Learning Stewards

Children of the Code

Higher Vocabulary ~ Higher Intelligence ~ Higher Income = Reading Matters

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Higher Vocabulary ~ Higher Intelligence ~ Higher Income = Reading Matters
It must be added that the differences in vocabulary here are not differences learned in oral conversation. After grade 4 vocabulary growth is largely driven through literacy not speech.  Because most of the difference in adult vocabulary is a result of reading, using vocabulary as a proxy for intelligence is an indirect way of pointing to the role of reading in intelligence.

IQ Learning

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Working Memory: IQ is not fixed. For better and worse, learning changes IQ. Because intelligence both shapes and is shaped by learning our conversation about the plasticity of IQ is another case in point for: “I” become the “me” I learn to be.

Re:Don’t punish the kids because they can’t read

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The following is in response to Pat Smith’s piece in the Columbus Dispatch, which I highly recommend. http://goo.gl/UA26f With gratitude and respect, a couple of points: 1) A lot more than 1/3 of our kids are in danger. Every child that is reading below the proficiency level assumed by the written materials in his or her … Read more

Reading: The Brain’s Challenge: Processing Stutters – Processing Speed

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This is the first in a series of posts that explores the brain processing issues underlying difficulties in learning to read. In this post we focus on ‘processing stutters’ and their relationship to ‘processing speed’. We also establish the ‘speed of language’ as a baseline for understanding the processing speed demands of reading.

Re: Word-spotting baboons leave scientists spellbound: Reading baboons may shed light on human learning

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Re: Word-spotting baboons leave scientists spellbound: Reading baboons may shed light on human learning This kind of article can be, like the ‘cna yuo raed tihs’ simplification, can lead the general population into a dangerously trivialized view of reading.” There is an incomparable difference between the way hearing able children learn to read (alphabetic writing systems in … Read more

Re: Getting Our Kids Ready for the Competition

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Re: Getting Our Kids Ready for the Competition – the Great Conversations and the 32,000,000 Missing Words! by Dick Jacobs Your piece creates a great framework for conversation but one point needs clarification: “Cognitive science tells us that if learning our reading fundamentals doesn’t start very early and the skills aren’t in place by age nine or ten, … Read more

Confused? Shame on you!

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What happens to you when you become confused? How do you feel? Most of our children are growing up in environments (families, schools, peer groups…) that insidiously (mostly unintentionally but nevertheless pervasively) teach them to blame themselves for feeling confused. Children who blame themselves for feeling confused feel shame when they feel confused. Naturally, subconsciously-automatically, children … Read more

Re: We Can’t Teach Students to Love Reading

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Re: the Chronicle of Higher Education’s Article: “We Can’t Teach Students to Love Reading” by Alan Jacobs, professor of English at Wheaton College. An important missing distinction: Most of the people who ‘love’ reading began loving it when they were children. In the past few decades there has been an unprecedented decline in how lovable reading is for most children … Read more

Re: Brain’s involvement in processing depends on language’s graphic symbols (3/29/2012)

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Re: Brain’s involvement in processing depends on language’s graphic symbols (3/29/2012) “Readers whose mother tongue is Arabic have more challenges reading in Arabic than native Hebrew or English speakers have reading their native languages, because the two halves of the brain divide the labor differently when the brain processes Arabic than when it processes Hebrew … Read more

Re: The Link Between Reading Level and Dropout Rates

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Re: New York Times: The Link Between Reading Level and Dropout Rates 3-19-2012 “Children who aren’t reading proficiently by fourth grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school, and according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, only 34 percent of America’s fourth graders read at grade level.” It’s always good to … Read more