The Right to Read Film
March 3, 2023 9:04 AM Subscribe
The Right to Read film shares the stories of people fighting to provide the ability to read for their kids. The entire film is available to watch for free until March 9. The documentary is by Jenny Mackenzie, and executive produced by LeVar Burton.
LeVar Burton and Jenny Mackenzie speak to the Hollywood Reporter about their documentary:
BURTON One of the reasons that I love this documentary so much is because it locates this problem in the area of civil rights — that early childhood literacy is a civil rights issue. And through that lens, we really see the inequities that we have perpetrated on our kids. These are our kids and we are choosing not to do the best by them, simply to, as you say, line the pockets of a few folks. And I do believe it’s criminal between the Betsy DeVos’ of the world, who are trying to privatize public education and call it choice to the publishers who are governed by and sort of controlled by Texas and Florida because they buy most of the books and so they get most of the say in terms of what gets published.
Sold a Story: How Reading Went So Wrong - the podcasts mentioned by Mackenzie by Emily Hanford in the article about the methods used to teach children to read.
LeVar Burton and Jenny Mackenzie speak to the Hollywood Reporter about their documentary:
BURTON One of the reasons that I love this documentary so much is because it locates this problem in the area of civil rights — that early childhood literacy is a civil rights issue. And through that lens, we really see the inequities that we have perpetrated on our kids. These are our kids and we are choosing not to do the best by them, simply to, as you say, line the pockets of a few folks. And I do believe it’s criminal between the Betsy DeVos’ of the world, who are trying to privatize public education and call it choice to the publishers who are governed by and sort of controlled by Texas and Florida because they buy most of the books and so they get most of the say in terms of what gets published.
Sold a Story: How Reading Went So Wrong - the podcasts mentioned by Mackenzie by Emily Hanford in the article about the methods used to teach children to read.
a bit ironically, is there a way to read a transcript of the film rather than watch it? I have trouble absorbing active media.
posted by The otter lady at 12:49 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by The otter lady at 12:49 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
I have heard about this "whole language" theory, but I've also never seen it in practice. When I was in school, we were taught to sound things out. Later, when I volunteered in the US at a literacy centre for kids, it was a heavily phonics based program.
I have to admit, I have no idea how anyone who thought about it for more than two minutes would dismiss sounding out words or phonics for reading a language written in an alphabet. In English, we use a (almost) phonetic alphabet. We don't have a system based on ideographs, like Chinese (to an extent); our alphabet represents sounds. Sometimes those sounds are really in other languages (like the British pronunciation of "lieutenant" as "leftenant" - the spelling is French), and sometimes they are out of date (like "meat", which used to be said differently from "meet"). As an adult, I do encounter words that aren't said like they are spelled. But even so, for the vast majority of words, sounding it out is the best way to get to know a new word, and maybe I'm mispronouncing it, but at least I'm getting a start at matching the letters to the spoken language.
posted by jb at 12:51 PM on March 3, 2023
I have to admit, I have no idea how anyone who thought about it for more than two minutes would dismiss sounding out words or phonics for reading a language written in an alphabet. In English, we use a (almost) phonetic alphabet. We don't have a system based on ideographs, like Chinese (to an extent); our alphabet represents sounds. Sometimes those sounds are really in other languages (like the British pronunciation of "lieutenant" as "leftenant" - the spelling is French), and sometimes they are out of date (like "meat", which used to be said differently from "meet"). As an adult, I do encounter words that aren't said like they are spelled. But even so, for the vast majority of words, sounding it out is the best way to get to know a new word, and maybe I'm mispronouncing it, but at least I'm getting a start at matching the letters to the spoken language.
posted by jb at 12:51 PM on March 3, 2023
I realise that the program I volunteered at may have been a reaction against the curriculum at the local schools. I wasn't involved with the schools at all, since I didn't have children.
That is another issue with educational policy: it matters a lot, but the only adults who know what is going on are the people in the system (teachers, etc.) and parents. For the rest of us, we'll only find out if we have kids, and who knows what will be happening then.
posted by jb at 12:54 PM on March 3, 2023
That is another issue with educational policy: it matters a lot, but the only adults who know what is going on are the people in the system (teachers, etc.) and parents. For the rest of us, we'll only find out if we have kids, and who knows what will be happening then.
posted by jb at 12:54 PM on March 3, 2023
The otter lady, unfortunately there is not a transcript. There is, however, a discussion guide (in PDF format) that summarizes a lot of key points and provides jumping off points for discussion.
posted by toastyk at 1:37 PM on March 3, 2023
posted by toastyk at 1:37 PM on March 3, 2023
Thank you, toastyk!
posted by The otter lady at 3:48 PM on March 3, 2023
posted by The otter lady at 3:48 PM on March 3, 2023
I was taught with whole words and not phonetics as my older siblings were, and although a very fast reader, struggle with pronounciation. My younger brother struggled to learn to read, eventually helped by a tutor who worked with what is now known to be dyslexia who thirty years on, helped my son who was also dyslexic to learn to read just before she retired.
Learning to read by whole words (Balanced Literacy) alone is an incredibly brute force method. I taught my kids who had no prior literacy to read in a third language and it was such a challenge because - what is a book, what is a word, what is a space between a word, why does this rhyme - and this was at home, surrounded by books and literacy materials, and usually one-to-one, not a full classroom with fixed limited times. ESL teachers are magical.
I have close family with limited literacy due to languages and learning challenges, and phew, life is harder. It cuts off careers, government and financial paperwork has to be gone through with help and the internet is video, not text.
I still don't understand why people push Balanced Literacy. It's just such a bad way to learn to read. I understand the early advocates wanted a way to include more vocabulary and less rules, but it's been shown to be a worse method over and over. No-one homeschooling uses it - even those stupid Bob books are phonics really.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:47 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
Learning to read by whole words (Balanced Literacy) alone is an incredibly brute force method. I taught my kids who had no prior literacy to read in a third language and it was such a challenge because - what is a book, what is a word, what is a space between a word, why does this rhyme - and this was at home, surrounded by books and literacy materials, and usually one-to-one, not a full classroom with fixed limited times. ESL teachers are magical.
I have close family with limited literacy due to languages and learning challenges, and phew, life is harder. It cuts off careers, government and financial paperwork has to be gone through with help and the internet is video, not text.
I still don't understand why people push Balanced Literacy. It's just such a bad way to learn to read. I understand the early advocates wanted a way to include more vocabulary and less rules, but it's been shown to be a worse method over and over. No-one homeschooling uses it - even those stupid Bob books are phonics really.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 6:47 PM on March 3, 2023 [1 favorite]
I finished watching this, and I had multiple thoughts:
1. I was very privileged to be able to hire a tutor for my kids at the beginning of the pandemic, and she is now a literacy specialist for her district. She was and is amazing, and she explained exactly how she taught my kids to read - with both phonetics and context, and also with my older one, able to give her the tools to dive deep and think critically about written works. My kids thrived under her direction, and I think her district is fortunate to have her - she tells me that she is either loved or hated because she is insistent on pushing for doing things according to the established, proven ways.
2. I feel like this fight also parallels the current fight going on over the math curriculum in CA. I asked previously about California's education reform proposal, and I found the answers satisfactory at the time. However, there appears to be ongoing controversy with one of the reform proponents, current Stanford professor Jo Boaler, and seeing the response from other educators, especially educators of color like professor Jelani Nelson, have me wary of accepting the proposed standards on its face. (Right-wingers also turned it into some woke culture war and I am absolutely not interested in that.) I just found this article that cites a study that 4 years of math is beneficial for students - I would need to dig further, but honestly this aligns with my thinking.
3. I actually grew up IN the Oakland school system, and it has been really heartbreaking to watch Oakland have to do these fights over and over again on education. And I had many fantastic, capable teachers! When I was young it was over "Ebonics". They are also fighting school closures.
posted by toastyk at 7:19 AM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
1. I was very privileged to be able to hire a tutor for my kids at the beginning of the pandemic, and she is now a literacy specialist for her district. She was and is amazing, and she explained exactly how she taught my kids to read - with both phonetics and context, and also with my older one, able to give her the tools to dive deep and think critically about written works. My kids thrived under her direction, and I think her district is fortunate to have her - she tells me that she is either loved or hated because she is insistent on pushing for doing things according to the established, proven ways.
2. I feel like this fight also parallels the current fight going on over the math curriculum in CA. I asked previously about California's education reform proposal, and I found the answers satisfactory at the time. However, there appears to be ongoing controversy with one of the reform proponents, current Stanford professor Jo Boaler, and seeing the response from other educators, especially educators of color like professor Jelani Nelson, have me wary of accepting the proposed standards on its face. (Right-wingers also turned it into some woke culture war and I am absolutely not interested in that.) I just found this article that cites a study that 4 years of math is beneficial for students - I would need to dig further, but honestly this aligns with my thinking.
3. I actually grew up IN the Oakland school system, and it has been really heartbreaking to watch Oakland have to do these fights over and over again on education. And I had many fantastic, capable teachers! When I was young it was over "Ebonics". They are also fighting school closures.
posted by toastyk at 7:19 AM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
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