Our Perspectives on Key Issues
This page has articles, book excerpts, and other things we have written through the years. Download a file by clicking on its PDF icon.
A Balanced Early Literacy Curriculum
"Balanced literacy" has unaccountably become a controversial word. This book excerpt clarifies the basic principles underlying balanced literacy in the early grades.
Is Learning to Read Unnatural?
Some claim that it is, but the answer to that question goes beyond a simple distinction between "natural" and "unnatural."
Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, and What Else? A Teacher Survival Kit
for the Phonics-First Era
The Science Of Reading emphasis on decoding leaves many to wonder what else should be part of the daily literacy curriculum in the early grades. Here we recommend five effective strategies in answer to the what else question.
Beginning Reading: Policy Decisions and Instructional Consequences
The National Reading Panel's 2000 report resulted in decoding becoming the priority for beginning readers. Research on other aspects of reading was ignored or dismissed. Here we point out the limitations of that influential report and consider what has been missing from the discussion.
Reading is a Two-Way Communication System: That's What Brain Research Tells Us
What the reader expects to see on the page is as important to the reading process as what appears on the page.
Brain Imaging and Reading Instruction: Time for Caution
Neuroimaging has received a lot of attention as a way to explain the reading process and guide instruction, but the technology is not far enough advanced to be useful.
Reading Comprehension: Asking the Right Questions
What's the best way to develop comprehension of narrative text? Ask the right questions!