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

[Jay Samuels]

Are we all referring to the same article that Sticht sent about a 4th grader
who said the following ?  
"I like reading because reading helps us get better at reading."

In essence Anthony, the 4th grader was putting half of the Mathew effect
into his own words, i.e., you get better if you practice it, an example of
the rich getting richer. Anthony's 11 words summarized a lot of research
that makes sense to me. Curmudgeonly yours, jay samuels


-----Original Message-----
From: reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk
[mailto:reading-hall-of-fame-bounces at lists.nottingham.ac.uk] On Behalf Of
Ken Goodman
Sent: Sunday, August 02, 2009 1:18 PM
To: richardallington at aol.com
Cc: reading-hall-of-fame at nottingham.ac.uk; celt-l at COE.MISSOURI.EDU;
brian_cambourne at uow.edu.au
Subject: Re: [Reading-hall-of-fame] Are we smarter tha n the average 4th
grader?

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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