This is Jennifer González welcoming you to episode two 12 of the Cult of Pedagogy podcast in this episode

We're going to be untangling the current debate over reading instruction

I have been running Cult of Pedagogy for over 10 years now and in that time

There have been a few topics I have learned to steer clear of because they insight so much heated debate and I don't feel equipped with enough background knowledge to

Respond in an informed responsible way

Near the top of that list is reading instruction the question of how we should be teaching young children to read

Anytime we got even slightly close to that topic the vitriol that emerged on social media was enough to make me never

Want to touch that hot stove again

Some quick background on me

My experience is in English language arts for grade six or 12

I have no training in teaching early literacy

But I was an early reader myself and I taught all three of my children to read before they started kindergarten

Despite my lack of training, I just intuitively did this using phone toy letters and a set of books called Pupp and Pop

Because I had already taught my kids how to decode I had no idea how those skills were being taught in their primary classrooms

I still don't know

Had I not taken those steps?

I might have noticed what some parents across the country were also noticing that their kids were not learning to decode words

And I probably would have been far more vocal about this on my own platform

Since that was not the case, I'm just getting up to speed now

And I have asked for help from someone whose approach to literacy has always seemed grounded

nuanced and reasoned

Jennifer Serevalo has written over 15 books and other resources about literacy instruction

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