The Act of Reading: instructional foundations and policy guidelines

National Council of Teachers of English, 5 Dec 2019.  The NCTE is a significant professional association devoted to improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education.  This short position paper from NCTE is a must-read.  The act of reading is always embedded in purposeful, meaningful activity at all levels.  Even pre-school children learn naturally this way (just as my 3 year old grandson learned /p/ – <p> from Paddle Pop).  It must be meaningful.  Presenting letters in isolation (eg. through a synthetic phonics program) is abstract and robotic  —  it goes against everything we know about learning.