Reading in the Brain by Stanislas Dehaene

I just finished reading Reading in the Brain. While I cannot recommend it as a practical teaching resource, it did remind me what an immensely difficult task reading is–especially learning to read in English. The more transparent a language, the faster children learn to read as you can see in Figure 5.3 from RitB.

Not only is English, itself difficult to learn, but children need to learn to read it in many fonts, sizes, and styles.

The process of learning to read is yet unknown, but knowledge is growing every day.

Here is one representation of the process that takes place in our brain when we read a word out loud:

Is it any wonder that we sometimes struggle when we teach reading? We need to remind ourselves of the amazing accomplishment that reading is for our students.

 

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