3-1-16: We’ve heard this before: Drill-and-kill may give young children decoding practice, but drill-and-kill won’t make them proficient readers because the next step – understanding what they are reading – benefits from life experiences with family at home, and for children without much support at home, requires a much broader educational experience than what drill-and-kill allows. A Robert Pondiscio column at EducationNext lays out the argument. It’s what Ann Clark says she is doing with her third-grade reading buddy when she asks him questions about what they’re reading together. It’s what social studies and science and all the rest of the embattled curriculum is aimed at.
