Improving reading instruction is one of the hottest topics in K-12 education today. It is also one of the most complex, encompassing pedagogy, policy, and politics -- all rooted in a long history of arguments about the best way to teach kids to read. This analysis is a primer on the "Science of Reading" and efforts to implement it across…

Identifies analogous patterns in the histories of education and literacy education, noting wide swings of fadism over time, tracing phonics instruction throughout history, inspecting a model of educational innovation as related to literacy, and suggesting implications of this model for the future (noting lessons to be distilled from awareness of…

Features critiques from 10 literacy educators on the book "Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print" and a response from the author, Marilyn Jager Adams. (MG)

Describes recent, major contributions to both sides of the debate between phonics instruction and the "meaning-based" approaches. Argues that it is too early to evaluate the debate, but that a tentative evaluation of the evidence favors meaning-based approaches. (RS)

A number of issues in the reading curriculum need studying, analyzing, and synthesizing. Among them is the emphasis on definite scope and sequence in phonics versus individualized reading. A second issue in the teaching of reading involves the use of precise, measurably stated objectives versus flexible, general goals. A related issue involves…