The Knowledge Matters Podcast

I’m so grateful for the graceful way that Natalie communicated the need to shift from teaching reading skills as isolated skills and more as an integrated approach. The emphasis should now be on developing students’ content knowledge to develop comprehension. The voices from teachers, administrators, and academics help round out the message, and Natalie’s narration is impeccable. You will enjoy this series so much!!!

The message of the podcast is vital for our teachers and schools. This could have been five stars if more of an objective journalistic/research approach was taken. It felt too much like an ad for the speaker’s book which brings the veracity of the content into question. I still enjoyed it because I know there are other academic who have come to the same conclusion. I just wish the podcast had focused more on a variety of authorities on the topic rather than just the speaker.

I have a variety of complaints about this podcast, but I think the most basic one is that it didn’t clearly make a case. It was messy and jumped around a lot. It also assumed a correct answer instead of making an argument and walking the listener through it.

For over 20 years I’ve had the great opportunity to teach from a knowledge-building perspective with great success. I wish my current district would consider this approach instead of having us/teachers ignore the other subject areas and only focus on reading skills. It’s an utter shame. Districts are constantly telling us to use data to drive instruction, yet they are ignoring the data that shows our kids haven’t made significant growth in reading through scripted curricula and an increase in ELA minutes.