Supporting Research

Related Articles, Talks & Books by E. D. Hirsch, Jr.

Manhattan Institute Talk, May 4, 2006

The Case for Bringing Content into the Language Arts Block, American Educator, Spring, 2006

Many Americans Can Read But Can’t Comprehend, USA Today, February 25, 2004

Not So Grand a Strategy, Education Next, Spring, 2003

Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge — of Words and of the World, American Educator, Spring, 2003

The Latest Dismal NAEP Scores: Can We Narrow the 4th-Grade Reading Gap? Education Week, May 2, 2001 

Overcoming the Language Gap, American Educator, Summer, 2001

The Knowledge Deficit

The Schools We Need

Cultural Literacy

Background Knowledge and Vocabulary

E. D. Hirsch, Not So Grand a Strategy, Education Next, Spring, 2003

E. D. Hirsch,  Reading Comprehension Requires Knowledge — of Words and of the World, American Educator, Spring, 2003

E. D. Hirsch,  The Latest Dismal NAEP Scores: Can We Narrow the 4th-Grade Reading Gap? Education Week, May 2, 2001 

E. D. Hirsch, Overcoming the Language Gap, American Educator, Summer, 2001

E. D. Hirsch, The Knowledge Deficit

E. D. Hirsch, Cultural Literacy

Nell Duke, “Filling the Great Void: Why We Should Bring Nonfiction into the Early Grades Classroom”

Dan Willingham, “How Knowledge Helps” 

Keith Stanovich and Anne Cunningham, “What Reading Does for the Mind”

Miscellaneous U.S. Sites

National Reading Panel, official website

Children of the Code – a documentary project with many interesting interviews

“10 Years of Brain Imaging Research Shows the Brain Reads Sound by Sound”

Marilyn Jager Adams “The Three-Cueing System.”

Sebastian Wren, “The Three Cueing Systems”

Rayner, Foorman, Perfetti, Pesetsky, Seidenberg, “How Psychological Science Informs the Teaching of Reading”

Marilyn Jager Adams, Beginning to Read: Thinking and Learning about Print

Joseph K. Torgeson and Patricia Mathes, “What Every Teacher Should Know About Phonological Awareness.”

Ted Hirsch, “Teaching Kids to Read.” A paper outlining a McGuinness-influenced approach to early reading instruction, as laid out by veteran Core Knowledge teacher Ted Hirsch.

National Right to Read Foundation a U.S. phonics advocacy group

Don Potter’s Education Page – loaded with interesting links and old phonics primers.

SEDL Reading Research Site

Martin Kozloff’s website

Kerry Hempensall’s website

Diane McGuinness

Diane McGuinness, Why Our Children Can\'t Read and What We Can Do About It: A Scientific Revolution in Reading. Possibly the best single book on teaching decoding.

Diane McGuinness, Early Reading Instruction. Also useful.

Diane McGuinness, “A Prototype for Teaching the English Alphabet Code.” A shorter version of the argument made in Why Our Children Can’t Read.

Carmen McGuinness, Geoffrey McGuinness, Reading Reflex: The Foolproof Phono-Graphix Method for Teaching Your Child to Read. A trade book outlining a linguistic phonics approach.

UK Synthetic Phonics Websites

Jolly Phonics, U.K. Synthetic Phonics program

Synthetic Phonics Teaching Principles. A very brief summary.

Reading Reform Foundation  — U.K. synthetic phonics advocacy group

Debbie Hepplewhite, “Synthetic Phonics: The Politics and the Teaching Principles”

Dyslexics.org.uk — many excellent links

SyntheticPhonics.com  — UK website

Watson and Johnston, A Seven Year Study of the Effects of Synthetic Phonics Teaching on Reading and Spelling Attainment

Jennifer Chew, Phonics: The Holy Grail of Reading.

Jennifer Chew, “Traditional Phonics: What it is and what it is not” (restricted access)

Keith Stanovich

Keith Stanovich, Progress in Understanding Reading: Scientific Foundations and New Frontiers. Terrific book.

Keith Stanovich, “Matthew Effects in Reading”

Keith Stanovich, “Romance and Reality”

Keith Stanovich’s website (with links to many worthwhile articles)

Louisa Moats

Louisa Moats, “Whole Language High Jinx: How to Tell When ‘Scientifically Based Reading Instruction’ Isn’t.”

Louisa Moats, “Teaching Decoding”

Louisa Moats, “How Spelling Supports Reading”

Louisa Moats, Speech to Print: Language Essentials for Teachers

The Speech Sounds Of English: A Video Tutorial With Louisa Moats

The Simple View of Reading

Sebastian Wren’s BalancedReading.com

Sebastian Wren, “Ten Myths of Reading Instruction”

William E. Tunmer and Welsyey A. Hoover, “Phonological Skill and Beginning Reading” (restricted access)

Hugh Catts, Suzanne M. Adlof, Susan Ellis Weismer, “Language Deficits in Poor Comprehenders: A Case for the Simple View of Reading” (summary)

Research summary: The Simple View of Reading: Changes Over Time

Research Summary: The Fourth-Grade Slump: Late Emerging Poor Readers

SEDL, “The Cognitive Foundations of Learning to Read”