Read Right® offers these services: The Primary Core Curriculum (K-3); Reading Intervention via Small Group Instruction (Elementary, Secondary, College, and Adult); and Online Tutoring Services for Mild to Severe Reading Problems, including Dyslexia.
Why Do So Many Children, Teens, and Adults Have Reading Problems?
Answer: Reading Is Taught Wrong
The reading field operates on a foundation of erroneous assumptions. These are:
- Teachers can explicitly tell students what they need to do to read.
- The foundational skill and main event of reading is individual word identification.
EXPLICIT TEACHING vs. IMPLICIT PROCEDURAL LEARNING
Neuroscientists have long acknowledged the implicit nature of procedural learning. All processes–anything you can put a “how to” in front of, like how to ride a bicycle or how to read–are learned and operate primarily below the level of conscious awareness. No one knows what anyone does to make a process happen; no one has access to or control over what the brain does. That’s why processes cannot be explicitly taught. Instead, an environment must be created that enables, or even compels, the brain to figure out for itself how to make the process happen.
That’s what Read Right does. That’s why it works rapidly and is impressively effective. Read Right unleashes the power of the brain to do what brains do: learn.
An iceberg is the perfect metaphor to illustrate the implicit nature of procedural learning: The small portion above the waterline represents the explicit aspects of any process that can and should be explicitly and systematically taught. The gigantic portion beneath the waterline represents the implicit aspects of the process that cannot be explicitly taught.
The brain is a powerful learning machine; it can’t be stopped from learning if the environment is right. The field of education has struggled to easily and efficiently correct reading problems for 150 years because the implicit nature of procedural learning has been ignored. Read Right provides the right theory of how reading excellence develops, as well as the right training for teachers, teaching assistants, instructors, and volunteers to transform struggling readers to excellent readers.
FOCUS ON INDIVIDUAL WORD IDENTIFICATION OR MEANING?
Is word identification the foundational skill for reading? Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) suggests otherwise. When subjects read word lists as their brains are scanned the neural activation pattern that emerges is significantly different as compared to the pattern that emerges when subjects read connected texts. This indicates that reading words and reading passages are separate and distinctly different cognitive acts.
The brain is the organ whose function is to make sense; it continuously looks for meaning. Could it be that the foundational skill–the main event of reading–is not word identification, but, instead, anticipation of meaning? Technically, it appears that the brain creates anticipatory sets relative to the author’s intended meaning.
Could it be that reading instruction is the main cause of reading problems because the instruction causes students to build neural circuitry for identifying individual words? Rather, the student needs to build neural circuitry for passage reading. The years and years of flat reading scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress and the dismal reality that two-thirds of our Grade 4, 8, and 12 students read at a basic level or below suggest this is true.
Below, we invite you to compare Main Stream Reading Theory with The Read Right View. Notice how they are significantly different. This difference explains Read Right’s success transforming struggling readers into excellent readers:
MAIN-STREAM READING THEORY
Source:National Reading Panel
THE READ RIGHT VIEW
Source:Dee Tadlock, Ph.D.
Phonemic awareness must be explicitly taught because it is a necessary pre-requisite for decoding and word-attack.
Every individual who can speak successfully already possesses implicit phonemic awareness. Implicit awareness is all that is needed to begin to learn to read.
The foundational skill and main event of reading is the ability to easily and comfortably identify each word—using decoding, sight word recognition, and word attack skills. PROBLEM: Neuroscience challenges this view. Neuroscientists have found that the human brain cannot process more than 3 to 7 bits of information at one time before working/short-term memory wipes everything clean and starts over. As a result, syllable-by-syllable and word-by-word reading make comprehension very difficult, if not impossible.
Read this sentence. Keep in mind that it is about pets:
M_ d_ _ l_ _ _ _ t_ b_ _k a_ m_ c_ _.
How is it possible to read this? Rather than decode or recognize words, your brain relies on a different strategy: using minimal phonetic information to “anticipate” the author’s message. Relying on anticipation compels integration of minimal phonetic information with knowledge of how language works, as well as knowledge associated with the subject matter (e.g., “pets”) where ever the knowledge is stored in long-term memory. Anticipation allows the brain to get around the limitations of working/short-term memory. When readers learn to read this way, excellent reading becomes effortless. Read Right uses highly structured methods to coach struggling readers to read this way. The method has demonstrated effectiveness with mild to severe reading problems, including dyslexia.Fluency is a reading skill that can be explicitly taught by encouraging students to identify words faster.
Fluency is not a separate reading skill. Lack of fluency is a symptom that the brain isn’t reading right.
Vocabulary instruction helps students recognize the studied words when encountered in print. Word lists or words used in phrases are often used during instruction.
Research has documented that the act of reading is a major source of vocabulary expansion. It happens seamlessly, often without the reader noticing.
Comprehension is addressed by explicit teaching of comprehension strategies and by providing correction for incorrect answers.
Comprehension does not have to be addressed as a separate skill. Literal comprehension, like fluency, is a by-product of the process when the brain reads right (creating anticipatory sets that accurately reflect the author’s message).
Read Right’s methods are rapid and effective. Dozens of educators, school administrators, parents, and students verify its effectiveness in our Written and Video Testimonials.
We all want the same thing: Reading success for every child, teen, and adult. Read Right delivers! Rather than give educators a manual and set them free to figure out the methods on their own, we provide hundreds of hours of training with students present. Each of our Online Tutors has received the same intensive training. For our Online Reading Intervention Program, see our Online Tutoring Guarantee.
Explore this website to learn more:
- Who is Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., and how was Read Right methodology developed?
- More on the differences between main-stream reading instruction and Read Right.
- Quantitative and qualitative results attained by participating in Read Right.
- Learn more about Read Right Online Tutoring for All Ages as well as Read Right On-Site Small Group Instruction for: K-12,
- College,
- Corrections, and
- Adult Workforce Programs.
Above: Ten years ago at age 8, Ethan recommended for Special Education classes. Instead, his mother enrolled him in Read Right Online Tutoring. With just 9 months of tutoring, Ethan was reading at grade level. Our reading improvement methods lean on procedural learning associated with complex processes the brain performs, not simplistic decoding and individual word identification. How powerful is this approach? His kindergarten-age sister, Allie, wanted to participate, too–and she was reading chapter books by Grade 1.
Above: This video from our Read Right library will show you the “before” and “after” power of Read Right Tutoring for Reading. Throughout their reading intervention experience, struggling readers focus on comprehension. They are never asked to decode individual words because doing so violates the human brain’s limitations on short-term/working memory.
Finally: A brief example of how young children can learn to read easily when the methodology is right. From the time he was born, Ray Nunn’s parents followed Read Right methodology for early reading development (see “Read Right! Coaching Your Child to Excellence in Reading” by Dee Tadlock, Ph.D., New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005). As a result, Ray, pictured upper right corner, became a successful reader before starting kindergarten. In October of his kindergarten year, he tested at an upper first/lower second grade reading level. Even with developing readers, Read Right methodology never asks children to decode a single word.
