Literature on learning challenges the conventional wisdom about failure. While I’ve traditionally advised my students against reading material significantly beyond their level to avoid frustration and potential aversion to reading, research suggests that failure may be a powerful learning tool. This counterintuitive concept has prompted a reevaluation of how I approach the learning process, particularly
Failure Isn’t Always Bad Read More »
I’ve told the story many times about how I discovered the world of the phonograms. In this blog post I’ve gone back to 1996 and pulled out some evidence of what drove me to start using the phonograms. This is a long post because I am sharing a long post from the misc.education newsgroup. I’m
How I “Got” the Phonograms Way Back in 1996 Read More »
I’ve been reviewing my posts from the 1990s in a newgroup called misc.education the last few days. It has been interesting to read the discussions about reading back then. That was the heyday of the “reading wars” and people could get pretty wound up. It was all about phonics vs. whole language. My plan is
Newsgroup Post November 1997 Read More »
I want to share two resources that even after 30 years of teaching reading reinforced my beliefs and taught me some things that I did not know. I’ll share each of them and include a few comments. I hope you listen to the first one and watch the second one. First is the podcast Sold a
Resources About the History of Teaching Reading and How We Have Botched It Read More »
I’ve written a lot of stuff over the years related to teaching reading. I’ve noticed a push lately to discuss how teachers aren’t really taught in teacher school how to actually teach reading based on research. I think I’ll start sharing some of my writing and some links. To start it off, here is a
Let’s Discuss Reading! Read More »
I recently came across an article about The Matthew Effect as it applies to reading for beginning readers. This effect explains a lot of my beliefs about the importance of teaching your child to read. I’ve shared many reasons for parents to teach their children to read. This summary of the research by AI tool
The Matthew Effect in Reading: Why Early Success is Crucial Read More »
Below is T.R. Sebastien’s response to a question at Quora about teaching your child to read. I have very strong beliefs on why parents should teach their children to read, but loved Tee’s answer and wanted to share it on my blog. ————————————————————– Reading is so important. Reading helps you become a better writer. It
Reasons to Read from T.R. Sebastien Read More »
This post is from the reading blog on a previous site. As you read it you may notice I hadn’t yet learned the term “orthographic mapping.” I just didn’t really have a way to explain what I was seeing and that is part of the reason I go on and on about orthographic mapping. This
Should You Use Sight Words Read More »
Ella is our third daughter. She is truly a miracle child who came to us almost 12 years after what we thought was our last child. She has been a blessing for many reasons, but one of my favorites is that I got to teach her how to read using all the experience I garnered
Teaching Ella to Read Blog Read More »
This is my first blog post and I’m making it about orthographic mapping. If you’ve read my site you know how much importance I assign to orthographic mapping. You should start preparing your child for orthographic mapping from the earliest time you can. With my last child, I started en utero! Seems to have paid
Orthographic Mapping Read More »
