KQED News Mind/Shift – Katrina Schwartz
“A lot of people are concerned that American kids aren’t learning to read. And rightly so. The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) shows only about a third of fourth-graders are proficient in reading. Much of the recent debate has been a return to an old battle between advocates of phonics instruction versus those who favor a whole-language approach to teaching the building blocks of reading. But that debate focuses on early learning and the mechanics of reading. Education journalist Natalie Wexler has a whole different argument to make that focuses on why kids often don’t comprehend what they read.” (more)