Why Do So Many Students Have Reading Problems? The "Science" Is Wrong!

Format

Individual Presentation

Presenters

Dee R. Tadlock, Central Washington UniversityFollow

First Presenter's Institution

Central Washington University

First Presenter’s Email Address

Deet@readright.com

First Presenter's Brief Biography

DEE TADLOCK earned a Ph.D. in reading education in 1978. She has taught reading at every level from elementary school through graduate school and is currently adjunct faculty at Central Washington University. She is also President and Director of Research and Development for Read Right Systems, a consulting company. Dr. Tadlock has spoken at scores of state and national educational conferences, including providing key note addresses. She has been published in Journal of Reading, Phi Delta Kappan, Reading Psychology, and Adult Literacy & Basic Education. She is author of the book, Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading, published by McGraw-Hill in 2005. She was nominated for the prestigious Brock Prize for Innovation in Education and placed third out of 9 nominees. Her area of interest and focus is what we can learn from brain science about helping struggling readers transform to excellent readers.

Location

Session Eight

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Relevance

This proposed presentation is most closely connected to the first strand: “Head”: Academic Achievement & Leadership. Students who can easily and comfortably get information from print is an essential pre-requisite for closing achievement gaps, providing equitable opportunity to learn, turning around low-performing schools, preventing dropouts, and making students ready for post-secondary education or careers. Doing more of what isn’t working is not likely to transform struggling readers to excellent readers. The information presented in this proposal is based on neuroscience as it applies to reading; it constitutes a paradigm shift in the field of reading. “If we are to obtain results never before achieved, we must expect to employ methods never before attempted.” (Francis Bacon) The effectiveness research that will be presented demonstrates that an innovative intervention model based on the theoretical constructs presented does, indeed, obtain results never before achieved—even with the most challenged readers.

Brief Program Description

Unacceptably, 66% of 4^th, 8^th, and 12^th graders read below proficiency (Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress). These scores have been virtually flat for 30 years. Teachers teach according to “reading science,” but little improves. This presentation explains why and suggests major changes in reading instruction that must be made to benefit students.

Summary

The proposed session will explore the following theoretical constructs that represent a paradigm shift in the field of reading and are grounded in brain science:

1. Reading problems are caused when an individual builds an incorrect neural network to guide the process of reading. Because the network has errors encoded in, it operates inappropriately when it is accessed to read. The only way to eliminate a reading problem is to compel the brain to re-model the network. Brains are “plastic,” but they are unlikely to find themselves in an environment that would cause the remodeling to occur.

1. Process learning operates (and is learned) primarily implicitly—below the level of conscious awareness, and so processes (like reading) cannot be explicitly taught. Rather, an environment must be constructed that will compel the brain to figure out all of the implicit aspects of the process for itself and how to integrate them seamlessly with the explicit aspects.

1. The foundation and main event of reading is not word identification; it is anticipating the author’s message. The brain must figure out how to plan, coordinate, and integrate numerous complex neural systems so such anticipation is possible. Phonics is necessary to read, but the brain doesn’t use phonetic information to figure out what the words are. It strategically samples such information as required to help anticipate the meaning. Once the anticipation is created, if the brain is uncertain about its validity, it uses phonics to make sure the anticipated meaning is the same as the author’s intended meaning.

1. To eliminate a reading problem, the brain has to be compelled to remodel neural circuitry so it successfully guides the complex process of anticipating the author’s meaning.

These assumptions will be explored in detail, and the implications for instruction will be considered. Evaluation and research data obtained from implementing a unique and innovative intervention model that reflects the assumptions will be presented, including a third-party, gold-standard study of effectiveness that has been favorably reviewed by the Technical Committee of the Center for Response to Intervention.

Evidence

The constructivist intervention model synthesizes language acquisition theory, linguistics, communication theory, and reading theory with cognitive psychology (particularly the role of prediction in cognition), interactive constructivism (particularly as presented via the accommodative/assimilative model first described by the work of Jean Piaget in Geneva), schema theory (particularly how it relates to procedural learning), and neurobiology. (The methodology rests heavily on the work of neurobiologist Gary Lynch from UC Irvine, from the joint work of Lynch and Richard Granger [originally from Yale, later with Lynch at UC Irvine], and from the work of Leon Cooper and James Anderson at Brown University. fMRI research conducted by Cathy Price at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in London support the model as does eye movement research. Even though the development of the methodology preceded the "back propagation" work of David Rumelhart, Geoffrey Hinton, and Ronald Williams, their work supports significant parts of the model. The foundation of both the uniqueness and the power of the methodology rests on this synthesis. Evaluation and research data, including gold-standard third-party research, will be presented that confirm the power of the model to dramatically transform struggling readers to excellent readers in a matter of months—not years!

Learning Objective 1

1.Understand that inappropriately constructed neural circuitry is the root cause of reading problems.

Learning Objective 2

2.Appreciate the inherent plasticity of the brain and how that reality means it is possible for the brain to remodel the network built to guide the process of reading so it operates appropriately.

Learning Objective 3

5.Investigate common assumptions about what the brain must do to make excellent reading happen and present for consideration alternate assumptions that challenge traditional reading theory.

Keyword Descriptors

reading intervention, brain-science, procedural learning

Presentation Year

2024

Start Date

3-6-2024 9:15 AM

End Date

3-6-2024 9:45 AM

Recommended Citation

Tadlock, Dee R., "Why Do So Many Students Have Reading Problems? The "Science" Is Wrong!" (2024). National Youth Advocacy and Resilience Conference. 80.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/nyar_savannah/2024/2024/80