Latest / The Reading Instruction Show / Toadys, Transaction, and Reading Instruction

Transcript

Toadys, Transaction, and Reading Instruction · The Reading Instruction Show

• 0:02
  Readings. This is the Reading Instruction Show.
• 0:05
  I am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson. Topic of today's
• 0:10
  presentation or conversation is called, Toady's
• 0:14
  Transactions and Reading Instruction. And this
• 0:19
  is from my upcoming book called, Making Sense
• 0:23
  of Reading Teachers Matter. Now, my purpose for
• 0:27
  writing this book was to bring clarification.
• 0:30
  an additional understanding to, one, the reading
• 0:35
  process, two, reading instruction, three, reading
• 0:41
  research, and four, reading policies and politics.
• 0:47
  And obviously, I think there's a great lack of
• 0:51
  understanding related to these things. This I
• 0:54
  call the great un -understanding or goo theory.
• 1:00
  And as we learned in book one, theories are used
• 1:04
  to explain a set of facts and to understand phenomena.
• 1:10
  Now, goo theory is the only way that I can account
• 1:14
  for the very expensive and pseudoscientific science
• 1:19
  of reading mandates that will end up impeding
• 1:23
  students' ability to create meaning with print.
• 1:27
  And while science is involved with these mandates,
• 1:34
  it's a very limited type of science used to ask
• 1:38
  a very narrow range of questions. And while research
• 1:43
  is cited, it's either A, data and not research,
• 1:48
  B, research that has been misinterpreted or overinterpreted,
• 1:54
  and C, selected. bits of research. It's the goo.
• 2:02
  Now, movies and sequels, despite all the smiling
• 2:07
  kids used as props for the pictures and the silvery
• 2:11
  promises of Sylvester McMonkey McBean, science
• 2:16
  of reading mandates will have a negative impact
• 2:19
  on literacy and learning. Students will be less
• 2:24
  able to think and use literacy for real world
• 2:29
  purposes. And they'll be less motivated to read
• 2:34
  good books. Gaps in reading achievement will
• 2:38
  widen. And how can I be so certain? Well, you
• 2:44
  could certainly ask any kid. who's forced to
• 2:47
  sit in a structured literacy class for 60 minutes
• 2:51
  or more every day. You certainly could do that.
• 2:55
  You could ask them what it's what they like about
• 2:58
  reading class and ask them what they've learned
• 3:02
  in reading class. Ask them what they're reading
• 3:06
  and ask them to describe something they've read.
• 3:11
  And of course, this would be anecdotal evidence
• 3:15
  of the negative impact of science reading mandates.
• 3:19
  Anecdotal evidence, and that's not very good
• 3:22
  evidence. You could also sit for a week in a
• 3:28
  first grade classroom using structured literacy.
• 3:32
  How much joy do you see? How often are students
• 3:35
  using literacy for real life purposes? And how
• 3:40
  long does it take before you want to leave that
• 3:43
  classroom? That too would be anecdotal evidence.
• 3:47
  And while this kind of evidence is powerful,
• 3:50
  it can be subjected to misinterpretation and
• 3:55
  not generalizable. Now the science of reading
• 3:59
  insists that only evidence -based instruction
• 4:02
  be used to teach reading. And we all agree that
• 4:07
  evidence is important. However, here in Minnesota,
• 4:12
  as in other states, state reading laws were made
• 4:17
  based not on evidence, rather on testimony. Testimony
• 4:23
  is not the same as evidence. Testimony is selected
• 4:28
  people coming before other selected people and
• 4:32
  saying selected things. Testimony is like baking
• 4:37
  a cake, when what you get is based on what you
• 4:41
  put in. And in the case of the Reed Act here
• 4:45
  in Minnesota, what you got was a half -baked
• 4:49
  law mandating what teachers must teach, how it
• 4:53
  must be taught, when it must be taught, and what
• 4:57
  you cannot say under any circumstances. Now,
• 5:01
  Figure 3 shows what happened. when kindly old
• 5:06
  Mrs. Peterson used illegal reading instruction
• 5:10
  in her first grade classroom. On a larger scale,
• 5:16
  we've seen this movie before and it did not have
• 5:21
  a happy ending. The movie was part of the No
• 5:25
  Child Left Behind and the Reading First initiative.
• 5:30
  Six billion dollars of taxpayer money was spent
• 5:35
  on things that had no impact on children's ability
• 5:41
  to comprehend text. Imagine that. That's a very
• 5:46
  sad ending. It was a billion dollar boondoggle.
• 5:53
  Billions of dollars were wasted on what most
• 5:56
  literacy experts could have told you up front
• 6:00
  wouldn't work. In fact, they did tell you in
• 6:04
  2002, the National Council of Teachers of English.
• 6:10
  But policymakers weren't much inclined to listen,
• 6:13
  you see. They listened to people who would. They
• 6:17
  wouldn't listen to people who would disagree
• 6:20
  with their preconceived idea. Besides, they had
• 6:24
  testimony. They had ample. testimony. Now here
• 6:30
  in Minnesota, the most recent sequel to this
• 6:34
  movie is called The Read Act. It's only a hundred
• 6:38
  million dollar boondoggle. At the state level,
• 6:42
  you can get your boondoggles much cheaper. Bargain
• 6:46
  basement boondoggles at the state level. Yes,
• 6:50
  you can. Who needs healthcare and nutrition for
• 6:54
  kids? Who needs small class sizes, good books
• 6:57
  to read, professional working conditions, and
• 7:00
  legitimate professional development for teachers
• 7:03
  when you can get yourself a first -rate boondoggle?
• 7:08
  Big publishing, Scotty, eat, am I right? Now,
• 7:14
  note to who's ever publishing this book that
• 7:18
  I'm writing, I'm not including you in my critical
• 7:21
  analysis of big publishing in what I just said.
• 7:25
  You're kind and benevolent. And since you're
• 7:29
  publishing my book, you're obviously intelligent
• 7:33
  beyond human recognition. And the acquisition
• 7:37
  editor, who decided this book should be published?
• 7:40
  You will someday be recognized for the great
• 7:44
  mind that you are. Perhaps there might even be
• 7:49
  a Pulitzer Prize in the future. Now that, my
• 7:54
  friends, is an example of toadism, and it's part
• 7:58
  of the goo problem. Toadies sometimes call themselves
• 8:03
  consultants. Consultants. They promote methods
• 8:07
  and say things that just happen to coincide with
• 8:12
  the products and services being sold by big publishing.
• 8:18
  Quite a coincidence, yes. Right and wrong are
• 8:22
  not determined based on what's right and wrong,
• 8:25
  rather by what will sell. Toadies are strongly
• 8:31
  in support of the current thing. They highly
• 8:36
  recommend that which will generate revenue. And
• 8:40
  if state legislatures We're convinced that pinning
• 8:45
  clothespins on the children's ears enhance reading,
• 8:49
  and if clothespin mandates were passed, you'd
• 8:54
  soon have a gaggle of toadies lining up to train
• 8:58
  teachers how to put clothespins on children's
• 9:02
  ears and declaring clothespins products to be
• 9:06
  research -based. That is the nature of toadyism.
• 9:12
  Now, I admit, I am not above such toady transactions.
• 9:20
  Almost anybody will be a toady if the price is
• 9:24
  right. The only difference between me and the
• 9:28
  current horde of educational toadies is the price.
• 9:32
  My price is quite a bit higher, you see. Now,
• 9:36
  I often ask myself, what would that price be?
• 9:41
  How much would you have to pay me to be a literacy
• 9:45
  toady? Realistically, I could be bought for about
• 9:49
  25 million dollars. That's my price. For 25 million,
• 9:55
  I too would be a consultant. to shill your products.
• 10:00
  I, too, will do infomercials disguised as professional
• 10:04
  development. I, too, will have a product -based
• 10:08
  answer in search of a problem. I, too, will help
• 10:12
  develop products that are so complicated that
• 10:16
  teachers have to be trained before they're able
• 10:19
  to use them. And by the way, you train animals,
• 10:23
  you educate humans. And I justify my $25 million
• 10:29
  toadism by saying I'm using the money to help
• 10:33
  people. Yes, I would. I want to be very upfront
• 10:38
  about my toadism. My price is $25 million. So
• 10:44
  if someday you see a book written by me describing
• 10:47
  the wonders of a specific for -profit method,
• 10:52
  product or service, you'll know. that I'm living
• 10:56
  large someplace. But this exemplifies the transactional
• 11:02
  nature of toadism. Toadies say things because
• 11:06
  there's money to be made, and they don't say
• 11:09
  other things because it might impact sales. It's
• 11:13
  passion with a price tag. It's knowledge for
• 11:17
  sale. So I'll leave you with two questions. You
• 11:23
  must ask yourself, what is your price for becoming
• 11:28
  a toady and what's the ultimate price to our
• 11:32
  society for the current epidemic of toadism?
• 11:37
  This has been The Reading Instruction Show. I
• 11:39
  am your host, Dr. Andy Johnson.