Sold a Story

I know this is NOT the focus of your podcast but I’m interested in how these findings might apply to learners of English as a foreign language/ 2nd language. Even further out there is wondering how these practices might apply to those learning to read a non-alphabetic language where there is little correspondence between written characters and the sounds in the spoken language such as in Mandarin.

Listening to this podcast I listened in horror as my daughter’s classroom setup was described. Those classrooms with the cute reading areas that were shown to my husband and I as progressive and cutting edge. My daughter is in 4th grade and she’s struggled to learn to read. When I’d ask her teachers at the end of 1st grade they’d blame Covid and said she’d get it. She wasn’t getting it. I asked if I should hold her back and was told that wasn’t necessary. I ended up going to my mother and getting the old phonics book she still had on the shelf that she had used to help my brother and I learn to read. That’s what helped. My mom and I working with her at home. I felt so ashamed that all this time we thought she was the problem not the system. Thank you so much for this podcast. This really opened my eyes.

I just happened to come across this podcast and I became obsessed with it. The first two episodes I automatically sent it to my daughter for her to understand the struggle my grandson is having reading and writing. I shared it with a reading recovery teacher and she said they should have PD around this podcast. As a paraprofessional I now have a better understanding of why most of the students I service can not read. We are talking about 6, 7 and 8th graders who have no idea of reading, nonetheless comprehension. Thank you for bringing this problem to life and hope it gets in the ear of all educators to make the change in teaching our children to read.

Wonderfully reported, I could listen to Emily speak all day.