Teaching reading is fundamental, and not as simple as it sounds

You’ll probably find that a refrain on this blog will be, “It’s complicated.” And no, not the movie, although I am fond of it. Many things in education sound simple, and everyone thinks they’re an expert because they attended school. But when you dig a little deeper it becomes more nuanced.

This morning I sat down with Jami Jacobson, Albuquerque Public Schools’ newly-minted director of curriculum and instruction, to talk about how the district teaches reading. We chatted about the ongoing conflict between different philosophies of teaching reading: should reading instruction emphasize phonics and how to sound out words, or should it be all about context and meaning? You may be totally unsurprised to learn that the best strategies use some of both.

We also talked about how teachers can structure their classroom so students at all levels of reading ability can be learning at the same time, and how parents can help support their students in learning to read. My full story will run Oct. 9 on the Schools page of the Journal. Which reminds me, do you know about the Schools page? It runs in the Journal every Tuesday. This week, we previewed tonight’s A is for Art! fundraising gala, which is happening tonight at the Albuquerque Museum on Mountain Road. If you’ve never been, it’s pretty great. You can bid on all the best art by APS high school students, and proceeds support fine arts in the schools. I’ll be there, deadlines permitting.