Considers how public opinion and entire theories of teaching reading are based in the false Just So story--Just Sound Out, and you can read. Explains why sounding out is a handicap. Suggests a better alternative, teaching by recognizing words. (SG)

Argues that systematic phonics is destined to fail as a method of reading instruction, and will make learning to read more difficult for many children. Argues it totally misunderstands or ignores how children actually learn to read; the time to learn phonics, if at all, is during reading; and phonemic awareness is spurious. Looks at ideological…

Methods such as phonics or whole language can never ensure that children learn to read. Children must learn from people--from teachers initiating them into the readers' club and from authors' writings. Children's relationships with teachers, each other, and the learning task itself are supremely important. Observation, not testing, gauges student…

The purpose of the third edition of this book is to explore what must be involved in reading by addressing such topics as language, information theory, learning theory, the development of spoken language ability, and the physiology of the eye and brain. It is designed to serve as a handbook for language arts teachers, a text on the psychology of…