Dylan Smith

A new trailer for my book, "Ready to Learn: A Crash Course in Development, and How Children Experience School." Thank you for sharing. Available now at Friesen Press BookStore: books.friesenpress.com/store/title/11… The book will become available in the coming days at your fav bookstores.

The solution to the binding problem is that there is no binding problem. The visual cortex represents naturally co-occurring patterns of information rather than processing isolated features. Beyond binding: from modular to natural vision doi.org/10.1016/j.tics… #neuroscience

You and @karenvaites may not accept my advice, but I am an experienced educator who has benefitted from leadership training/roles. Here's what I would suggest: Keep your wits about you. Reflect on your experience to *specify* your own concerns. Inform yourself re relevant legislation, policies, docs. Do your best to identify plausible solutions/plans. Roll up your sleeves and work locally. Identify key responsibility centers/offices. Work on building and sustaining rel’nships. Note your observations/concerns, and *ask questions*. Pressing for a response is ok. Calling for change is ok. But do your cause a favour and stop screaming crisis and ball-bustin’ on social media.

@oliviajune82 @karenvaites @alexanderrusso One thing I think the USA has always done well is civics education. And California has rigorous History and Social Science content standards for the early grades that does cover the content we've mentioned above. So in your opinion, what's not happening where you are?

If a literacy leader has authored multiple ELA curricula for a major publisher, should that person be quoted in articles *about the nature of good literacy curricula* without his or her publisher affiliation being noted? @alexanderrusso

@oliviajune82 @karenvaites @alexanderrusso It sounds like your own schools have issues, and I wish you and your colleagues the best. Still puzzled why you'd hop onto this thread to support a non-educator's takedown attempt of an internationally respected literacy expert. There are better ways to use X to benefit your Ss.

@warmMagnet @karenvaites @alexanderrusso I will reply. Less than half of 5th graders at the schools I work with can identify that MLK & Abe Lincoln lived in different eras. About 1/2 of 4th graders cannot identify that CA, where we live, is a state. You stated the crisis is on social media only. This is very, very wrong

@oliviajune82 @karenvaites @alexanderrusso I don't see why you would choose to speak to me that way. Let's get to the bottom of all this. You and @karenvaites post to over 30 000 followers worldwide. For their benefit, why don’t you define your crisis and its locus/extent.

@warmMagnet @karenvaites @alexanderrusso People who don't understand the crisis shouldn't comment on it. I see it first hand and I care about my students way more than social media opinions.

@oliviajune82 @karenvaites @alexanderrusso Many school systems face significant issues. All systems welcome change and improvement . The 'crisis' is here on social media.

@warmMagnet @karenvaites @alexanderrusso I appreciate @karenvaites naming the problems. I would actually much rather be Kumbaya with everyone, but this is not about social media points. There's a crisis and there are literacy leaders who are slowing progress. Change unfortunately usually requires some friction.

@BrandonLuuMD Many fancy explanations are posted in this thread. Let's keep it simple and go with this: Handwriting draws and builds upon a lifetime of sensorimotor experience and learning.

Students who took notes by hand scored ~28% higher on conceptual questions than laptop note-takers. Writing forces your brain to process and compress ideas instead of copying them.

@karenvaites @alexanderrusso Again, only my opinion, but I wonder if your comments may be born of your own selfish (journalistic) needs/biases. Perhaps you too should offer a disclaimer. Sensational posts will always win some favor on social media, and public confidence in ed is sacrificed in the process.

@warmMagnet @alexanderrusso Journalists influence the field. I don’t make the rules. If no one was listening to these pieces with misguided quotes, I would be very happy to ignore the issue.

What happened in the Southern states? One simple explanation that I haven’t yet heard from observers relates to the test instrument itself. NAEP standardized tests are designed to include a subset of test items that assess literal comprehension, while another subset targets inferential (reading between the lines) comprehension. The latter requires a more well-rounded skill set—beyond simply identifying info that is directly stated in the text. Typically, standardized reading tests for higher grade levels feature a greater proportion of inferential questions. Retraining Ts in the Science of Reading to deliver reading programs emphasizing phonics could be reasonably expected to produce Mississippi-miracle-type test results in Grade 4 that wouldn’t sustain in Grade 8. Presumably, involved states have unpacked their aggregated test results to rule out this artifact.

Southern states boost early reading, but gains stall in middle school. Why the ‘Mississippi miracle’ disappears by eighth grade. hechingerreport.org/proof-points-8…

@olicav Interesting question, not sure what he would say. Clearly, we're consciously investigating our own cognition, and he tends to speak on all such matters in very real, evidence-based ways.

@warmMagnet Is Miller's work an example of the prison of consciousness being studied through everyday consciousness? Pollan found scientists assert that psychedelics/meditation change the wave patterns that Miller say are the only answer to consciousness, avoiding notions of the self.

Reading this from Pollan's A World Appears, I'm wondering if this is the equivalent of WM. I get a fulsome response from AI. Without it I'd be resigned to badgering people for their time & knowledge, & so would leave it as only a thought I'd had. Now you want to know too.

No doubt true, implicating goals and purposeful behaviour. What's key for me: 1. nested oscillations shape the ability of prefrontal regions to purposefully select/maintain/manipulate objects of attention 2. brain region integration occurs across and between particular *layers* of our cortex 3. anaesthetics work to interrupt consciousness by disrupting the oscillational integrity that unifies the cortical layer activity mentioned in #2 above At least, that's my crude understanding. :)

@warmMagnet Thanks Dylan. The formidable contribution of Pollan is his pointing out that unless one deliberately changes one's own consciousness — to see that there is an alternative to the quotidian — one is researching blindly.

@olicav Note: There's a clarifying reference to GNWT.

@olicav Oli, here's another recent resource that might tie some of these ideas together for you: loc.closertotruth.com/theory/millers…

@tetheredtoed1 @AlfredTatum @christinakcover If only the situation were that simple. The posts I encounter on this platform about the Science of Reading often smell of commmerce, ideology, or populism.

@AlfredTatum @christinakcover That’s what the Science of Reading already is — schools aren’t doing it

We need a new Science of Reading focused on advanced reading, writing & knowledge development across the disciplines. This is evident when we examine our national practices & associated metrics. National newspapers have been publishing the same dismal reading stories for decades.

@dylanwiliam So sorry for your loss. That's a beautiful tribute.

Just posted this on LinkedIn

@LizStepan But so important! You're contributing *and* developing your professional self.

I spent 6 hrs prepping at the high school today. That is after 10 hrs of lesson planning and creating materials over the weekend. I am steeped in language and literacy research and trying to make a bridge into classroom practices. This is brutally tough *volunteer* work!