Some of the teachers, students, parents and researchers we met in Sold a Story talk about the impact the podcast has had on their lives and in schools — and share some of their hopes and concerns about the “science of reading” movement. Portrai

9: The Aftermath

Apr 4th, 2024 29m 16s

Schools around the country are changing the way they teach reading. And that is having major consequences for people who sold the flawed theory we investigated in Sold a Story. But Lucy Calkins, Irene Fountas and Gay Su Pinnell are fighting bac

Bonus

Introducing: Sold a Story en español

Mar 19th, 2024 6m 19s

A Spanish adaptation of Sold a Story is now available. Hosted by journalist Valeria Fernández, the podcast is condensed into one 58-minute episode, plus a conversation between Fernández and Emily Hanford for Spanish-speaking parents whose child

8: The Impact

May 18th, 2023 28m 24s

Across the country, school districts are dropping textbooks, state legislatures are going so far as to ban teaching methods, and everyone, it seems, is talking about "the science of reading." Things have been changing since Sold a Story was rel

7: Your Words

May 11th, 2023 27m 17s

Voicemails, emails, tweets: We got a lot of messages from people after they heard Sold a Story. In this episode, we bring you some of their voices. A 10-year-old figures out why he has struggled to read. A mom stays up late to binge the podcast

Bonus

[GUEST EPISODE] Brains On: How Do We Learn to Read — and Why is It Hard?

Apr 11th, 2023 39m 36s

This week we have an episode of a show called Brains On. It’s a science podcast for kids from our colleagues at APM. In this episode, Emily joins the Brains On hosts to talk about how people learn to read. Grab the kids in your life and listen

Bonus

[RERELEASE] What the Words Say

Apr 6th, 2023 54m 7s

There are kids like C.J. all over the country. Schools tell their parents they are reading at grade level, but the kids are not. And whether they ever get the help they need can depend a lot on their family income and their race. In this docume

Bonus

[RERELEASE] At a Loss for Words: What's Wrong with How Schools Teach Reading

Mar 30th, 2023 56m 28s

Molly Woodworth had a secret: She couldn’t read very well. She fought her way through text by looking at the first letter of a word and thinking of something that made sense. Reading was slow and laborious. Then she learned that her daughter's

Bonus

[RERELEASE] Hard Words: Why Aren't Our Kids Being Taught to Read?

Mar 23rd, 2023 54m 22s

Jack Silva had a problem. He was the chief academic officer of a school district in Pennsylvania, and more than 40% of the kids in his district were not proficient readers. He didn't know much about how kids learn to read, but he knew he had to

Bonus

[RERELEASE] Hard to Read: How American Schools Fail Kids with Dyslexia

Mar 16th, 2023 57m 14s

The parents knew something wasn’t right. The school said everything would be fine. But their kids weren’t learning how to read. In this documentary, originally published in September 2017, we look at why kids with dyslexia have a hard time gett

6: The Reckoning

2 Nov 17th, 2022 41m 55s

Lucy Calkins says she has learned from the science of reading. She's revised her materials. Fountas and Pinnell have not revised theirs. Their publisher, Heinemann, is still selling some products to teach reading that contain debunked practices

5: The Company

1 Nov 10th, 2022 47m 22s

Teachers call books published by Heinemann their "bibles." The company's products are in schools all over the country. Some of the products used to teach reading are rooted in a debunked idea about how children learn to read. But they've made t

4: The Superstar

1 Nov 3rd, 2022 33m 18s

Teachers sing songs about Teachers College Columbia professor Lucy Calkins. She’s one of the most influential people in American elementary education today. Her admirers call her books bibles. Why didn't she know that scientific research contra

3: The Battle

1 Oct 27th, 2022 41m 9s

President George W. Bush made improving reading instruction a priority. He got Congress to provide money to schools that used reading programs supported by scientific research. But backers of Marie Clay’s cueing idea saw Bush’s Reading First in

2: The Idea

1 Oct 20th, 2022 51m 41s

Sixty years ago, Marie Clay developed a way to teach reading she said would help kids who were falling behind. They’d catch up and never need help again. Today, her program remains popular and her theory about how people read is at the root of

1: The Problem

3 Oct 20th, 2022 32m 47s

Corinne Adams watches her son's lessons during Zoom school and discovers a dismaying truth: He can't read. Little Charlie isn't the only one. Sixty-five percent of fourth graders in the United States are not proficient readers. Kids need to lea