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

[Ken Goodman]

LET'S HOPE IT'S TEMPORARY   .
Ken Goodman

richardallington at aol.com wrote:
> 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
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