Blogs About Reading

Shanahan on Literacy

Timothy Shanahan

Literacy expert Timothy Shanahan shares best practices for teaching reading and writing. Dr. Shanahan is an internationally recognized professor of urban education and reading researcher who has extensive experience with children in inner-city schools and children with special needs. All posts are reprinted with permission from Shanahan on Literacy.

Should We Departmentalize Our Primary Grades?

September 21, 2021

Teacher question: My school district has recently departmentalized first and second grades. The students seem very young to have two teachers and move classes mid-day. It also seems that early literacy should stretch across the school and not only be taught during an ELA block. I’m interested to know your thoughts. Shanahan's response:

Do You See Visualization as an Effective Reading Comprehension Strategy? And, for Whom?

September 17, 2021

Teacher question: I’m a second-grade teacher. Our school has purchased a reading comprehension program that emphasizes visualization. Is that such a good idea? Shanahan's response: Great question. This is one that I can answer with a “yes” or “no.” I’m not answering like a politician, it just sounds like it.

Disciplinary Literacy Goes to Elementary School

August 17, 2021

Teacher question: I am an elementary school principal. I've heard a lot recently about disciplinary literacy. Our school isn't doing enough with that in my opinion. What do you think? What should I have my teachers doing with disciplinary literacy? Shanahan's response:

What Does It Take to Teach Inferencing?

August 9, 2021

Teacher question: I am reaching out to see if you can clarify for me and possibly point me in the direction of a resource(s) where I can read more about the differences between predicting, inferring, and drawing conclusions. Our curriculum was developed in house and is very skill/strategy based.

Reading Stamina and Dividing Reading Texts for Classroom Discussion

July 22, 2021

Teacher question: I’m curious. What does the research say about the lengths of text segments in a guided reading lesson? How many pages should kids read prior to our discussions? I teach third grade. Shanahan's response:

A Question I Hate: Should We Use Pictures (Embedded Mnemonics) When Teaching Phonics?

June 13, 2021

Teacher question: I teach kindergarten. Our school recently purchased the XXXX program for teaching decoding. I don’t like it as much as the program we had. One of the ways our previous program was better than XXXX is that it included pictures for each of the phonemes. The new program does not have those pictures and I think that is a real problem.