"It ain't over till it is over" - Timothy Shanahan (Part 1)

In late 2017 I discovered that I did not receive any notification of Timothy’s posts in my news feed in LinkedIn. When I checked I found out that he has disconnected me as his connection.

The following is one of his recent blog posts dated October 2017.

http://shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/it-aint-over-til-its-over-on-the-idea-of-developing-third-grade-readers-by-grade-three#sthash.9RgsBsQH.dpbs

It Ain’t Over ‘til It’s Over: On the Idea of Developing Third Grade Readers by Grade Three

Here are some extracts from his post and my comments. 
  

“There is a slew of studies that reveal the persistence of reading problems... for instance: http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/persistence-of-reading-problems-research-based-fact-or-urban-myth#sthash.rtzSGGAi.dpbs Those studies show that kids who are struggling with reading in the primary grades continue to struggle long after.”

My comment: Do we really need to do studies to show kids who struggle in lower grades continue struggling in higher grades. This is the kind of rubbish written by educators from America.

It should be obvious to anyone other than people like Timothy Shanahan that if you have not learned anything in primary one you will lag behind in primary 3 and continue lagging behind till you drop out of school unless there is intervention/remediation.

Given that, many states have committed to the idea of addressing those reading problems once-and-for-all in the lower grades. I’m usually pretty supportive of such efforts… someone wants to improve preschool and primary reading instruction, I’m there.

My comment: Who is Timothy Shanahan kidding when he says he is supportive of such efforts? I had commented in his blog and said that kids shut down from learning when they are confused and I gave him reasons for their confusion and he did not even bother to respond. Another reader of Timothy’s blog post had explained to him what I was getting at and he still did not respond. 

 “There is no research that suggests a deadline for reading proficiency. There is no question that the longer one delays addressing reading problems, the more prodigious they will become over time. But older readers can benefit from remedial work.”

My response: Again, is it necessary to do research to find out if there is a deadline for reading proficiency? There are many adults who learn a new language at a late age. Tom Cruise learned to read when he was more than 22 years old.

The catch is in the last sentence “But older readers can benefit from remedial work”.
As I have said before there is big money in intervention/ remediation.

Note: I wrote the above last December and had to drop it halfway as I was tied down and still a little busy with some other pressing work. I will endeavour to post an article a week.