Category: Guest Posts

What’s Going On With The Word Gap?

Written by: Molly McManus, PhD Candidate in Educational Psychology, University of Texas at Austin. Note: We Read Together presents this article in order to facilitate dialogue.  WRT doesn’t officially endorse or support the opinions below.  Why do rich kids end up doing better than poor kids in school? Of late, one common explanation...

Do Kids Need to Like What They’re Reading to Progress?

Written by: Ryan Spencer, Clinical Teaching Specialist; Lecturer in Literacy Education, University of Canberra. When we think of reading for our children, we are often misled into thinking that we need to focus on one type of book, such as picture books or novels in order to practice specific, reading-related...

Kids and Poetry: Reinvention at the Kitchen Table

The first time I gave a creative writing lesson to young children was a complete accident. I was babysitting a brother and a sister in Brooklyn and one of the things I was asked to do was to help them with their homework, involving a certain poem in a...

What Batman, Swearing, and Cigarettes Can Teach Us About Reading

The Batman movie came out in 1989 when I was eight-and-a-half-years old. I didn’t know who Batman was, but I saw the commercial and knew it was very important I see it. My parents were unsympathetic. It’s rated PG-13 for a reason, they said, and I cried in the...