Teaching Content Is Teaching Reading

Professor Daniel Willingham describes why content knowledge is essential to reading with comprehension, and why teaching reading strategies alone is not sufficient that students read with good comprehension.

• Category

  Education

[jenluv37]

Every reading teacher needs to watch this video . . . especially elementary teachers. If K-5 doesn't give a base, 6-12 don't have a shot at age appropriate comprehension!

[Daniel Willingham]

Amen

[msufan66]

...and this is why wealthy children read better. They have the life experiences to lend meaning to more of what they read.

[Daniel Willingham]

Agreed, this seems to be a very important factor--wealthy families can provide a richer home environment. . .

[mr5tein]

Why do you think wealthy children have more life experiences? Seriously, I would think wealthy children have _less_ day-to-day learning experiences. I grew up lower-middle-class and my memories teem with life experiences, e.g. (as MiaZgra points out) from running errands with my parents, reading, listening to the news, etc.

[Daniel Willingham]

ON AVERAGE, kids from wealthy homes hear a more varied vocab., are talked to more, more often go to libraries, museums, are asked their views and opinions by parents more often. . .these data are from studies in which observers go into homes and just record what happens. . .

[mr5tein]

And educational video, whether aimed at kids or not, Bill Nye, History Channel, Discovery channel--I watch shows like this with my first-grader whenever he is interested, and we ask and answer questions about what we see and hear. If his mother and I are talking about politics, we might summarize it for him so he not only feels participant, but he can learn something, too. To me we have such a wealth of accessible, media-rich information there's lots for kids to explore and learn from.

[Mary Beth Crum]

I teach teachers how to teach reading across Content areas. This is one of the BEST educational videos I have ever watched. Kudos to you Mr. Willingham.

[emw1994]

I was on to the scam in fifth grade....Now I'm in college and the big fad seems to be critical thinking. The school makes us take a class on critical thinking, depriving us of the opportunity to learn new information. I suspect that there are many people who stand to gain large sums of money from these forms of education through selling books and offering classes.

[May Ferguson]

Rigorous early years phonics teaching, if it were the norm, would virtually banish illiteracy. It is not and is unlikely to become the norm any time soon. Children failed by inappropriate early years teaching can still acquire good literacy skills as long as teachers refuse to be constrained on the question of HOW letter/sound correspondences are learned. Consider the views of children who learned them perceptually rather than ritually by Googling Youtube Perceptual Learning in Action.

[Preston Webster]

Excellent work. I would not give up time on activating prior knowledge, because students do not do a good job of this on their own. Nor would I give up on ideas and details. But giving more value to increasing reading through a knowledge base is an incredibly valuable perspective that deserves more attention in schools.

[Walker2all]

learn the differences between practicing as a CNA versus a RN. You can find info here - cna4all.com

4:59:19

[diwindchimewater39]

This is a fantastic video! I am a Social Studies teacher and I am often appalled at how poorly my students read, and how much the hate reading. What is even more shocking is that many seniors preparing to go to college are functionally illiterate, and have absolutely no clue that they are. I have always believed that I am a teacher of reading as much as I am a teacher of history or geography. Reading is the vehicle of learning.

[abcwritestartread]

E.D. Hirsch would agree. Great video. See Core Knowledge Foundation to add to your understanding of this important video.

[makeiteasyable]

nice.. ur the best

[rh001YT]

If the parent values the child's education a clean and orderly home wil be provided and quiet study time enforced. The parent will not put his/her vanities ahead of the child's educative needs. The child will also be educated as to the ways of the world - gradually of course. The poor and/or hedonistic who teach their child to resent will reap their harvest of rotten fruit, and of course blame it on others. Dominance usally comes to the calm and ascetic types - university studies are not needed.

[rh001YT]

Families are "wealthy" usually because the father, and sometimes mother, are the descendants of a lineage that metaphored-up at sometime in the past, or it could be that the father was the first in his lineage to do so, and lived in a place where affluence was attainable (thus, not Nepal for the most part). Poor parents often discourage abstract thinking (metaphor) in their children out of their own vanity. I encourage children to understand the ratty game and manuever up & out of it.