The science and poetry in learning (and teaching) to read

Abstract

Because reading is not a natural process like language, young learners must be taught to read. Knowledge about how the reading brain develops has critical implications for understanding which teaching methods to use and helps reconceptualize previous debates. In this excerpt from Reader Come Home: The Reading Brain in a Digital World, Maryanne Wolf describes how many different parts of the brain must work together when reading and why each requires attention in teaching. She delves into research into different reader profiles, each of which needs different emphases in reading instruction, and she explains the value of teaching approaches that include both explicit instruction in decoding and deep reading processes, and engagement by learner and teacher with the world of words and stories.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Dehaene

(2009). Reading in the brain: The new science of how we read. New York, NY: Viking.

Eagleman

(2011). Incognito: The secret lives of the brain. New York, NY: Viking.

Goswami

(2003). How to beat dyslexia. The Psychologist, 16 (9), 462–465.

Hebb

. (1949/2002). The organization of behavior: A neuropsychological theory. Mahweh, NJ: Psychology Press.

Katzir

Kim

Wolf

O’Brien

Lovett

Morris

(2006). Reading fluency: The whole is more than the parts. Annals of Dyslexia, 56 (1), 51–82.

Lovett

M.W.

Frijters

J.C.

Wolf

Steinbach

K.A.

Sevick

R.A.

Morris

R.D.

(2017). Early intervention for children at risk for reading disabilities: The impact of grade at intervention and individual differences on intervention outcomes. Journal of Educational Psychology, 109 (7), 889–914.

McCardle

P.E.

Chhabra

V.E.

(Eds.). (2004). The voice of evidence in reading research. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Miller

Cutting

L.E.

McCardle

(Eds.). (2013). Unraveling reading comprehension: Behavioral, neurobiological, and genetic components. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

Miller

McCardle

Long

(Eds.). (2014). Teaching reading and writing: Improving instruction and student achievement. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing.

10.

Morris

R.D.

Lovett

M.W.

Wolf

Sevcik

R.A.

Steinbach

K.A.

Frijters

J.C.

Shapiro

M.B.

(2012). Multiple-component remediation for developmental reading disabilities: IQ, socioeconomic status, and race as factors in remedial outcome. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 45 (2), 99–127.

11.

Ozernov-Palchik

O.E.

Norton

E.S.

Sideridis

Beach

S.D.

Wolf

Gabrieli

Gaab

(2016). Longitudinal stability of pre-reading skill profiles of kindergarten children: Implications for early screening and theories of reading. Developmental Science, 20 (5), 1–18.

12.

Pugh

McCardle

(Eds.). (2009). How children learn to read: Current issues and new directions in the integration of cognition, neurobiology, and genetics of reading and dyslexia research and practice. New York, NY: Psychology Press.

13.

Seidenberg

(2017). Language at the speed of sight: How we read, why so many can’t, and what can be done about it. New York, NY: Basic Books.

14.

Wolf

(2007). Proust and the squid: The story and science of the reading brain. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

15.

Wolf

(2016). A neuroscientist’s tale of words. In Tales of literacy for the 21st century. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

16.

Wolf

Katzir-Cohen

(2001). Reading fluency and its intervention. Scientific Studies of Reading, 5 (3), 211–238.

17.

Wolf

Ullman-Shade

Gottwald

(2012). The emerging, evolving reading brain in a digital culture: Implications for new readers, children with reading difficulties, and children without schools. Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology, 11 (3), 230–240.