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Phonics Reading
Children in the US are taught to decode letters and sound out words. -
The Invention of Whole Word Literacy
Horace Mann - "the father of American education" - advocates for whole word reading. This means readers look at the entire word for meaning, rather than individual letters/groups to sound out the word. -
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Whole Word Reading
Debates about literacy education begin in the 1800s until the 1940s, when children in the US are taught to memorize words as whole, visual chunks. -
Why Johnny Can't Read
Publication - "Why Johnny Can't Read - And What You Can Do About It" - about the lack of phonics instruction in American schools leading to reduced reading abilities and scores across the nation. -
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The Reading Wars
A national debate began about the best approach for literacy instruction. This debate continues with updated information, research, and experiences. -
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The Science of Reading
A scientific approach to reading research and understanding was created to develop the most effective, researched literacy instruction method. -
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New Zealand's "Little Books"
Whole Language-like books are published in New Zealand under a new literacy system that focuses entirely on understanding meaning, not text. -
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Reading Research
Research with eye-tracking and brain scans were uncovering the fact that good readers did not skip letters or ignore decoding - decoding was exactly what good readers did. Looking at the letters and connecting to sound was the first and best step in reading, not the last "cue". -
Reading Recovery in New Zealand
Marie Clay invents a program to help struggling readers gain literacy - by guessing at words based on pictures and context clues. She called this "3-cueing", which first asks students to guess an unknown word based on context (what is the story/sentence about?), then based on grammatical information (is it a noun or verb?), then finally by looking at the letters of the word (can you decode it or guess what it is based on the first letter?). -
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Reading Recovery in America
Marie Clay comes to the US with the 3-cueing reading method, beginning at Ohio State University. What began as an attempt to help struggling readers became the process for teaching all reading across the US. This spread, despite being disproven by research and reading science. -
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Dame Marie Clay
Marie Clay is treated as an international hero as Reading Recovery becomes the premiere reading program in New Zealand, Australia, UK, and the US - found in 1 in 5 schools in the country, across 49 states. It is also referred to as the Whole Language or 3-cueing approach. -
The President & Reading Recovery
President Bill Clinton raves about the impact and success of Reading Recovery in US schools, despite declining reading scores. -
The President & Phonics Instruction
President George W. Bush advocates for phonics-based instruction after reading research is widely publicized, pushing the Reading First Initiative and the No Child Left Behind Act. But Reading Recovery publishers denounce the Initiative and push Reading Recovery-based instruction harder, diminishing the impact of reading research. -
The Pandemic & School at Home
The pandemic caused schooling to come home, where many parents of young children realized that their kids weren't reading - and the teaching method was training them to guess and memorize instead of decode. Despite positive reports from schools, children were not learning the code of literacy because reading teachers had been taught the wrong thing. -
Sold A Story
American Public Media releases the podcast "Sold A Story", breaking open the history and misinformation of reading instruction in the US. The multi-year investigation shines light on researchers, publishers, and educators. This includes those who have lied about results and motives, as well as researchers and educators who have advocated for science and literacy instruction. Stuck in between are the parents and teachers without the knowledge and experience to effectively support their children. -
Reading Today
Reading Wars continue with Reading Recovery publishers still pushing disproven literacy instruction methods. Decades of instructional habits do not change easily or cheaply, leading to layers of misinformation, falsified data, unclear governmental policies, and biased approaches to scientific concepts. States and schools are slow to change, though many are changing, including Ohio, the birthplace of Reading Recovery in the US. State-mandated science-based reading testing is initiated for 2024.