Ending the Reading Wars
Ending the reading wars: Reading acquisition from novice to expert
by Anne Castles, Kathleen Rastle and Kate Nation
An excellent paper for educators who are serious about getting to grips with research into how we learn to read.
Ending the Reading Wars was published in 2018. The aim, as stated in the abstract, was to:
“present a comprehensive tutorial review of the science of learning to read, spanning from children’s earliest alphabetic skills through to the fluent word recognition and skilled text comprehension characteristic of expert readers”
The authors did a great job, as the many citations and recommendations of this paper attest!
Who is it for?
Unlike many academic papers, this was written to bridge the gap between research and policy/practice, so it’s accessible to non-specialists. It will give you a thorough understanding of the processes, skills and knowledge involved in reading so that you understand what needs to be taught and why, and you’re up-to-date with evidence about the best ways to teach it. On the other hand, it’s not one to read if you’re looking for detailed practical advice for how to teach reading in the classroom.
What it’s about
What makes this article so useful is its comprehensive coverage – not only does it cover the breadth of processes involved in reading, but it also discusses how reading changes as we progress from novice to expert. And, despite the breadth, it doesn’t ‘dumb down’ the research. Obviously, within a single paper, the authors can’t cover every topic in-depth, but there are loads research references to follow up as needed, as well as recommendations for more practitioner-friendly guides to reading science. The article is divided into three main parts, focusing on phonics, fluency and comprehension. Each section ends with a discussion of the implications for teaching reading in the classroom.
This is a review to come back to time and again if you want to know what the research says on a particular aspect of learning to read.
Podcast pairing
You may like to listen to this episode from the See Hear Speak podcast, in which the host Tiffany Hogan talks to two of the authors, Anne Castles and Kate Nation about their aims when writing this paper.