Shanahan on Literacy

School administrators often believe that students can be evaluated on the individual reading comprehension standards and they push teachers to teach and assess these individually. The research suggests that such efforts won't work.

Teachers are often told to teach comprehension strategies, but what if many of the strategies that are recommended only incidentally address comprehension? Learn to distinguish comprehension strategies form study skills.

This blog entry explores the three ways that teachers can teach their students about the relationships that exist between reading and writing.

These days people are claiming that brain science has proven that phonics instruction is the way to go. However, brain science doesn't work that way. This podcast will explore what it is and isn't that brain science can tell us about reading instruction -- and what a safer bet would be to getting things right.

A teacher asks about the benefits of phonics in the upper grades and this podcasts provides an exploration of the research on this issue along with practical advice on how best to meet students learning needs in reading.

This podcast replies to a teacher's question that asks about the proper sequence to teach the alphabet and phonics skills. It explores what research has to say about sequence and whether it matters and provides some specific criteria to consider in selecting or constructing curricula. You can read a transcription of this podcast and reader comments here: Shanahan on Literacy Blog.

Each year, Shanahanonliteracy.com presents a list of the highest rated literacy charities in the U.S. and Canada. These charities distribute books, make electronic resources available, and support literacy instruction in a variety of ways and to a variety of needy children. The list is useful in that it encourages giving to the best of the national/international literacy charities, shows the range of resources avalable, and reveals some possibilities for your schools.

Exploring why teaching main idea is not the most effective method for improving reading comprehension skills. Emphasizing the limitations of question-based strategies and advocating for more engaging instructional approaches. Providing practical advice on teaching strategies that go beyond identifying main ideas, such as summarizing, understanding text structure, and promoting integrated thinking about text content.

This podcast explores the research on phonics teaching to English Learners and concludes that such instruction is important. However, ELs are more likely to struggle with language than decoding, so both decoding and language interventions need to be available to all children.READ MORE: Shanahan On Literacy Blog

This podcast considers whether teachers should attempt to teach sight vocabulary, and if so, how is that best accomplished. READ MORE: Shanahan On Literacy Blog