Reading - A Gift for Life

We all know that reading is a gift. Our responsibility as educators is to make sure this gift is given to all our students. If we genuinely cultivate a true love for reading, we are honoring our commitment to making the world a better place. A person who reads is a person who learns and thinks, and this world needs thinkers!

This leads to an essential question: How do we teach children how to read? The answer is not simple.

You might have heard of the Reading Wars. A controversy that awoke during the pandemic, when educators around the world started to question the Balanced Literacy approach which had gained so much popularity in the American school system.

The debate was centered on whether early instruction should focus on systematic phonics (letter–sound correspondence) to decode words, or should instruction emphasize the meaning-making through rich, authentic text.

For decades, literacy instruction in many American schools had shifted towards using a balanced literacy approach led by Lucy Calkins rather than the Science of Reading.

Learning Through Experience

I have been teaching for over 18 years and when I started my career, I did not use the balanced literacy approach. I was taught to teach literacy in isolation. One day, I received training on balanced literacy and to be honest, I loved it. It made sense. I witnessed children find meaning in reading and writing. I saw them transform their beliefs towards literacy, now they saw themselves as readers and writers. This transformation was powerful! The structure, the mini lessons, the engagement, and the willingness to read and write, even at a very young age, were undeniable. I became a true believer.

When I first read the articles, I questioned it all. I listened to podcasts, read the research and deepened my understanding of Simple View of Reading and, yes, it made sense too.

I saw both sides of the debate, and both had their valid points. What I could not believe was that one approach was responsible for all the complexities of literacy outcomes. There are countless factors that affect education, and I could not believe it was all Lucy´s fault, not after seeing the positive outcomes her curriculum had brought to the classrooms. I wanted to make sure students got the best of both words, because in the end, they are the ones I care for. I place my attention and my decisions on what is best for them.

When We Know Better, We Do Better

Education is not static; we need to evolve and innovate with it. As Maya Angelou said, Do the best you can until you know better. Then, when you know better, do better, so I did.

I believe that in education, nothing should ever be a war. Instead, we have to unite forces in the best interest of our children; our focus should always be them. We have the honor and the responsibility to shape the future of the world with the actions of our present, and we cannot do that if we are fighting.

Reading should be taught systematically and also purposefully. The program cannot be either/or. There has to be a carefully designed balance. Students need explicit instruction on foundational skills and rich experiences with language that give them reasons, willingness and purpose to decode and understand the words they encounter in various types of text.

Our Promise to Families at Colegio Menor

At Colegio Menor we do not abandon what has worked well. We innovate, reorder, and strengthen what we do with best practices. We focus on our children, review data, and make informed decisions that work. We make it our own. We keep focus on what truly matters, our students. We dig deep into what we want our students to accomplish, love for learning, and enthusiasm for life.