Media coverage of the science of reading has focused on problems in teaching phonics. But if it ... [+] doesn't also examine misunderstandings about how to teach reading comprehension, we're unlikely to see real progress. As Hanford has shown, teachers may think they’re teaching phonics, but many also encourage children to guess at words from pictures or context. Nor is it enough to just say that phonics is important, because many teachers mistakenly believe they’re already teaching it. This isn’t a perfect analogy, but here’s the point: Virtually all teachers believe they are teaching reading comprehension—they spend many hours on it every week, especially at the elementary level, beginning in kindergarten.

Source: Forbes December 14, 2019 21:22 UTC