How Do Unschoolers Learn to Read? Does Reading Need to Be Explicitly Taught?
Episode 60: How Do Unschoolers Learn to Read? Does Reading Need to Be Explicitly Taught?
On our 60th episode, we are finally talking about Learning to Read! This can be a loaded topic with some proponents of self-directed education and unschooling taking the stand that reading will happen in its own time, versus reading research that strongly suggests otherwise, citing the complexities with learning to read requiring explicit instruction. When our experience doesn’t match the advice or research on either one of those, it can be confusing.
As we discuss this, we try to keep various angles in mind but full disclosure: we do have a lot of trust in a child’s inherent process. The distinction is likely that we also believe that parents and life itself are rich parts of a child’s literacy process and in some cases a child themself may request a supportive or formal resource.
We are grateful to have found a list by Sue Elvis (Stories of an Unschooling Family) from her post,Sharing Some Thoughts on Learning to Read which we used to guide the order of our discussion.
We Discuss:
Children asking to learn to read
Whether the idea of “damaging the relationship” with your child sounds dramatic — thoughts around willingness and consent
Parent agendas, child willingness and ideas of what “unschool-y” might be
Whether while some of the research around reading not being a natural skill to learn could be true, it could still be learnable on a child’s own time table
Whether the success of reading programs is relative to the child’s experience of being in the school system and being relieved to make some improvement
That the research doesn’t take into consideration what happens if we wait for a child to be older and ready
Learning to read later — challenging in the school system but potential beneficial developmentally
How learning to read is not necessarily linear
The attention that gets put on reading and the reality that not everyone becomes a reader
Highlighting and spending time on kids’ strengths as opposed to mainly their weaker areas
The limits of “windows of opportunity” in considering child development
The “reading wars” and how sometimes debunked reading approaches are actually the ones our children use for themselves
Keeping an open mind and thinking critically about what you hear about reading as well as the source it’s from
Moving away from assessment — honouring the privacy and mystery of a child’s learning
Learning to read through a passion or interest
Whether learning to read is linear — the idea of missing skills or stages of learning
The universal love of “story” beyond the actual act of reading
The testing of comprehension as a barrier to relaxing into a story
Opportunities for kids to read aloud to people (and pets!) as a way to share a story and connection without interruption
That when our child has built trust with us, there can be space to suggest an opportunity to move beyond a comfortable routine (eg. a child asking to have a word spelled) and see if they’re interested
That a parent’s readiness for a child to read is often different than a child’s own readiness
Movement while being read to
Library book choices — giving space for both the child and parent to choose
Sneaky learning/stealth learning and being honest with ourselves, about intention
The validity of using a curriculum and measured approach if it’s a better fit for the parent or child
Resources:
Sharing Some Thoughts on Learning to Read - Sue Elvis, Stories of an Unschooling Family
Unschooling and reading: my daughter’s journey so far - Cyrille Tignard, Unschooling and Thriving
How Pokémon Sealed our Unschooling Fate - Missy Willis, Let ‘em Go Barefoot
Spot the Learning - Virtual Kitchen Table
Learning to Read 1 - Esther Jones, A Place on a Hill
Reading Doesn’t Need to Be Taught - Sara, Happiness is Here
Unschooling and Learning to Read - Sue Patterson, Unschooling Mom 2 Mom
8 Benefits to Learning to Read Later - Hayley, Taking a Kinder Path