0:02

Hi

0:02

friends, this May, Brains On is collaborating

0:04

with the poetry podcast The Slow Down on a

0:07

week of awesome episodes featuring the words

0:09

and rhymes of kids who write, rap, and

0:12

sing about their lives. And we want to feature

0:14

your words on the show. So here's

0:17

a challenge. Write a haiku,

0:19

that's a tiny poem, about something

0:21

huge. The Big Bang. A

0:24

woolly mammoth. Whatever

0:26

strikes you as massive and maybe massively

0:29

cool. Haikus have a special

0:32

format. They have five syllables

0:34

in the first line, seven syllables in

0:36

the second, and five syllables in the

0:38

third. A syllable is one beat

0:41

or sound in a word. So the word fart

0:44

is one syllable. The word often

0:47

is two. So if I had to use

0:49

those two words to start a haiku, it

0:51

might go something like this.

0:53

but often relax. That

0:56

was five syllables. Expressing yourself

0:59

is good. That was seven syllables. Just

1:02

a gust, be free.

1:04

That was five syllables. So if

1:06

you feel inspired, head to brainson.org

1:09

slash contact and send us your little

1:11

haikus about big topics. We

1:14

can't wait to hear what you come up with.

1:20

You're listening to Brains On, where we're

1:22

serious about being curious. Brains

1:24

On is supported in part

1:26

by a grant from the National

1:28

Science Foundation. So

1:34

then I said, Kitty, that kangaroo

1:36

kept that kebab all to herself. Not

1:39

very kind, and it was quite a kerfuffle.

1:42

Hasn't that kangaroo heard of karma? Oh,

1:45

letter K.

1:46

Don't look now, but letter

1:48

C is headed this way. and

1:51

you're both wearing the same outfit

1:53

again. O-M-G,

1:56

this is so embarrassing. every

1:59

single alphabet. party. Shh. Here

2:02

they come. Oh, hi

2:04

letter C. Hi letter

2:07

N. Hello letter K.

2:09

Hello letter C. Look,

2:12

I wasn't gonna say anything but you need

2:14

to stop copying me. Okay,

2:18

I'm just gonna

2:19

go. I'm really

2:24

going to need you to stop making the c

2:26

sound. It's too confusing. Excuse

2:29

me? You want me, letter K,

2:31

to stop? C is all

2:33

I do. Put me next to a c

2:37

and I c. E-O-U,

2:39

c. And what happens when you get put next to,

2:42

I don't know, a letter e? I

2:46

make a sa sound? Excuse

2:48

me? Couldn't hear you? I make a S

2:51

sound. How about when you're next to the letter

2:53

I? Oh, fine. I

2:56

make a S sound, but don't go around pretending

2:59

you're all K all the time. I

3:01

don't know what you're talking about. Well, how about we talk

3:03

about your good friend, letter

3:06

N, who just

3:07

scampered away. When you hang

3:09

out with letter N, you lose yourself

3:11

entirely. That's right. When

3:13

the two of you get together, all I hear

3:15

is nah,

3:17

nah. You know, K-N-O-W,

3:19

what I mean?

3:22

I know, I know. You're right.

3:25

I need to stand up for myself. I can't

3:27

just let letter N swallow me up. Look

3:29

at me, here with my leg, kickin'

3:31

out! Hey, letter

3:33

C, we're always stronger when we're together. You

3:36

know what K-I-C-K spells? Kick!

3:39

Let's kick it together. I

3:41

hear there are some killer cookies kept

3:43

on the snack. C-K. Cart.

3:46

Ooh, and cups of kettle

3:49

corn.

3:56

You're listening to Brains On from APM Studios.

3:58

I'm Molly Bloom and I'm here with my... co-host Anna

4:01

from Brooklyn, New York. Hi, Anna. Hey,

4:03

Molly. And today we're answering

4:05

all of our listener questions about reading. A

4:07

bunch of you have written to us wondering about it, like

4:10

Isabel from Montreal.

4:11

Why when you're little you can't

4:14

read? My name is Colin

4:16

and my name is Catherine and we're from Charlottesville, Virginia.

4:19

Our question is, why do we read?

4:22

These

4:22

are great questions, but

4:24

before we can answer them, we have to jump

4:26

back in time to when we were babies.

4:29

Babies are born not knowing how to

4:31

do much. They're so cute. Big

4:34

eyes, squishy legs, adorable

4:36

little gummy smiles. They're also

4:39

pretty helpless. Beyond eating,

4:41

pooping, and sleeping, they can't

4:44

do a lot. But given some time,

4:46

most babies will eventually figure out how

4:49

to get around on their own and how to communicate with

4:51

other people just by watching the adults around

4:53

them, which is pretty amazing when

4:55

you think about it. When it comes to reading,

4:57

though,

4:57

most kids will not figure

5:00

that out on their own. And that's because

5:02

reading is a relatively new skill for

5:04

humans.

5:05

Right, our brains did not evolve

5:08

to do this naturally. Our early human

5:10

ancestors didn't read, so there's

5:12

not a part of the brain that's labeled the

5:15

reading part. Humans are really

5:17

clever, though. About 5,000 years ago,

5:19

people in the Middle East came up with a system to

5:21

write down the words and ideas that had been spoken

5:23

for generations. But even after

5:26

reading started, it still took a long

5:28

time in history for reading and writing

5:30

to catch on. It wasn't until pretty

5:33

recently that reading became a normal,

5:35

regular

5:35

thing for most people to do. And

5:38

they still have to work to learn it. Which

5:40

brings us to our first question. What

5:43

does it take to become a good reader? Let's

5:45

clarify. There are lots of different

5:48

languages out there, but we're talking

5:50

today about what it takes to become a good reader

5:52

of the English language. There

5:54

are two things you need to be able to do

5:57

to be a good reader. First, you

5:59

need Eat? know what words mean. That's

6:01

called language comprehension. Comprehension

6:04

is another way of saying understanding.

6:06

Understanding what words mean is not

6:09

unique to reading. You need this to be a good

6:11

listener and talker too. And good language

6:13

comprehension is something kids can pick up by

6:16

talking to other people, watching tv

6:18

shows, having books read to them, and listening

6:20

to podcasts. The second part of being

6:22

a good reader is being able to decode or

6:25

figure out written words. And this

6:27

is the tricky part. So let's break it down

6:30

into steps. Step 1,

6:32

recognizing letters. Let's

6:34

think about the alphabet for a second. Sometimes

6:37

letters of the alphabet are made with straight lines.

6:40

Sometimes they're squiggly. And some

6:42

of the letters look very similar to

6:44

other letters. A lowercase b

6:47

is the same as a lowercase d, except

6:50

backwards. Uppercase p and

6:52

uppercase r are the same, except r

6:55

has a fancy little leg sticking out. it

6:57

takes time to tell the difference between

6:59

all these different shapes. Step

7:02

two, matching letters with sounds. So

7:05

once you can tell the difference between a B and

7:07

a D... An uppercase

7:09

B looks like an uppercase D wearing

7:11

a bell. Oh, you are so right. So

7:14

once you can tell them apart, you can understand

7:17

that they make different sounds. B

7:20

makes a... Buh,

7:21

buh, buh sound. And D

7:23

makes a... Duh, duh, duh

7:26

sound. Then comes step three,

7:29

sounding out words.

7:31

That means you take what you've learned about

7:33

the sounds letters make and put them

7:35

together. So let's take the

7:37

word B-A-T.

7:39

You've learned

7:41

the letter B makes a b sound.

7:44

A makes an a sound. And

7:46

T makes a t sound.

7:48

So you look at B-A-T

7:52

and you sound it out. B-A-T,

7:56

B-A-T, BAT. and

7:59

if you see the word. C-A-T,

8:02

you can do the same thing. K-A-T,

8:06

K-A-T, cat.

8:08

Woo hoo, that's decoding. When

8:11

you're learning to read this way, you'll start

8:13

with simple words like these. Like

8:15

dog or rag or fan.

8:19

Right, simple three letter words.

8:21

Then you'll start to get longer words

8:24

to decode, and here's where your previous

8:26

knowledge of words comes in. Let's say

8:28

you see the word W-A-T-E-R.

8:30

You

8:32

might sound it out like this. W-A-T-E-R.

8:39

W-A-T-E-R. Watter.

8:44

But your brain will say watter

8:46

is not a word I know. So

8:49

you'll look at that A and say, huh,

8:51

okay, that A can make different

8:54

sounds, not always a. Could

8:57

it be...

8:59

Water? Yes, water.

9:02

And the further you get in your decoding

9:04

journey, you'll start to learn some of the

9:06

very confusing combos that

9:08

English uses. The

9:09

cool thing about a language like Spanish

9:12

is that there's one way to make each sound.

9:15

And each letter only makes one sound.

9:17

But that's not how English works.

9:20

For example, what makes

9:22

the f sound?

9:24

F. Right. but

9:26

you can also make the f sound by

9:29

using the letters p and h

9:31

together.

9:32

P plus h equals f. Or

9:36

in the word laugh, which is spelled

9:38

l-a-u-g-h, where

9:40

is the f sound coming from?

9:43

It's from the letters g and h. G

9:46

plus h equals f. Unless

9:50

you're spelling the word ghost, which

9:52

is G-H-O-S-T, and in

9:54

this case G plus H equals

9:57

Ga. Ga is right. Right, learning?

10:00

to read English is hard. But

10:02

being taught how to decode words step

10:05

by step paired with a good knowledge

10:07

of lots of words has been proven by

10:09

scientists to be the best way to learn

10:11

to read. Yeah, there's been lots and

10:13

lots of research done over the years.

10:16

They've looked at learning at every level

10:18

in different languages and have compared different

10:20

teaching methods. And the research shows

10:23

that being able to decode words

10:25

is key. You can't be a good

10:27

reader without being good at decoding

10:30

words. Scientists have also

10:32

looked at what happens in your brain when you learn

10:34

to read.

10:35

At first, your brain takes the

10:37

slower route of breaking down each

10:39

word into its parts. But the more

10:42

you do this, and the more comfortable you get,

10:44

your brain starts to do it almost automatically.

10:47

Yeah, after a while, your brain recognizes

10:50

the word so quickly that you don't need to

10:52

sound them out anymore. By

10:53

the time you're a really good reader, you

10:56

actually know tens of thousands

10:58

of words instantly on site. You

11:00

don't have to figure them out. You just know

11:03

them in a split second. It's pretty

11:05

cool. So Anna, was

11:07

learning to read easy

11:09

or hard for you? So learning

11:12

to read for me was kind of

11:15

confusing because I

11:18

learned to read, obviously, in like first grade

11:20

and kindergarten. and I

11:22

felt like I could read and that I was

11:24

a strong reader. But

11:28

as I grew up, I realized

11:30

that it was actually hard for me

11:33

to sound out words and that instant

11:36

sight word that you were talking about, I didn't

11:38

have a lot of those. And it would

11:40

take me a long time to read because I would have to sound

11:43

out each word, even words that I should know.

11:45

Yeah, what grade were you in when you

11:47

figured out, oh wait, maybe reading's not a

11:49

thing that is easy for me to do. Pretty early.

11:52

My mom always used to make us read like 30 minutes

11:55

a day and that was

11:57

always really hard for me and I will always just

11:59

be the look.

12:00

at the clock wanting it to go

12:02

away because it was just so frustrating for

12:04

me. So I didn't know necessarily

12:06

that something was wrong with my reading. I just thought

12:09

I didn't like to read. Got it. So

12:12

do you remember being taught how

12:14

to read?

12:15

I remember a lot of it being independent.

12:19

Our teachers like assigning us different levels and

12:21

then kind of giving us books, maybe working

12:23

in small groups to read

12:25

these books that were or placed next

12:27

to pictures. I

12:29

would say that I more learned

12:32

picture and word memory than actually

12:35

sounding out words. We would

12:37

see a picture of a cat and then C-A-T

12:40

and be told that cat

12:43

equals this picture. So then we

12:45

would, they wanted our brains to automatically

12:48

be able to recognize

12:49

cat as C-A-T from

12:52

picture and word recognition. So

12:54

it's kind of like you were being taught to skip

12:57

the sounding out part and kind of go

12:59

right to the sight word part.

13:01

Yes, exactly. Got it. Um,

13:04

and what grade are you in now? I'm in ninth

13:06

grade, so a freshman in high school.

13:08

And when

13:09

did reading become easier for

13:12

you? Reading never really became

13:14

easier. I never saw it something that

13:16

was hard necessarily. I just

13:18

saw it kind of as something I didn't like, but

13:21

as I,

13:22

this year, especially, I've realized

13:25

that I actually just have trouble

13:27

reading. It's not that I don't like it, it's that

13:30

it's frustrating for me because I never really

13:32

learned how to read and decode properly.

13:34

So now this year, it's just reading

13:36

in general, my relationship with it has became

13:39

so much better.

13:40

That is great. You are very

13:42

much not alone. It turns

13:44

out that a lot of kids were not taught

13:47

how to decode words, even though that's

13:49

been proven to be the best way to learn to

13:51

read. We're gonna hear more about that in a

13:53

minute, but first we have something else

13:55

for your ears to break down. Not a word,

13:58

but a...

14:00

Mystery Sound

14:05

Ready for the mystery sound Anna? Yes. Alright,

14:08

here it is. Fff-fff-fff-fff-fff

14:14

Hmm. Do you want to hear it again? Yes.

14:18

Fff-fff-fff-fff-fff What

14:22

are your thoughts? I think that's the sound

14:25

of pages being flipped. Hmm,

14:28

very good guess. We'll

14:31

hear it again

14:32

after the credits, see if you feel the same

14:34

way or you have a new guess, and we'll hear the answer. So

14:37

stick around.

14:40

We're working on an episode about how creatures

14:42

would evolve on other planets. So

14:44

we want you to do a little dreaming with

14:46

us. Imagine you find life on

14:49

another planet. How would that life

14:51

greet you? What would it sound like in their

14:53

language to say hi? Would they even

14:56

have a language or would they greet you another

14:58

way? Anna, if you

15:00

found a living creature on another

15:02

planet, how do you imagine

15:04

they would say hi? I imagine

15:06

that they would say hi in a very different

15:08

way that we say hi. I think

15:10

that a lot of animals that

15:12

I've seen say hi to

15:14

each other more by going up to each other and

15:17

touching each other. So I imagine this new creature

15:20

saying hi to another creature by going

15:22

up to it, maybe wagging their tail. I

15:25

love that. Maybe a big hug. Yes,

15:29

maybe.

15:30

Well, listeners, we want to hear

15:32

how you imagine an alien creature would

15:34

say hi. Record yourself and send it

15:36

to us at brains on dot org slash

15:38

contact. While you're there, you can also send us

15:40

mystery sounds, drawings and questions. Like

15:43

this one. My question

15:45

is how do hurricanes form? You

15:47

can find an answer to that question on our Moment

15:50

of Umm podcast. It's a daily dose

15:52

of facts and curiosity. you can find wherever

15:54

you listen to Brains On. Again, that's

15:56

brainson.org slash contact.

15:59

and keep listening.

16:06

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17:14

You're listening to Brains On from APM

17:16

Studios. I'm Anna. And I'm

17:18

Molly. Okay, so we just

17:20

heard about the best ways to learn to read

17:23

according to lots and lots of research.

17:26

I love lots and lots of research, so

17:28

helpful. I know. So you'd

17:30

think teachers would be all about these

17:32

findings, that they'd be teaching everyone

17:35

to read starting by learning the letters, then

17:37

sounding things out and going from there. But

17:39

that's not always what's happening. To

17:42

find out more, we talked with someone who knows

17:44

a lot about this. Hi,

17:47

I'm Emily Hanford. I'm a reporter

17:49

at American Public Media and

17:52

a cover education. Emily

17:54

made a podcast called Sold a Story.

17:57

It's about how lots of kids were having

17:59

trouble.

18:00

learning to read emily found

18:02

out that these kids were being taught in a way

18:04

that just wasn't working it

18:06

all started when she was talking to different parents

18:08

who kept telling her the same story and

18:10

the story goes like this my kid

18:13

entered school and i knew something

18:15

wasn't quite right and

18:17

i went to the teacher and the

18:19

teacher said don't worry about it

18:22

it'll be fine and a

18:24

lot of cases things work fine

18:26

sometimes the kids seemed like they could read at

18:28

first books was

18:30

simple words and lots of pictures

18:32

but as the words in the bucket more complicated

18:35

and the pictures went away the kid

18:37

would struggle sometimes the

18:39

kid had memorized words the

18:41

date seen lots of times before

18:43

but they couldn't figure out new words

18:46

l he says many of these kids felt

18:48

sad or angry or frustrated

18:51

and i was having an impact

18:53

on their ability to learn and

18:55

other subject areas like math and

18:57

science and social studies

19:00

and on a lot of cases they were starting to really

19:02

not like school they don't want to

19:04

go to school there are being really

19:06

resistant and it was all becoming really

19:08

really hard she

19:10

wondered what was going on she

19:12

couldn't figure it out until

19:14

she talked to one kid in particular and

19:16

something clicked

19:18

i was asking her what

19:20

she remembered about being

19:23

taught to read and she said

19:25

to me the teacher would

19:27

show me a picture of a cat and then

19:29

point to the word and say here's

19:31

the word cat and then if this little girl

19:33

didn't know a word in a book she

19:35

was trying to read the teacher told her

19:38

to guess based on the picture and

19:40

i remember her telling me that

19:42

and being struck by that

19:45

description emily

19:46

thought it was strange that this

19:48

girl was been taught to memorize each

19:50

word or to guess but not

19:53

to sound out the words for going

19:55

to call this approach the whole

19:57

word way of reading because

19:59

instead of

20:00

sounding words out letter by letter, you're

20:02

trying to figure out the whole word.

20:05

As opposed to the sound it out or decoding

20:07

method where you start by sounding out the letters. Right,

20:10

and the more Emily looked into it, the

20:12

more she saw that this whole

20:15

word way of teaching kids was everywhere.

20:18

Classes all around the country were telling

20:20

students to memorize a word and

20:22

what it looks like, and if they didn't

20:24

know a word, they should guess based

20:27

on what would make sense.

20:29

The problem is, you're not going to be right

20:32

that much of the time. Just guessing

20:34

at a few of the words on the page can

20:37

really make the whole meaning of the

20:39

story seem different.

20:41

Like, say you're reading a story. And

20:43

you see a sentence full of words you

20:45

don't know. So you make some

20:47

guesses based on the first letters

20:49

you see.

20:50

Maybe you think the sentence says, it's

20:53

dinner and a bunch of bears are invited. They're

20:55

bringing plates and cups, and one of them shared

20:58

the napkins. You'd think you're reading

21:00

a story about some very polite

21:02

grizzly bears.

21:07

Oh, look,

21:08

the bears are at the door.

21:11

Oh, good. The table is ready. We'll

21:13

be having duck confit, niswas salad,

21:16

and a Tardo for amoise

21:17

for dessert. Oh,

21:20

look, they brought fine china

21:22

and crystal glasses. And

21:25

these napkins, these napkins aren't,

21:27

are they linen?

21:28

Absolutely exquisite.

21:32

But really, the

21:35

sentence didn't actually say, it's

21:38

dinner and a bunch of bears are invited.

21:40

They're bringing plates and cups and one

21:42

of them shared the napkins.

21:45

It actually said, it's dinner and

21:47

a bunch of bears are invading.

21:50

They're breaking plates and cups and

21:52

one of them shredded the napkins. Oh

21:58

no, bears are at the door! Goodness,

22:03

they're eating the duck confit in the Niswa

22:05

Salad. Oh no, not the

22:07

tart fran bois. That was for dessert.

22:10

No!

22:11

Oh, and they're breaking the fine china and

22:13

the crystals. And they've shredded

22:15

the linen napkins. Oh,

22:18

not the linen napkins.

22:19

Anything but the linen napkins.

22:26

If you were just guessing

22:28

those words using the first few letters, it

22:30

would be pretty easy to make this kind of

22:32

mistake. After all, the words

22:35

invite and invade, bringing

22:38

and breaking, shared and

22:40

shred,

22:41

they look kind of similar at first.

22:44

Emily says once she realized this, it

22:46

started making sense why so many

22:49

kids were having a tough time.

22:51

Students could guess words if they

22:53

were reading a simple book. But

22:55

as the books got more complicated and had

22:57

fewer pictures, the kids who

22:59

had been reading okay before suddenly

23:02

couldn't figure things out.

23:04

So why weren't teachers seeing this? Why

23:07

were they still teaching this whole word

23:09

way? Especially when lots and lots

23:11

of research said the decoding way was better.

23:15

To understand that, you have to realize that

23:17

for a long, long time, we

23:19

had no idea how a kid learned

23:22

to read. There were lots of different

23:24

ideas, but we did not have strong research

23:26

telling us what worked.

23:28

The whole word way of teaching has

23:30

been around for a long time, all

23:33

the way back to when public schools

23:35

started,

23:36

and it got really popular. And

23:38

it made sense to a lot of teachers. In fact,

23:41

Emily thinks the reason so many teachers

23:43

loved the whole word approach was because

23:45

it seemed like it helped kids skip the

23:48

hard part of reading, the part where you

23:50

have to slowly sound out each word.

23:52

They wanted kids to get to the

23:55

good part. And the good part

23:57

is being able to read a book and...

24:00

understand it and really

24:02

enjoy it, really love it. And

24:04

so I think with really good intentions,

24:07

a lot of teachers wanted to help

24:09

kids get to the good part. It seemed

24:11

like it helped kids start reading whole words

24:14

faster.

24:15

So the whole word approach was really

24:17

popular in schools. And then

24:19

scientists started doing more of those studies

24:21

we mentioned earlier.

24:23

And they found that sounding things out was

24:25

actually a way better way to teach

24:27

kids to read. But a lot of schools

24:30

and educators were already super

24:32

invested in the whole word approach, and

24:34

they didn't want to change what they thought was working.

24:37

It wasn't until decades later, after

24:40

lots and lots of research came out,

24:43

and books were written about this, and reporters

24:45

like Emily told this story, that

24:47

some schools started rethinking how

24:49

they taught kids to read.

24:51

So I think things are changing. there

24:53

are people in state legislatures

24:56

across the country who are passing

24:59

laws that are saying schools

25:01

need to teach kids

25:04

how to read based on all the scientific

25:06

research. They're giving money for teachers

25:08

to get training, for schools to buy

25:10

new books and materials. I

25:13

think it's an exciting moment. But

25:15

a lot of kids and grown-ups were taught the whole

25:17

word way of reading, and they might still

25:19

have a hard time reading. So the first thing you

25:21

have to understand is you're not dumb.

25:24

That's Kareem Weaver. He knows a lot

25:27

about kids and reading. I know

25:29

it may feel like it because

25:31

everything's moving so fast around you and you're

25:33

trying and you've tried hard and

25:35

it's like you just can't get it. That's not

25:37

it. You need to find somebody, some

25:40

adult that's willing to help.

25:42

Kareem runs a nonprofit focused on

25:44

helping kids learn how to read. he

25:47

used to teach fourth and fifth grade.

25:49

He says, even if reading isn't fun

25:51

for you, that's okay. But it's still

25:54

an important skill to have. Once

25:56

you do it, then it's up to you. And whether you like it or not,

25:58

it's up to you. you'll be a better

26:00

worker or business owner or

26:03

student or husband or wife

26:06

or neighbor or whatever

26:09

if you can read. And I want you to be able to read

26:11

the job application. I want you

26:13

to be able to read your paperwork. I want you to be able to read

26:15

the instructions. When that sign says stop

26:17

I want you to know what it means.

26:19

Basically don't give up on becoming

26:21

a good reader if you've had trouble. You

26:24

might just need some different instruction. Kareem

26:26

is also a parent and he has some

26:28

advice for parents who want to help.

26:30

He recommends a book called 100 Easy Lessons, which

26:34

you can find a link to in our show notes. And

26:37

he says it's very important to test

26:39

kids early for learning differences like

26:41

dyslexia. That's when a person's brain

26:43

can have special challenges learning to decode

26:45

words. We

26:46

have a whole episode about dyslexia if you

26:48

want to learn more. Once Karim's daughter

26:50

got tested, she was able to get help and

26:52

now she's thriving.

26:54

That sounds a lot like my story. Right.

26:57

You mentioned earlier that you had

26:59

some trouble with reading and your

27:01

mom, like Kareem, is a teacher and

27:03

she came along with you today. So we thought

27:06

that maybe she would join us for this

27:08

next section. Hi, Susie. Hi, Mom.

27:10

Hi, Anna. Molly, thanks so much for having me

27:13

on the show today. Well, thank you for being here. Susie,

27:15

what grade do you teach? I teach first grade.

27:17

Susie and Anna, when did it

27:20

finally click? Like what was happening

27:22

with Anna? That it wasn't that she just

27:24

didn't

27:24

like reading, but she was like really struggling. So

27:27

after just kind of years in all

27:29

honesty, last year, which was the

27:31

year before ninth grade,

27:33

she had a reading list and she came to me

27:36

and I had noticed that she wasn't reading it and

27:39

I was frustrated because I thought she just didn't

27:41

want to read it and what was the problem. And

27:44

then she told me that she actually

27:46

was having a lot of trouble reading and it was really

27:48

hard for her to read the words and

27:52

read the books. And so then I really

27:54

wanted

27:54

to figure out a way to help her because

27:56

I realized that it was a problem and

27:58

that she needed help. So Anna, how was

28:00

that when you went to your mom

28:03

this past summer? How did that feel to you?

28:05

When I went to my mom and we agreed

28:07

that I needed some sort of help to

28:10

really thrive reading,

28:13

I felt super relieved. I felt

28:15

relieved because I thought

28:17

like something was wrong with me and that I

28:19

just didn't like reading and I just wasn't

28:21

that smart. I really realized

28:24

how I struggled reading in front of the class and

28:26

that was always something I never wanted to do. I

28:28

was always so embarrassed, who sometimes kids would

28:30

laugh when I would mispronounce words.

28:33

And I always have wanted

28:35

to love reading, like my role models, like my mom,

28:37

my dad, and my brother do. They

28:40

always would be talking about books

28:42

at dinner, and my

28:45

older brother would always brag about how many pages he

28:47

read. And I would always be like, how

28:49

is that possible to read that many pages

28:52

in like a short amount of time? And also, how

28:54

is it possible to like reading? I really

28:56

realized that I did not know how

28:59

to decode words at all when I

29:00

went over with my mom

29:03

the sounds of each letter in the alphabet and

29:05

I literally just did not know them. I

29:07

didn't realize there was an important difference between

29:10

i, the i sounds,

29:12

and e, the e sounds. So

29:15

when I found out that it was actually something wrong

29:17

with how I sounded out words, I was

29:19

so relieved and hopeful that I saw the chance

29:22

to love reading and made me understand

29:24

why people love reading, it's because they have a different

29:26

experience while reading than I did. So,

29:28

Susie, I'm wondering, how

29:30

is being a mom

29:34

similar to being a teacher and how is it

29:36

different? So, like, when you saw Anna struggling

29:38

with reading, how does that compare with the kids in your

29:40

classroom?

29:42

I think in both cases, just

29:44

with my kids and my students,

29:46

I definitely think of my kids also just in

29:48

the classroom. I want

29:51

them all to reach

29:53

their full potential and to believe

29:55

in themselves and not think that

29:57

it's something that's wrong with them.

30:00

if they're having trouble, but

30:02

it's something that we can work together

30:04

to become stronger.

30:07

Did my struggles with reading change anything about how

30:09

you teach reading to your students?

30:11

So it absolutely did. It really

30:14

made me focus even more

30:16

on decoding strategies and

30:18

making sure every one of

30:21

my first graders have

30:23

the skills themselves to

30:25

decode any word and every word

30:27

that they come across. And Susie,

30:29

were you taught the whole word

30:32

method of teaching reading? So

30:34

when I went to teaching

30:37

school, when I went to grad school, I was

30:39

much more taught the whole word

30:43

or whole language way

30:45

of teaching reading, where there wasn't

30:47

as much emphasis on decoding

30:50

or sounding the words out. And I've really

30:52

flipped my teaching

30:56

to really focus so much

30:58

more on those decoding and

31:00

the sounding out words. Are

31:03

you seeing that flip happening with

31:06

other schools and teachers?

31:08

I am, I mean, I talk to teachers

31:10

all the time at different

31:13

schools and about this and sold

31:15

a story, I think really articulated

31:19

what teachers are seeing, how

31:21

different teachers have learned. And so it's really

31:23

helped me just even

31:26

learn, I think as a teacher, you're always learning

31:28

more. And so for me, it's been pretty

31:31

amazing and

31:33

great to really learn all

31:36

this information, all this research, and

31:39

then transition that and put it into

31:41

my teaching. That's amazing. I think

31:43

it's really good for kids to know too that your teachers

31:45

are learning all the time and

31:48

they're figuring out

31:49

the best way to teach and you

31:52

never stop learning, even when you're a grownup. Exactly.

31:56

And Anna, I would love to know what you

31:58

want to say to kids listening to this. I'm sure

32:00

that we have a lot of listeners who've had struggles

32:02

with reading and it might

32:04

make them feel bad. Like you said you

32:06

felt like maybe you just weren't smart, which is clearly

32:09

not true.

32:11

So what do you wanna tell our listeners listening today?

32:14

I want every listener to know that even

32:16

though we

32:17

hear from parents and teachers and friends

32:19

that reading is this great fun

32:21

thing, that it can also be really frustrating

32:24

and that you're not alone or you're not being lazy

32:27

or you're not bored or unsmart.

32:29

if you really just don't wanna read, it's

32:32

just because it's frustrating when you're first learning.

32:34

And even if you're older, you're still

32:37

learning and it's not your fault.

32:39

And it's a process, the tutoring

32:42

process that I'm in right now for reading and

32:45

how it can be really frustrating and how it can

32:47

seem tedious and just improving

32:50

is hard. And it's not this

32:52

easy switch that will occur.

32:55

You really have to work and you have to engrave

32:57

this in your brain. And I think

32:59

it's really important, and I'm still learning how

33:01

to do this, but stay patient and really realize

33:04

that the end goal will be worth it.

33:06

And also just the most important

33:08

thing that Anna did, I think she asked

33:10

for help. And I think that that's something that

33:13

whether you're in first grade, whether

33:15

you're a ninth grader, whether you're a grownup,

33:17

if you're having trouble and you're

33:20

not sure why and you don't

33:22

know why these things aren't coming together, that

33:24

it's so important just to ask for help.

33:26

You can ask your grownup, you can ask a teacher,

33:29

but I think that that's the way that

33:32

we were able to help Anna, is because she

33:34

spoke up and she could say,

33:36

I need help. I'm so glad

33:38

that my mom was so helpful

33:40

and supportive and she really reassured me

33:43

that it wasn't my fault. And I'm so thankful

33:45

that my mom was so helpful

33:47

and supportive in the process.

33:49

And I'm just so proud of Anna for coming

33:52

and saying that she needed help, but

33:54

then also being willing to put in the

33:57

work that she needs to put in to go through.

34:00

all this to really connect those sounds

34:02

with the letters and she has really

34:05

been committed and so I'm very

34:07

proud of her for doing that

34:10

and I'm just I'm so excited and happy

34:12

for her that we're

34:13

figuring this out.

34:20

Human brains are usually pretty good at

34:22

learning to move and communicate without

34:25

much help. But reading is different because

34:27

it's such a new skill for our species. Research

34:30

says the best way to learn to read is

34:32

to start by learning the letters and

34:34

the sounds that go with them and then

34:36

sound out words letter by letter until

34:38

you get so good your brain can recognize

34:41

words super fast. Not everyone

34:43

was taught to read this way though. If you

34:45

want to get better at reading there are lots

34:47

of ways to do it. Just ask for help.

34:50

That's it for this episode of Brains

34:52

On. This episode was produced by

34:55

Molly Bloom, Rosie Dupont, Anna

34:57

Goldfield, Aron Woldislassie,

34:59

Anna Wegol, Nico Gonzalez-Whistler,

35:02

Molly Quinlan, Ruby Guthrie, and

35:04

Mark Sanchez. Many super duper

35:06

special thanks to Emily Hanford for her reporting

35:09

and helping us with this episode. We

35:12

highly recommend listening to her whole

35:14

series, Sold a Story. You

35:16

can find it wherever you listen to brains on or

35:18

at soldastory.org.

35:20

Our editors are Sandin Totten

35:22

and Shayla Farzon. This episode was sound

35:24

designed by Rachel Breeze and we had engineering

35:26

help from Gary O'Keefe and Derek Ramirez.

35:29

Beth Perlman is our executive producer. The

35:31

executives in charge of APM Studios are Chandra

35:33

Kavati, Alex Shaffert and Joanne Griffith. Special

35:36

thanks to Susie Brandmeyer. Brains On

35:38

is a non-profit public radio program.

35:41

There are lots of ways to support the show. Head

35:43

to brainson.org. While you're there,

35:46

you can send in questions. And fan art.

35:48

We love getting fan art from you.

35:50

You can also subscribe to

35:52

our Smarty Pass. When you do, you'll

35:54

You can add free episodes and super special

35:57

bonus stuff. smartypass.org.

36:01

okay anna are you

36:03

ready to hear the mystery sound again yes

36:06

i'm really excited see what it is

36:08

me to

36:13

any

36:13

new thoughts i don't know i'm so

36:15

sticking with my page

36:17

flip theory very

36:20

good theory i have no idea what it is either and

36:22

that's what i thought to oh so let's see

36:24

if our brains got it here

36:27

is the answer i am sam i'm

36:29

marianne and i was a sound of

36:32

us funding the pages of a buck

36:34

hey yeah anna

36:37

so good i'm actually here

36:39

is nice work now

36:44

it's time for the brains honor roll

36:47

these are the kids who keep the show going with their questions

36:49

ideas mystery sounds joins and high fives

36:52

as me and cleo from philadelphia june and

36:54

carry from raleigh north carolina you live

36:56

from spokane washington many from fargo

36:58

harrison from santa monica california know

37:01

if from vancouver miles from tennessee my

37:03

a for minneapolis martha from force like minnesota

37:05

simon from los angeles wesley and anneliese

37:07

from rockford illinois jason from cupertino

37:10

california viola from seattle

37:12

parker from dover ohio christopher from

37:14

ashburn virginia coal be asher rent and

37:16

milo from belvedere illinois sam

37:18

from exit or rhode island poppy from toronto natan

37:20

samantha from stamford connecticut kazuki

37:23

from san jose california hayward from richmond

37:25

british columbia navi from olympia washington

37:27

julian from wakefield comeback kathy

37:30

from washington d c aditya from big

37:32

rapids michigan you lie in arthur from

37:34

new york city matty from brooklyn new york autumn

37:36

from floyd virginia jimmy from some members washington

37:39

grayson seth from portland oregon exuviae

37:41

hugo and tell from johannesburg south africa

37:43

dj from garner bill new york jonathan from

37:46

north andover massachusetts cruelty from miami

37:48

clarke from pittsburgh emily from keeley england

37:50

ryan from sterling massachusetts leo from pittsford

37:53

new york a wire from sydney australia a mirror

37:55

and carbon from memphis tennessee reese

37:57

after in drake from harrisburg south dakota

37:59

know he and Ali from Spokane, Washington,

38:01

Logan and Myla from West Midlands, England, Leo

38:04

from Manchester, UK, Jaden from Simi

38:06

Valley, California, Evelyn in Midtram, Bangor,

38:08

Maine, Elliott from Mount Airy, North Carolina,

38:10

Tebow from Hillsborough, California, Lucas

38:13

from Flowery Branch, Georgia, Jack from Benicia,

38:15

California, Hazel from San Carlos, California,

38:18

Vichay from Frisco, Texas, Elliott from San

38:20

Francisco, Corbin from Gresham, Oregon, Charlie,

38:22

Daniel and Liam from St. Louis, Dulce

38:24

from Hobart, Australia, Matthew from San Diego,

38:26

Phoebe and Owen from Santa Barbara, Aria

38:29

from St. Louis, Axel from Perth, Australia, Noah

38:31

and Sami from Decker, Indiana, Sophia from

38:33

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, Brendan, Donovan, Catalina,

38:36

Lucia, Elena and Isabella from Kailua,

38:38

Hawaii, Ellie and Henry from Shoreview,

38:40

Minnesota, Dexter and Phoenix from Yorba Linda,

38:42

California, and Ada from St. Paul, Minnesota.

38:45

["I Fight"] In

38:47

time, I fight. We'll

38:54

be back next week with more answers to your

38:56

questions. Thanks for listening.