Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

There's quite a buzz around about 'Language at the Speed of Sight' by Mark Seidenberg personally recommended by IFERI committee members, Bob Sweet and Jim Rose, - and certainly amongst various circles, quotes are appearing from the book 'at the speed of light'!
Language at the Speed of Sight

How We Read, Why So Many Can't, And What Can Be Done About It
Amazon US:

https://www.amazon.com/Language-Speed-S ... 0465019323

Amazon UK:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Langua ... 0465019323

As I write, I'm personally part way through the book and was waiting until I'd finished it before posting about it. However, imagine my surprise to find a tweet by Mark himself via his blog, here:

https://seidenbergreading.net/2017/03/08/really/
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Sir Jim Rose writes a review for Mark Seidenberg's book in this version of the Learning Difficulties Australia (LDA) Bulletin - Autumn 2017.

See page 22:

https://www.ldaustralia.org/client/docu ... 17_WEB.pdf

Here is the LDA homepage through which you can find some other excellent material and information - well worth perusing:

https://www.ldaustralia.org
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Review by Robert Pondiscio, a senior fellow at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute:

http://educationnext.org/reading-and-wr ... g-science/
Reading and Wronging

How education has ignored the science of reading


By Robert Pondiscio
Indeed, wrath and outrage are the only sane and appropriate responses to the gulf between science and practice that, as Seidenberg notes, places millions of children at risk of reading failure, discriminates against poorer children, and discourages children who might have become successful readers.

Research on cognition, language, and learning is growing exponentially, as is work in neuroscience, behavioral and molecular genetics, and developmental neurobiology. These are “central topics in modern psychology and cognitive science,” Seidenberg writes—and the subjects our teachers-in-training should be studying. Instead, our schools of education continue to focus on 19th- and early 20th-century theorists such as Dewey, Vygotsky, Bruner, Piaget, and Montessori, still treating their work “as the source of axiomatic truth.”

In Language at the Speed of Sight, Mark Seidenberg, our Cassandra of reading, makes a deft attempt to shake our schools of education out of their indifference to the science of reading. I hope he succeeds, because children cannot thrive in school and beyond unless they first earn their “licenses” as proficient readers. What could be more important to our future?
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Mark Seidenberg answers the question about the science of how people learn to read in three very simple, easy to understand, contributing factors:

http://host.madison.com/news/local/scie ... 0d5ac.html
Blue Sky Science: What’s the science of how people learn to read?

Q: What’s the science of how people learn to read?

— Ruby Taggart, 8, Merrimac Community Charter School

A: The science of how children learn to read has been studied in laboratories all around the world, in many languages and different writing systems. For children who are beginning to read, there are three main components.

Mark Seidenberg is the Vilas professor in the department of psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, and What Can Be Done About It.”

Blue Sky Science is a collaboration of the Wisconsin State Journal and the Morgridge Institute for Research. The questions are posed by visitors to Saturday Science events at the Discovery Building, a monthly series that features interactive exploration stations centered around a particular …
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Tim Shanahan recommends Mark's book but also pulls out some interesting quotes and comments on them - do read Tim's whole piece:

http://www.shanahanonliteracy.com/blog/ ... GUPAj.dpbs
A few months ago, I read Mark Seidenberg’s “Language at the Speed of Sight.” Seidenberg is a psychologist who studies reading, and his book is remarkably intelligent, frank, and witty. I think there is an occasional mistake or ambiguity here and there, but overall I was mesmerized.

Typically, I don’t do reviews here and don’t intend to today. Instead, I have pulled several incisive quotes from the text that captured my attention (there were many more, I assure you), and I have added comments of my own. I hope you and your colleagues will read these quotes and discuss them, and, perhaps, as a result, some of you might choose to read the whole book—it’s well worth it.

As you can see from these quotes, Professor Seidenberg has a great deal of knowledge about reading and a sharp tongue, willing to write the truth, even if it is a truth that some may not like to hear.

If you are interested in this book, it is on the recommended book list on my site.
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

Mark Seidenberg is interviewed by Hayley Glatter in The Atlantic:

https://www.theatlantic.com/education/a ... ap/506498/
The Ignored Science That Could Help Close the Achievement Gap

There’s a body of research on cognitive reading processes, so why isn’t it being utilized?
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

Post by Debbie_Hepplewhite »

I'm cross-referencing this thread to an interview piece with Mark Seidenberg:

http://www.iferi.org/iferi_forum/viewto ... 1880#p1880
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Terry Stoops, Director of Education Studies at the John Locke Foundation, comments on Mark Seidenberg's analysis of illiteracy in the USA in Mark's book 'Language at the Speed of Sight':
Teacher Training and the Construction of Illiteracy
https://www.jamesgmartin.center/2018/06 ... lliteracy/
In the United States, only a fortunate few acquire reading proficiency. Scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) have barely budged since 2002. On the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), the U.S. average reading score for fourth-grade students trailed 12 education systems and was not significantly different than 15 others. PIRLS test scores have also seen no measurable improvement since 2001. Similarly, the average score of 15-year-old students on the 2015 Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) reading test was lower than 14 education systems and was not measurably different than the international average—or from the 2003 average score.

In Language at the Speed of Sight: How We Read, Why So Many Can’t, And What Can Be Done About It, Mark Seidenberg, a cognitive neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, takes these test results and other indicators of functional illiteracy seriously. Rather than dismiss the scores from reputable reading tests, he argues that they indicate deeply embedded and systematic shortcomings in how college teacher training programs prepare prospective educators.

It would be misleading to characterize the book as merely an examination of teacher education, pedagogy, or education policy. Seidenberg devotes much of Language at the Speed of Sight to discussing what he has spent a long and distinguished career researching: the science of reading.

In just a handful of chapters, he summarizes an immense body of scientific literature about the acquisition and development of reading skills, dysfunctions that may occur during the process, and the environmental, social, and cognitive barriers to mastery. He recognizes, however, that little of what researchers know about the science of reading informs the training of teachers or their instructional practices. In the final three chapters of the book, Seidenberg explores the disconnect between literacy science and public schooling, and what can be done to address it.
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Video footage of Mark Seidenberg via the National Center for Improving Literacy:
What has scientific research taught us about how children learn to read?

Submitted by: Parents & Families

Posted on: 02/14/2019 - 1:46pm

Topic: Beginning Reading, Interventions
https://improvingliteracy.org/ask-an-ex ... learn-read
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Debbie_Hepplewhite
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Re: Mark Seidenberg's 'Language at the Speed of Sight'

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Hooray - Mark Seidenberg has a blog/site which I have now added to our 'Education Blogs and Websites of Interest' forum - it's a 'must' visit!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1350&p=2770#p2770
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