3E Reading

Please follow Paul. He is a legend in this field and worth your attention.

This teacher-turned-cognitive scientist shared a disturbing reality that left the room stunned. “Our kids are LESS cognitively capable than we were at their age.” Every previous generation outperformed its parents since we began recording in the late 1800s. So, what happened? Screens. Dr. Jared Horvath explained: “Gen Z is the first generation in modern history to underperform us on basically every cognitive measure we have, from basic attention to memory, to literacy, to numeracy, to executive functioning, to EVEN GENERAL IQ, even though they go to more school than we did.” “So why? … The answer appears to be the tools we are using within schools to drive that learning (screens).” “If you look at the data, once countries adopt digital technology widely in schools, performance goes down significantly, to the point where kids who use computers about five hours per day in school for learning purposes will score over two-thirds of a standard deviation LESS than kids who rarely or never touch tech at school. And that’s across 80 countries.” But screens aren’t just decimating learning and making new generations less intelligent than the ones before them. They’re doing something far worse. And when you take a closer look, it isn’t pretty. 🧵

True!

@NateJoseph19 How lovely it would be to join you especially given my lovely friend Leslie will be there as well.

I’m really excited to go to Halifax.

@joenutt_author @greg_ashman It makes me crazy to consultants that I know who have had zero outcomes. No data to show. Yet, they are positing themselves as experts by “borrowing” the work of others or backward designing books into presentations.

@greg_ashman A much better question - have you ever worked in a high quality school? So many consultants have never set foot in a ‘good’ school, never mind a genuinely ‘great’ one, yet they think they can advise on what good schooling consists of.

A good question to ask when considering engaging an education consultant is: Why are they doing this and not teaching or running a school? There are some very good reasons for doing consultancy. Who knows, I may do it one day. However, it’s worth asking the question.

@Jmosley_history @KateJones_teach Exactly!

@KateJones_teach That’s crazy as a provider I can’t imagine not covering cognitive science or retrieval practice 😶

When I delivered a guest lecture at Aberystwyth University in Wales to trainee teachers it was clear retrieval practice had not been discussed before & some of the lectures on the course were visibly not happy that I was discussing cognitive science in the context of teaching & learning. Of course there are schools embracing cognitive science in Wales but it's not as mainstream as this article suggests, I think it's more likely referring to England, Scotland & N Ireland.

@TradamWest @MrZachG In my neck of the woods, admin arrange PD they never provide it. I am wondering where is it that it is common for admin to provide PD.

I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate. First, PD sessions are not the only way teachers develop. In fact, it’s usually far more valuable for young teachers to see good vets in action. Second, It’s been admins leading all the bad “discovery instead of instruction” PDs in the past too. There IS also, imo, a generally-agreed-upon body of knowledge. For example that direct instruction techniques work even if you don’t ever call it that. There are good strategies passed down from teacher to teacher or learned through experience too. I just think it’s not right to assume admins know any more about teaching than teachers do, which is why common sense limits on those day-long PD sessions exist.

Here is a comment I take very seriously. Over to you. What is to be done?

@MrZachG I JUST left a district and there is SO much that has to happen but may not because their hands are tied by the contract and principals are afraid of being grieved.

Expertise isn't about having more working memory, it's about needing less of it. Experts automate many components in long-term memory and can recognise meaningful patterns instantly, bypassing the need to process individual elements. ⬇️ 🧵

I keep trying to explain to people that dyslexia moms are the driving force behind the unprecedented wave of literacy legislation. This is why. This will break a parent.

@Suchmo83 This! A child reading TOO fast, but accurately with a timer on gives an indication of what is in their VWF. They know the purpose of the read. The likelihood that they will slow down and reread when reading for a different purpose is favorable.

However, as long as a relatively high reading rate is a result of automatic, accurate word recognition - and attention is being paid to prosody and meaning - then there is no reason to believe there is such a thing as a pupil reading too fast for their age.

For those who had understandable doubts about the quote below, @janhasbrouck has admirably set the record straight in a new blog (in the next tweet). ⬇️

@HiltonHonors I move to Springhill Suited

@3EReading Hi there, we would like to learn more about your experience. Please DM us with more details of your concerns with your full name, confirmation number, email address, and telephone as it appears on your reservation. - Deb

@HiltonHonors what a disappointment your TRU series of hotels are! I have come to trust Hilton but that is no longer TRUE

@HiltonHonors This has nothing to do with the cleanliness or staff. It’s the lack of clear description of what I was paying for.

@HiltonHonors There was no clear description that this hotel series has NOTHING! No dresser, no closet, no in room coffee or glasses. It is beyond bare and false advertising. I believe I’ve prepaid but would like my money back. As a Hilton honors member. You DM me

@StephanieEdgren Faith.

What's your one word? (I have several ideas but I've not landed on one yet. I'll comment on this post when I do.

@livingona1way @NateJoseph19 Do you say the same about science, math, and PE? Why would you say this about reading? Teaching reading takes expertise that some teachers don't even possess fully. You are correct, a lack of reading does not cause dyslexia.

I’m shocked that this needs to be said, but: If you have a student who struggles to read, you should not blame the parents, for not reading enough. Lots of kids with dyslexia struggle to read despite having their parents read to them every day. You don’t know what happens in a kids home. Making assumptions like this is deeply offensive for the parents of kids with dyslexia. It also is a reflective of the disproven whole language model. Kids learning to read is not only a product of reading experience, for many kids it requires explicit instruction. Schools bear the primary responsibility for teaching kids to read, not parents.

@SueannaSmith3 What an ignorant thing to say.

@NateJoseph19 @PureMichigannow Bullet dodged!

@PureMichigannow Ive only done one, once and it was for a job interview. I didn’t get the job, because I didn’t talk about 3-cueing.

Every year on the first day of school, I give my students a math test on the curriculum targets for the year and a DIBELS test. If a student does poorly on either test, I follow up with more assessments to see what that students weaknesses are. You can’t properly support a student if you don’t understand their needs.