Is My Kid Learning How to Read? Part 1: Purple Challenge

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are currently helping our 1st grade daughter through distance learning. This has opened our eyes to the ways that kids are being taught how to read in America. 

Here's what it looks like in our house -- and it's not what we expected. Are you having a similar experience? 

This video was recorded several weeks after starting 1st grade. See also Part 2.

The good ideas here come from excellent work by Emily Hanford at APM Reports and other smart people cited below. All mistakes are mine alone. The editing is not professional -- I did it using the Splice app on my iPhone.

In Order of Appearance:

Read About It: Scientific Evidence for Effective Teaching of Reading
https://www.cis.org.au/publications/r...

The Gap Between the Science on Kids and Reading, and How it is Taught
https://www.npr.org/sections/ed/2018/...

The Trouble with Common Word Recognition Strategies
https://eduvaites.org/2019/10/21/the-...

The Three-Cueing System and the Most Disordered Form of Reading
https://www.breakingthecode.com/three...

The Three-Cueing System and Its Misuses (or: The Biggest Problem in Reading Instruction You’ve Never Heard of)
https://www.breakingthecode.com/the-t...

Dear Lucy: An Open Letter to Lucy Calkins
https://www.readingrockets.org/blogs/...

Experts Say Widely Used Reading Curriculum is Failing Kids
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/20...

At a Loss for Words: How a Flawed Idea is Teaching Millions of Kids to be Poor Readers
https://www.apmreports.org/episode/20...

Language Comprehension (image I grabbed of the Simple View of Reading)
http://www.informedliteracy.com/langu...

How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading
http://www.pitt.edu/~perfetti/PDF/How...

Orthographic Mapping
https://crackingtheabccode.com/orthog...

The Three-Cueing System: Help or Hindrance?
https://lizditz.typepad.com/files/din...

The Most Popular Reading Programs Aren’t Backed by Science
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/20...

It’s Time to Stop Debating How to Teach Kids to Read and Follow the Evidence
https://www.sciencenews.org/article/b...

Teaching Students to Read: Lindbergh Parents Concerned after Tests Show High Number of Students at Risk for Dyslexia
https://www.timesnewspapers.com/south...

How Families are Pushing Schools to Teach Reading Skills More Effectively
https://www.kqed.org/mindshift/56629/...