Reading instruction is a hot topic
There’s an epidemic of childhood illiteracy in Georgia and throughout the U.S. Poor reading skills are so pervasive that TIME Magazine spotlighted the problem in August of 2022. NPR, The New York Times, APM Reports, and dozens of educational publications have repeatedly sounded the alarm that millions of kids are falling through the cracks. The issue of failed reading instruction—and the push for effective reading instruction—is all over social media, podcasts, websites, magazines, and newspapers. Filmmakers have created multiple documentaries that explore the reasons children struggle—often needlessly—with reading, and how to solve the problem.
WATCH
The Truth About Reading documentary film
Even the trailer is powerful and compelling. This documentary spotlights the poor reading instruction that has created millions of illiterate kids and adults including John Corcoran, a teacher who couldn’t read. The full documentary will premiere soon.
Video trailer: https://youtu.be/_Mgv0cw9tCg
Website: https://thetruthaboutreading.com/
ABC News Report: How phonics is making a comeback as millions of kids struggle to read
September 8, 2023 | Arthur Jones II, Tal Axelrod, and Jay O’Brien | ABC News
“Are you saying that right now in the United States a parent can send their child to school and it’s not guaranteed that they will learn how to read?”
“Yes.”
Jay O’Brien from ABC news examines the reading crisis, traveling around the United States to report on reading failures and successes in this in-depth report.
Watch the report in a new window: https://abcnews.go.com/US/video/inside-americas-literacy-crisis-efforts-change-kids-learn-103015431
The Right to Read: a film about the early reading crisis
This documentary by Director Jenny Mackenzie tells the story of the early reading crisis in America and what we can do about it. It also examines literacy as an issue of social justice and civil rights. The full documentary will premiere soon.
Video trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptUYVHDeHOw
Website: https://www.therighttoreadfilm.org/
Mical documentary film
The film Mical by Silverprince Pictures is based on an inspiring true story of tenacity as a seven-year-old boy struggles to make sense of words on the page. But when Mike is diagnosed with dyslexia and the teachers continue to fail him, his mother takes matters into her own hands to help her son fulfill his true potential.
Watch for just 1 minute and you’ll see how the task of reading is like torture for some children: https://youtu.be/1LJkJrCxgLE?t=375
Watch the whole film (19 minutes): https://youtu.be/1LJkJrCxgLE
READ or LISTEN
Inside the Massive Effort to Change the Way Kids Are Taught to Read
By Belinda Luscombe in TIME Magazine | August 11, 2022
https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/
Podcast + Article: Why Millions Of Kids Can’t Read and What Better Teaching Can Do About It by Emily Hanford
By Emily Hanford from American Public Media | Featured on NPR Morning Edition January 2, 2019
Podcast (with transcript): Sold a Story: How Teaching Kids to Read Went So Wrong
By Emily Hanford on APM Reports
Journalist Emily Hanford is producing a podcast series about failed reading instruction.
https://features.apmreports.org/sold-a-story/
Episode 1: The Problem | Episode 2: The Idea | Episode 3: The Battle | Episode 4: The Superstar | Episode 5: The Company
“There’s an idea about how children learn to read that’s held sway in schools for more than a generation — even though it was proven wrong by cognitive scientists decades ago. Teaching methods based on this idea can make it harder for children to learn how to read. In this podcast, host Emily Hanford investigates the influential authors who promote this idea and the company that sells their work. It’s an exposé of how educators came to believe in something that isn’t true and are now reckoning with the consequences — children harmed, money wasted, an education system upended.”
Podcast + Article series about reading instruction
By Emily Hanford on APM Reports
Journalist Emily Hanford has produced 4 audio documentaries about the way children are taught to read.
All the articles together: https://www.apmreports.org/reading
Hard Words: Why aren’t our kids being taught to read? | Sept. 2018
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2018/09/10/hard-words-why-american-kids-arent-being-taught-to-read
At a Loss for Words: What’s wrong with how schools teach reading | Aug. 2019
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2019/08/22/whats-wrong-how-schools-teach-reading
What the Words Say: Children of color are less likely to get help | Aug. 2020
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/2020/08/06/what-the-words-say
Hard to Read: How American schools fail kids with dyslexia | Sept. 2017
https://www.apmreports.org/story/2017/09/11/hard-to-read
Teaching Reading IS Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able to Do
By Louisa C. Moats in American Educator | Summer 2020
https://www.aft.org/ae/summer2020/moats
The Biggest Threat to Our Democracy: Illiteracy and the Science-Deniers Who Contribute to it
By Kareem Weaver on Core Learning | September 25, 2019
https://edsource.org/2022/a-movement-rises-to-change-the-teaching-of-reading/675989
I Embraced the Science of Reading and Why You Should Too
by Ernesto Ortiz, Jr. on Decoding Leadership | December 30, 2019
https://decodingedleadership.com/2019/12/30/embracethescienceofreading/
Of ‘Hard Words’ and Straw Men: Let’s Understand What Reading Science is Really About
by Dr. Louisa Moats on Voyager Sopris Learning | October 16, 2019
Casualties of the Reading Wars
By Dale Chu on National Review | August 11, 2022
https://www.nationalreview.com/magazine/2022/08/29/casualties-of-the-reading-wars/
REAP Timeline
2010-2012
- Friends Jeremy Rhett, Jennifer Rhett, and Carla Stanford, worry over reading proficiency in public school students.
October 2012
- Carla takes a class in the Orton-Gillingham Approach to reading instruction and begins successfully implementing the strategies in her 1st grade public school classrooms.
January 2013
- Jeremy, Jen, and Carla realize the best way to reach struggling readers is through their most valuable resource—their teachers.
- REAP is born!
- REAP will fund training for public school teachers in the foundations of reading instruction, specifically multisensory, systematic, and direct phonics instruction.
February – April 2013
- REAP receives 35 applications from public school teachers, and partners with the Decatur Education Foundation and IDA-GA to fund the training for 12 public school teachers.
- REAP partners with The Schenck School to provide the training using nationally recognized experts.
February 2014
- REAP receives over 100 applications and raises over $95,000.
- REAP partners with The Swift School and GeorgiaETA to provide additional nationally recognized instructors for the training.
Fall 2014
- 74 public school teachers enter the training program.
December 2014
- REAP joins the national organization Coalition for Reading Excellence.
Winter 2014-15
- REAP for Roswell, a committee developed to raise funds for training teachers in Roswell and throughout Fulton County, kicks off the year by hosting an awareness event and raising funds to train teachers in Roswell and Fulton County schools.
Spring 2015
- Teachers are overwhelmingly thrilled with the training and the results they are seeing in the classroom with typical, advanced, and struggling readers.
March 2015
- REAP receives 216 applications for training and accepts 94 teachers.
Fall 2015
- REAP begins shoulder-to-shoulder coaching and modeling to further the development of teachers already trained.
