What's the Best Way to Teach Reading?

2026 2 20

Three years ago today, The New York Times asked this question – “What’s the Best Way to Teach Reading?” Here are my thoughts grounded in James Paul Gee’s theories.  

Let’s first unpack the sentence. “Best” way implies there are multiple ways. It also implies that one can measure the different ways and arrive at a winner. “Teach” implies students must be instructed. They can’t just be left on their own to learn to read like they probably learned to speak and walk. And granted, language is a human artifact, something created by and for humans, unlike walking and talking, so maybe it needs teaching or nudging. Well, talking in a certain language does imply human creation as well…but probably a much more visceral process than that of creating a written language that must be written and read.

Teaching reading in school begins with where, a location. The child must attend school and attend reading class. Next variable is when, time. Schools have grades and schedules. Reading is taught in certain grades at a certain times and children are pretty much forced to attend at that time whether they are reading or willing or interested or curious or intrigued. Next there is what? What are they taught to read? Read is a transitive verb, it has an object, so thought must be given to what they will read. A book of their choosing, a letter from their grandparents, words in a video game or a decontextualized set of words with little meaning in a workbook or a work page. Why? I guess because reading is important. So, they need to learn to read. Who? The child. This is the biggest variable as every child is different. They come from different places and contexts with different skills, loves, attitudes, history you name it. Finally comes the how. That is what the debate centers on, not so much the other variables.

The debate rages between whole language, a more natural form learning to read and the more organized approach of phonics instruction.

James Gee argues that the debate about phonics is wildly misplaced. He believes learning is situated; it happens in a particular place at a particular time, shaped by where the child is and what the child is doing. He describes in depth how his grandchild learned the language of Pokémon — a rich, complex language that many adults have not mastered. He also discusses the power of learning the language embedded in video games, systems carefully designed with their own rules and meanings. I have watched my grandson learn to read within video games. These reading experiences took place at home or while playing with friends. They arose naturally, out of the children’s interests. They did not require formal teaching. Children sometimes turned to parents or peers with questions, but there were no classes, textbooks, or tests.

Gee contends that children from well-off families arrive at school with an iceberg of understanding and knowledge. Phonics can help with learning to read; it works on the tip of the iceberg showing above the water. But it is the mass of ice (understanding and knowledge, experience with literacy) beneath the surface that allows a child measurable success in reading. They are familiar with literacy. Their vocabulary is extensive. They are used to engaging in conversations and discussions, even arguments. Gee argues that trying to help disadvantaged kids learn to read with phonics won’t build their iceberg. And the mass of understanding and knowledge is more important in the path to reading than phonics will ever be.

For children of poverty, it is the poverty that must be addressed, and many argue that schools are not the best place to address that problem. (Downey, 2020) (Cunningham, 2021, p. 82) (Caplan, 2018)

Gee (Gee, 2004) argues that learning to read is not an instructional process nor a natural process, but a cultural process, something I will try to address in another post.

 

Caplan, B. (2018). The Case Against Education: Why the Education System is a Waste of Time and Money. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

Cunningham, I. (2021). Self Managed Learning and the New Educational Paradigm. New York: Routledge.

Downey, D. B. (2020). How Schools Really Matter: Why our assumption about schools and inequalit is mostly wrong. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Gee, J. P. (2004). Situated Language and Learning: A critique of traditional schooling. New York: Routledge.