COMING JANUARY 21ST:

There’s a lot of science related to reading that goes beyond phonics–and most schools are using methods that conflict with it, making reading harder than it needs to be. The evidence also indicates that reading and writing should be taught together, with students writing about what they’ve read, but schools generally teach them separately. And both reading and writing are taught separately from content in subjects like history and science.

In Beyond the Science of Reading: Connecting Literacy Instruction to the Science of Learning, education writer Natalie Wexler makes the case for viewing the science related to literacy as part of the overall science of learning. The book explains how schools can provide students with all the benefits of science-informed teaching–and more–by using a content-rich curriculum and explicitly teaching students how to write about that content. Click here to pre-order.

What does it take to narrow the stubborn academic gap between affluent and low-income students? Despite billions of dollars and the best efforts of dedicated reformers, the United States isn’t much closer to solving this problem today than it was 25 years ago. Maybe it’s time to try something different.

The Knowledge Gap: The Hidden Cause of America’s Broken Education System–And How to Fix It focuses on two ideas that have solid evidence behind them but have been mostly overlooked by schools and reformers: immersing children from less-educated families in knowledge about the world, and linking that knowledge to writing instruction. Natalie takes readers inside schools and classrooms, showing them what the predominant skills-focused approach to literacy instruction looks like, explaining how and why it has become so entrenched, and charting possible routes to the knowledge-focused instruction that is our best hope of achieving educational and social equity.

 

Natalie is also the co-author, with Judith C. Hochman, of The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grades — and the second edition, The Writing Revolution 2.0, published in July 2024. Both books provide a clear, step-by-step explanation of how to teach writing and deepen content knowledge at the same time, using the method developed by Dr. Hochman.