For
years what academics and leading researchers around the world know
about reading problems have not been known by teachers, and other
school officials. As a result, schools have adopted ineffective
reading instruction methods.
What is not well known is that most
intervention programs do not produce lasting results. When students
are retested months after intervention, the reported gains disappear.
For example, Reading Recovery, is a popular intervention program used
by many educators, which does not produce lasting results. Students
lose the reported gains soon after instruction. The reason is that
students are not adequately taught the reading code, that is, how it
works in the context of how the mind learns.
For example, most
programs incorporate whole word instruction in their programs. They
teach incorrectly what they call sight words, which are not really
sight words at all. These words should not be taught as sight words,
that is, words from memory, they should be taught according to the
logic of the reading code consistently. Whole word reading from
memory is extremely inefficient, and teaches students bad habits.
