00:00:37,800 anecdotal evidence, personal experience, and a bunch of I thinkisms. Now the irony 7 00:00:37,800 --> 00:00:46,160 is that science, real science, not the fake kind used in radio documentaries, is 8 00:00:46,160 --> 00:00:54,160 a process used to avoid I thinkisms. It's used to get above anecdotal evidence, 9 00:00:54,160 --> 00:01:00,740 personal experience, and I thinkisms which get in the way of perceptions. What 10 00:01:00,740 --> 00:01:05,000 do you mean germs they said? There's no such thing as germs. Use your common 11 00:01:05,000 --> 00:01:11,440 sense. You just reach right in there with your hand and pull it out. Science of 12 00:01:11,440 --> 00:01:16,840 reading advocates are wallowing in the very thing that real science seeks to 13 00:01:16,840 --> 00:01:24,480 get above. I thinkisms. What's called the science of reading is an actuality, the 14 00:01:24,480 --> 00:01:31,960 I thinkisms of reading. And here's the most unsciency science of reading ever. 15 00:01:31,960 --> 00:01:38,320 They've determined that there was a problem that wasn't. Reading, not based 16 00:01:38,320 --> 00:01:45,000 on any real research, but on data pulled out of context and I thinkisms. They 17 00:01:45,000 --> 00:01:50,240 defined the cause of the problem that wasn't a problem as not a nephonics. And 18 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:56,480 they determined the single solution for the problem that was not a problem, 19 00:01:56,480 --> 00:02:04,040 morphotics. But we should not make fun of those in the science of reading 20 00:02:04,040 --> 00:02:12,920 movement. Many have a condition called dysresearchlia. Dysresearchlia is an 21 00:02:12,920 --> 00:02:20,480 unwillingness to read or an inability to understand reading research. It impacts 22 00:02:20,480 --> 00:02:28,360 3 to 5% of the population and contrary to popular belief, it's not a brain 23 00:02:28,360 --> 00:02:35,040 disorder. That is, even though brain imaging research has shown there to be 24 00:02:35,040 --> 00:02:41,360 anomalies in the brains of dysresearchliax, with basic educational 25 00:02:41,360 --> 00:02:49,200 research courses, these anomalies largely disappear. Also, scientists have 26 00:02:49,200 --> 00:02:55,240 proven that listening to Dr. Johnson's podcast helps to mitigate the effects of 27 00:02:55,240 --> 00:03:03,040 dysresearchlia in 75.3% of the cases. Further, researchers have shown that 28 00:03:03,040 --> 00:03:10,280 reading his books cures dysresearchlia in 98.7% of the cases. And 29 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:17,000 these are real researchers and scientists, the ones who wear white lab 30 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:22,520 coats and do commercials about toothpaste and bent carrots on TVs, not 31 00:03:22,520 --> 00:03:30,280 those fake ones who publish in academic journals. Now, dysresearchliax make up a 32 00:03:30,280 --> 00:03:35,960 disproportionate number of people within the science of reading movement. There's 33 00:03:35,960 --> 00:03:41,360 a correlation coefficient of 0.8 between science of reading membership and 34 00:03:41,360 --> 00:03:49,640 dysresearchlia. So, what are we to assume? We are to assume that the science of 35 00:03:49,640 --> 00:03:56,480 reading causes dysresearchlia. Just like they say phonemic awareness causes 36 00:03:56,480 --> 00:04:04,320 reading achievement, science of reading causes dysresearchlia. Now, early diagnosis 37 00:04:04,320 --> 00:04:11,800 can help people with dysresearchlia look for the signs. Do they start quoting 38 00:04:11,800 --> 00:04:17,440 Emily Hanford? Do they start talking about scientists proving things about 39 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:24,320 reading? Do they go around debunking things? Do they send you things published 40 00:04:24,320 --> 00:04:29,760 in Education Week or by the National Council on Teacher Quality? And do they 41 00:04:29,760 --> 00:04:37,920 say research says, research says, without citing any research? These are some of the 42 00:04:37,920 --> 00:04:45,000 early signs. Now, here's another thing. Besides dysresearchlia, there's another 43 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:52,320 condition known as clownism. Clownism is where a person begins to think they know 44 00:04:52,320 --> 00:04:59,080 much about reading instruction when in fact they know very little. And clownism 45 00:04:59,080 --> 00:05:06,040 spreads when one clown infects others and their unknowing spreads. And currently 46 00:05:06,040 --> 00:05:13,320 there's a near epidemic of clown-based unknowing. We would normally laugh at 47 00:05:13,320 --> 00:05:20,360 clowns, but in this case, clowns are impacting real children. And it's not 48 00:05:20,360 --> 00:05:26,600 really very funny. Money that could be spent on things that would actually 49 00:05:26,600 --> 00:05:32,920 improve learning and reading achievement is being diverted to things that only 50 00:05:32,920 --> 00:05:39,560 serve to enrich big publishing. This is money that could be spent on healthcare, 51 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:46,040 nutrition, smaller class sizes, good books in the classroom, and legitimate 52 00:05:46,040 --> 00:05:53,040 teacher professional development. These are all things that impact reading 53 00:05:53,040 --> 00:06:01,120 achievement much more than any reading program or method. And yet the unknowing 54 00:06:01,120 --> 00:06:10,320 clownery continues. They say we're just one or two reading laws away from having 55 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:16,840 really good reading instruction. If we're able to just insert enough standards 56 00:06:16,840 --> 00:06:22,040 into teacher preparation programs, they say, all our reading problems will be 57 00:06:22,040 --> 00:06:28,960 solved and everybody will be reading above average. Funnics, they say, it's been 58 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:36,280 proven. Now the result of such clown-based thinking is that good reading 59 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:42,800 teachers are being overruled, disempowered, and driven from the classroom. And the 60 00:06:42,800 --> 00:06:51,160 equity and achievement gap widens. Now central theme. One are the central 61 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:57,880 themes of the clown group is that they think children learn to read by 62 00:06:57,880 --> 00:07:04,240 accumulating a whole bunch of teeny tiny sounding outward reading sub skills. And 63 00:07:04,240 --> 00:07:10,360 if children just master a whole bunch of teeny tiny sounding outward reading 64 00:07:10,360 --> 00:07:17,240 sub skills, they'll be able to put it all together someday and read. And the 65 00:07:17,240 --> 00:07:23,000 clowns insist that young children must be taught things like diagraphs and 66 00:07:23,000 --> 00:07:27,960 diphthongs and vowel protectors, controlled our vowels, 67 00:07:27,960 --> 00:07:35,600 syllabification, syllable types, closed syllables, accents, and the schwa sound. 68 00:07:35,600 --> 00:07:41,640 They must be taught these things, they say, using direct instruction with input, 69 00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:48,000 modeling, guided practice, independent practice, and review. And once mastered, 70 00:07:48,000 --> 00:07:56,280 they'll be readers at the end. It just makes sense, they say. To teach complex 71 00:07:56,280 --> 00:08:02,280 things, they say, you break them down into small little puzzle pieces and teach 72 00:08:02,280 --> 00:08:09,440 each puzzle piece explicitly. And after you teach all the puzzle pieces, children 73 00:08:09,440 --> 00:08:15,080 are magically able to put it all together and read just like that. It just 74 00:08:15,080 --> 00:08:22,000 makes sense. The clowns and disresearches tell me you learn to read by learning how 75 00:08:22,000 --> 00:08:27,520 to sound out words. And the reason children can't read is because they can't 76 00:08:27,520 --> 00:08:32,040 sound out words. And the reason they can't sound out words is because they 77 00:08:32,040 --> 00:08:36,240 aren't being taught to sound out words. And the reason they're not being taught 78 00:08:36,240 --> 00:08:40,400 to sound out words is because college professors are not teaching their 79 00:08:40,400 --> 00:08:45,480 students how to teach sounding out words. And the reason why professors aren't 80 00:08:45,480 --> 00:08:50,080 teaching sounding out word strategies is because they're all sleeper agents, 81 00:08:50,080 --> 00:08:55,520 intent on bringing about the downfall of capitalism, organized religion, and 82 00:08:55,520 --> 00:09:04,120 Western civilization. It just makes sense, they say. However, there are real 83 00:09:04,120 --> 00:09:10,160 literacy scholars and researchers. They've known quite a lot of things about 84 00:09:10,160 --> 00:09:16,560 effective reading instruction decades before Emily Hanford ever appeared on 85 00:09:16,560 --> 00:09:23,080 the radio to teach us all about reading instruction. Thank you, Emily. She came to 86 00:09:23,080 --> 00:09:29,520 save us from our ignorance. But here are five things that real literacy 87 00:09:29,520 --> 00:09:34,880 scholars and researchers have known for quite a long time. Number one, balanced 88 00:09:34,880 --> 00:09:41,880 literacy instruction is effective. Real literacy scholars and researchers have 89 00:09:41,880 --> 00:09:47,520 known for decades that there needs to be a balance between teaching teeny tiny 90 00:09:47,520 --> 00:09:53,760 reading sub skills and practice using them in authentic reading contexts. In 91 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:59,760 every reading class there needs to be some direct skills instruction, but there 92 00:09:59,760 --> 00:10:04,840 also needs to be much more of other stuff, including and most importantly, 93 00:10:04,840 --> 00:10:11,280 reading lots and lots and lots of good books at children's independent reading 94 00:10:11,280 --> 00:10:18,840 level and below. Even the National Reading Panel recommends that phonics be 95 00:10:18,840 --> 00:10:26,320 part of a balanced literacy program. And exactly how much direct skills 96 00:10:26,320 --> 00:10:31,120 instruction is needed and how much reading? Well, it all depends on the student, 97 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:36,440 doesn't it? Number two, there are no reading wars. 98 00:10:36,440 --> 00:10:42,280 Headline cell papers, it gets hits for podcasts and things, but it's a false 99 00:10:42,280 --> 00:10:49,880 binary that was made to create chaos and confusion. Villains are identified to 100 00:10:49,880 --> 00:10:57,600 rally the masses, but there are no real reading wars. In academic circles, among 101 00:10:57,600 --> 00:11:04,560 real literacy scholars and researchers, there may be differences in emphasis, but 102 00:11:04,560 --> 00:11:10,880 this idea that you're either for phonics or balanced literacy, you're either a 103 00:11:10,880 --> 00:11:17,960 phonics teacher or a whole language teacher, is patently absurd. It's one of 104 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:23,360 the greatest unknowings perpetuated by clowns and disresearchly acts. 105 00:11:23,360 --> 00:11:30,480 Balanced literacy and whole language approaches both include phonics 106 00:11:30,480 --> 00:11:37,280 instruction. Balanced literacy includes phonics instruction. Whole language 107 00:11:37,280 --> 00:11:44,720 approaches include phonics instruction. Phonics instruction is simply one tool 108 00:11:44,720 --> 00:11:52,400 that's used to enable students to become fully literate. Now it's like saying, 109 00:11:52,400 --> 00:11:59,280 are you in favor of nine irons or golf clubs? A nine iron is part of a set of 110 00:11:59,280 --> 00:12:04,800 golf clubs. Good golfers use the nine iron only at certain times and in 111 00:12:04,800 --> 00:12:11,720 certain situations. Well, nine irons have been proven to work, they say. Yes, nine 112 00:12:11,720 --> 00:12:16,960 irons work in certain situations for certain shots, but it doesn't work for 113 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:21,480 all shots and that doesn't mean you should play all your golf with only a 114 00:12:21,480 --> 00:12:29,800 nine iron. And the analogy here is apt. Clowns and disresearchly acts want 115 00:12:29,800 --> 00:12:35,000 early reading instruction to consist primarily of direct skills instruction 116 00:12:35,000 --> 00:12:40,000 focusing on phonics and phonemic awareness. In other words, they've passed 117 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:46,360 laws, reading laws, that restrict teachers to carrying only one club in their 118 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:53,920 golf bag to teach reading. Reading laws that are a one-club solution. They want 119 00:12:53,920 --> 00:12:59,720 teachers to have just one tool in their teaching toolbox instead of many. 120 00:12:59,720 --> 00:13:06,040 Abraham Maslow once said, if the only tool you have is a hammer, all the world 121 00:13:06,040 --> 00:13:11,880 becomes a nail. And I say, if the only tool you have for teaching reading is 122 00:13:11,880 --> 00:13:19,160 phonics instruction, all the world becomes a phonics worksheet. The third 123 00:13:19,160 --> 00:13:25,160 idea, passing laws about reading instruction will not be effective. And 124 00:13:25,160 --> 00:13:31,120 we've seen this movie before. The last iteration was the reading first 125 00:13:31,120 --> 00:13:37,640 initiative of the early 2000s. Billions of dollars and countless teacher hours 126 00:13:37,640 --> 00:13:45,320 were spent on nothing. But the untested hypothesis proposed by the clowns and 127 00:13:45,320 --> 00:13:50,480 disresearchly acts is that passing massive sounding out word laws and 128 00:13:50,480 --> 00:13:56,600 mandating strict sounding out word instruction will make reading achievement 129 00:13:56,600 --> 00:14:04,160 test scores suddenly rise like bars of ivory soap in the bathtub. But that's an 130 00:14:04,160 --> 00:14:11,760 untested hypothesis based on a whole lot of I thinkisms. However, I will check in 131 00:14:11,760 --> 00:14:17,520 with you clowns and disresearchly acts. We'll look at any p data five years from 132 00:14:17,520 --> 00:14:23,160 now. Not state criterion reference tests. Those aren't good for longitudinal 133 00:14:23,160 --> 00:14:28,320 comparisons or state to state comparisons. And a p data uses norm 134 00:14:28,320 --> 00:14:35,160 reference tests. So mark your calendars for October 23rd, 2028. I'll be doing my 135 00:14:35,160 --> 00:14:42,040 big I told you so but you wouldn't listen podcast. The fourth thing, teachers 136 00:14:42,040 --> 00:14:49,080 are being adequately prepared to begin to learn how to teach reading. In most 137 00:14:49,080 --> 00:14:54,600 teacher preparation programs we have three semesters plus student teaching to 138 00:14:54,600 --> 00:15:00,680 get students ready. Besides all of the educational psychology and human 139 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:05,120 development stuff, there's reading methods and math methods and social 140 00:15:05,120 --> 00:15:11,000 studies methods and assessment methods and other things. There's no way any 141 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:16,600 teacher program, any teacher preparation program can create a finished 142 00:15:16,600 --> 00:15:24,600 teaching product in three years let alone three semesters. Instead, we prepare 143 00:15:24,600 --> 00:15:31,400 teachers to begin the journey and this shows the need for legitimate teacher 144 00:15:31,400 --> 00:15:36,880 professional development and not the slot put out by the for-profit such as 145 00:15:36,880 --> 00:15:45,080 letters but real legitimate professional development for teachers. Teachers are 146 00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:49,360 being adequately prepared to teach reading but this does not mean we can't 147 00:15:49,360 --> 00:15:55,920 do better. We always can. And the fifth thing, there is no massive reading 148 00:15:55,920 --> 00:16:04,360 crisis. Comparing longitudinal and a EP reading scores since 1972 shows that 149 00:16:04,360 --> 00:16:10,240 reading scores have remained steady or risen slightly. There is no massive 150 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:16,640 reading crisis. However, data has been pulled out of context, research has been 151 00:16:16,640 --> 00:16:22,360 misinterpreted and isolated studies have been used to create the illusion. 152 00:16:22,360 --> 00:16:28,000 There's no massive crisis but that does not mean we can't do better. So five 153 00:16:28,000 --> 00:16:34,680 points that we all know. One, balanced literacy is effective. Two, there are no 154 00:16:34,680 --> 00:16:39,680 reading wars. Three, passing laws about reading instruction will not be 155 00:16:39,680 --> 00:16:46,680 effective. Four, by and large teachers are being adequately prepared to begin to 156 00:16:46,680 --> 00:16:54,080 learn how to teach reading. And five, there is no massive reading crisis. This 157 00:16:54,080 --> 00:16:59,880 has been the Reading Instruction Show. I am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.