I’m not a big fan of the ‘science of reading’ mainly because phonics or phonemic awareness as it is sometime called, is usually presented in a very boring way using flash cards (sh + ah + puh) or combining phonemes on computer screens in the context of a ”fun” cartoonish game. But when I was...Read More

The sudden appearance of a worldwide pandemic, and the closure of most schools across the United States, has left many parents scrambling to provide homeschooling for their kids.  While in many cases the schools have taken the lead in this effort and are providing online learning for their students, in other cases parents are more...Read More

Our culture is a speed-driven culture. We celebrate individuals who race fast cars (even when they die in them).  We eat fast food.  We are clock-driven at work.  We like the idea of accelerated learning.  I just googled the term ‘’accelerated learning’’ and found scores of sites, books, programs, and other paraphernalia that put a...Read More

What is tacit knowing?  As I pointed out in my last blog post, it’s ”knowing more than we can tell.” One of the best examples comes from oral language.  We all learned to speak based on tacit learning experiences. How is it that we can effortlessly put one word right after the other without breaking...Read More

A lot of recent research supports the systematic teaching of phonemic awareness in beginning reading programs.  The problem is that phonics lessons can get awfully dull, with teachers pointing to the letter and having kids say the sound, or students poring over phonics worksheets that ask them to match the right letter to the word,...Read More