The Reading Instruction Show

The Reading Instruction Show

by Dr. Andy Johnson

Courses Education for Kids

Season 27

Deconstructing Goldenberg's Science of Reading Propositions

If you’re looking for accessible, research-based information that slices through the endless loads of overly worded baloney, I would encourage you to subscribe to my free Substack, The Reading Instruction Show. Substack: The Reading Instruction Show https://thereadinginstructionshow.substack.com/

National Reading Panel - Fluency

ntroduction to Reading Fluency This session focuses on fluency, one of the five core areas of reading defined by the National Reading Panel (following previous sessions on phonemic awareness and phonics/word work). Definition: Reading fluency is the ability to process text quickly. Target Audience: Fluency activities should strictly be used for students who actually need them—those who actively struggle with fluency. The Music Analogy: Fluency practice is very much like practicing musical scales. You practice scales so you don't have to read a piece of music note-by-note. While it is essential, practicing scales is only one small part of your overall practice time. Similarly, fluency instruction should only take up three to eight minutes a day of a student's total reading time. Clarifying Key Terms Prosody: This is when oral reading naturally sounds like speaking, featuring correct pauses and inflections. You do not explicitly teach prosody; prosody is an effect of achieving fluency. Expression: Reading with expression is really only necessary for theater or dramatic readings. Like prosody, natural expression is an effect of fluency rather than something we teach directly.

Season 27

Reading Instruction, Whole Language, and a Flux Capacitor

In 2026, the Minnesota Department of Education requires teachers to be toadies who follow approved teachers’ manuals with fidelity. All the love of reading has been stomped out of students. Reading, writing, listening, thinking, and critically evaluating information has been replaced by remembering, responding, regurgitating, and filling in bubbles on standardized tests. This story ends where it began, in 1981. The Read Act Minnesota is the flux capacitor that has brought us screaming forward to the past (see Figure 4.4). We’ve been transported back to 1981 but it’s much worse this time around.

Understanding Reading

If you’re looking for accessible, research-based information that slices through the endless loads of overly worded baloney, I would encourage you to subscribe to my free Substack, The Reading Instruction Show. Substack: The Reading Instruction Show https://thereadinginstructionshow.substack.com/

Limitations of Brain Imaging Research for Reading Instruction

Just because a book, article, or presentation includes pictures of a brain or uses a whole bunch of big brain words, does not mean the information presented is always accurate or scientific. We must be responsible consumers of all information, and this includes brain imaging research for reading instruction.

The Story of the International Literacy Educators Coalition (ILEC)

By Dr. Andy Johnson, Executive Director, ILEC Push back against top-down SoR mandates that disempower teachers. Get involved with the International Literacy Educators Coalition (ILEC). It’s free. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-nZ_vlQu1b-TfDLj3Ryk01lVfJuRWTTMeuyIaEdAKKMiWBQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=104234491744726588097

Dr. Johnson is Vulgard, Common, and Shameful

Warning: The academic aristrocacy do not want you to listen to this podcast.

Season 26

Dr. Johnson is Not Very Smart

Push back against top-down SoR mandates that disempower teacher. Get involved with ILEC. Sign up at this link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSd-nZ_vlQu1b-TfDLj3Ryk01lVfJuRWTTMeuyIaEdAKKMiWBQ/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=104234491744726588097

George Hruby presents After the Flood: Reading Instruction Post SoR

Feeling deluged by SOR media, materials, and mandates? Science of Reading’s murky waters have crested, says Dr. Hruby. Our classrooms are ours to reclaim if we strategize now. Join Dr. Hruby in a conversation about why SOR may be on the outs, the backstories behind it, and how we can take back control of our teaching and students’ learning.

Minnesota, Reading Legislation, and Tarot Cards

In Minnesota our special reading law called The Read Act. The Read Act makes certain kinds of reading instruction mandatory and other kinds illegal. I will confess that during the last two years at Minnesota State University, Mankato, I’ve been teaching illegal reading instruction. Every day I expect masked READ agents to kick down my door, handcuff me, and drag me off to a LETRS training facility somewhere in Wyoming or Texas.

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