[Reading-hall-of-fame] Are we smarter tha n the average 4th grader?

[richardallington at aol.com]

I'd call it the temporary reincarnation of the 1960s behaviorism. 
Perhaps because constructivism became OUR dominant discourse, most 
teachers today have never heard of behaviorism or its "research". They 
read articles, sometimes, where "reading" is operationalized as nonword 
reading speed and fail to recognize it for it is, 1960s behaviorism. We 
should reread James Jenkins', "Remember that odl theory of memory, well 
forget it" paper and assign to our grad students at least. Perhaps it 
is time to recall why behaviorism was rejected as a theoretical base 
for reading. But then I'm old and always surprised at how much of our 
(my) history in reading has been forgotten.

Dick Allington
University of Tennessee
A209 Claxton


-----Original Message-----
From: Brian Cambourne <brian_cambourne at uow.edu.au>
To: Reading of Fame Hall <reading-hall-of-fame at nottingham.ac.uk>
Cc: COE List celt-l <celt-l at COE.MISSOURI.EDU>
Sent: Sat, Aug 1, 2009 5:29 pm
Subject: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Are we smarter tha n the average 4th 
grader?

 Tom, Like Jay, I enjoyed this piece. The message from the 4th grader 
is succinct advice that teachers should heed.  I also like your 
attempts to cut through academic obfuscation and define  some key 
concepts in simple language.
 However I think we need to go one step further.  We need to define 
reading as comprehension.  In our country ( and I suspect in yours) the 
extreme right has subtly c
onflated "decoding to sound" with  "effective 
reading". In the schools in which I observe, or work with teachers, I'm 
hearing more comments such as "Dick/Jane can read fluently at a high 
level but don't have a clue about what they read." 
This rings alarm bells. It suggests reading is merely decoding-to-sound 
and implies comprehension is secondary to decoding.  

There is a strong belief among  teachers ( both old and young), 
parents, politicians and journalists down here that there is scientific 
research which conclusively shows that effective reading and decoding 
to sound are the same thing.
 Is any body else  having similar experiences , or is it an Australian 
peculiarity?
Brian Cambourne

   Assoc. Prof. ( Dr) Brian CambournePrincipal Fellow Faculty of 
EducationUniversity of WollongongNorthfields Rd 
WollongongAUSTRALIAPhone: Overseas callersHome 
61-244-416182email&lt;brian_cambourne at uow.edu.au Mobile/Cell phone: 
0408684368
=_______________________________________________
Reading-hall-of-fame mailing list
Reading-hall-of-fame at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
http://lists.nottingham.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/reading-hall-of-fame