On the way home from running errands with my husband, we heard this documentary as we drove in the car. “At A Loss for Words: What’s Wrong with How Schools Teach Reading.”  I looked it up after we got home.  It is quite eye-opening, showing examples of how students are  being taught to “read” by a method called “cueing.”  Cueing is actually guessing, and, according to the documentary, works to teach kids to read only about half the time.  Phonics based instruction teaches nearly all children to read.

This is an hour long audio documentary, so save it for when you are doing weekend chores or another time when you can listen without interruption.  It’s going to be an hour well spent!  Listen here.