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Reading Without Nonsense
Teach Reading with current theories.
Paperback
First published January 1, 1978
About the author
Frank Smith
24 books22 followersFrank Smith was a psycholinguist recognized for his contributions in linguistics and cognitive psychology. He was contributor to research on the nature of the reading process together with researchers such as George Armitage Miller, Kenneth S. Goodman (see Ken Goodman), Paul A. Kolers, Jane W. Torrey, Jane Mackworth, Richard Venezky, Robert Calfee, and Julian Hochberg. Smith and Goodman were singled out as originators of the modern psycholinguistic approach to reading instruction.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
September 24, 2014
Below is the review i wrote upon first completing the book in 2014, but upon rereading, after an additional 7 years teaching literacy and reading a great deal about cognitive science, i think the book missed some significant evaluations.
I still think Smith is correct in his view that reading means making meaning from text and this process involves what he calls "a psycholinguistic guessing game." In teaching high school Spanish to students who already knew how to read, this was a useful concept. The text provides some information, but the reader constructs the meaning based on whatever knowledge and experience she may have.
In elementary school this is deeply problematic because it leaves out the most basic chains in the link between text and meaning. Reading a written, alphabetic text is generating a representation of spoken language which the reader must know something about. The phonetics of written text allow a person to approximate the sounds of a spoken language that he can use. Decoding, that is, saying aloud the sounds represented by the visual marks, is not the same thing as reading. Smith is correct about this. But decoding is a precursor to reading and the overwhelming majority of humans with ordinary human brains automatically begin the complex process of constructing meaning from written language when they can generate the sounds of the language.
This book is now more important for knowing the history of the science of reading than as a guide to instructing reading.
Original review that was ignorant of more reading science: "This awesome book takes you through the process of reading and learning to read beginning with how your eyes and the visual parts of your brain process information all the way up to how we make sense of complex text. In a climate where discrete skills are the focus of direct instruction and computerized tests analyze the isolated capabilities of millions of students, it makes me feel like a subversive thinking that the practice of reading is mostly a matter of bringing one's own thinking to understand that written language is just an extension of spoken language. Every teacher, every administrator, every school board member and certainly every policymaker who makes choices about reading instruction would benefit from reading this extremely readable and lucid expert book."
. . . because it would help contextualize the arguments about reading science.
I still think Smith is correct in his view that reading means making meaning from text and this process involves what he calls "a psycholinguistic guessing game." In teaching high school Spanish to students who already knew how to read, this was a useful concept. The text provides some information, but the reader constructs the meaning based on whatever knowledge and experience she may have.
In elementary school this is deeply problematic because it leaves out the most basic chains in the link between text and meaning. Reading a written, alphabetic text is generating a representation of spoken language which the reader must know something about. The phonetics of written text allow a person to approximate the sounds of a spoken language that he can use. Decoding, that is, saying aloud the sounds represented by the visual marks, is not the same thing as reading. Smith is correct about this. But decoding is a precursor to reading and the overwhelming majority of humans with ordinary human brains automatically begin the complex process of constructing meaning from written language when they can generate the sounds of the language.
This book is now more important for knowing the history of the science of reading than as a guide to instructing reading.
Original review that was ignorant of more reading science: "This awesome book takes you through the process of reading and learning to read beginning with how your eyes and the visual parts of your brain process information all the way up to how we make sense of complex text. In a climate where discrete skills are the focus of direct instruction and computerized tests analyze the isolated capabilities of millions of students, it makes me feel like a subversive thinking that the practice of reading is mostly a matter of bringing one's own thinking to understand that written language is just an extension of spoken language. Every teacher, every administrator, every school board member and certainly every policymaker who makes choices about reading instruction would benefit from reading this extremely readable and lucid expert book."
. . . because it would help contextualize the arguments about reading science.
September 17, 2014
Som jag har brottats med den här boken! Frank Smith skriver om vad det är att kunna läsa och hur man lär sig det. När jag började läsa boken förväntade jag mig därför att jag skulle få svaren på dessa frågor. På sätt och vis fick jag det.
Han går igenom båda frågorna väldigt grundligt. Den första är relativt enkel. Den andra frågan – den mest intressanta – hur lär man sig det? besvaras: genom att träna på att läsa. Det är ett ytterst otillfredsställande svar. Jag hade hoppats få tips på hur man lär ut läsning, men det säger Smith att man inte kan. Det man kan göra är att låta barn träna på att läsa, och framför allt få dem att vilja träna.
Smiths argumentation är intressant. Betyget hade blivit högre om det funnits hänvisning till annan forskning
Han går igenom båda frågorna väldigt grundligt. Den första är relativt enkel. Den andra frågan – den mest intressanta – hur lär man sig det? besvaras: genom att träna på att läsa. Det är ett ytterst otillfredsställande svar. Jag hade hoppats få tips på hur man lär ut läsning, men det säger Smith att man inte kan. Det man kan göra är att låta barn träna på att läsa, och framför allt få dem att vilja träna.
Smiths argumentation är intressant. Betyget hade blivit högre om det funnits hänvisning till annan forskning
June 4, 2023
This book is essentially a take down of how reading is taught. Smith details how almost everything educators do to help children learn to read is either counterproductive or doing a down right disservice.
The arguments are over all extremely convincing because of the examples given. Smith goes to great pains to explain the lack of logic at the root of phonics instruction and so many of the other ways we teach reading from testing to poor classroom instruction techniques. The entire chapter on phonics is a mind blowing take down. This book made me pretty much completely anti phonics!
It was a fascinating read to me as a teacher of Chinese and English as a second language. There were countless interesting corollaries between learning for example how to recognize English words and how to recognize Chinese characters. It was also an interesting book to read because of my own experiences growing up with learning disabilities and how much of what was done to correct my being "behind" in reading actually made matters worse. A lot of what was done to correct the problem was mostly counterproductive and unnecessary, according to Smith. Much of what he argued certainly jived with my personal experiences as a learner and teacher.
Over all the book is quite academic. It's certainly accessible for the average reader, but at times a bit annoyingly verbose. Some sections and certain chapters were a little underdeveloped compared to others but these are small issues all things considered.
I would recommend this to any educator and to anyone interesting in language learning or teaching.
The arguments are over all extremely convincing because of the examples given. Smith goes to great pains to explain the lack of logic at the root of phonics instruction and so many of the other ways we teach reading from testing to poor classroom instruction techniques. The entire chapter on phonics is a mind blowing take down. This book made me pretty much completely anti phonics!
It was a fascinating read to me as a teacher of Chinese and English as a second language. There were countless interesting corollaries between learning for example how to recognize English words and how to recognize Chinese characters. It was also an interesting book to read because of my own experiences growing up with learning disabilities and how much of what was done to correct my being "behind" in reading actually made matters worse. A lot of what was done to correct the problem was mostly counterproductive and unnecessary, according to Smith. Much of what he argued certainly jived with my personal experiences as a learner and teacher.
Over all the book is quite academic. It's certainly accessible for the average reader, but at times a bit annoyingly verbose. Some sections and certain chapters were a little underdeveloped compared to others but these are small issues all things considered.
I would recommend this to any educator and to anyone interesting in language learning or teaching.
April 8, 2015
This book is old. I imagine the science of reading, sight and comprehension has moved on a lot since he first wrote it, yet I feel it holds up. I learnt a lot about how the mind interprets words, symbols and meaning from the things we find written on the page. I was pleasantly surprised to find a good amount of contrast between reading in languages like English (which aim to represent sounds) and those like Chinese (which represent meaning but not sound). Recommended to people who have children and also to those who are trying to learn a second language. Lots to absorb from this one, and could be ideally paired with one (or both) of Donalyn Miller's books.
July 10, 2020
An excellent book to really understand how reading is learning. while his book Understanding Reading: A Psycholinguistic Analysis of Reading and Learning to ReadUnderstanding Reading is better in terms of explaining all the research, this is an easier read and covers the same points.
March 23, 2014
Smith challenges many of the conventional ideas surrounding "teaching" reading. He provides thought-provoking insights as to what the nature of the process of "reading" actually is.
Be prepared to have conventional wisdom challenged and to see "teaching reading" from a new perspective!
An excellent, must-read book for teachers of English / Language Arts. All parents, teachers, and administrators involved with education in any way would also benefit from reading this book.
Be prepared to have conventional wisdom challenged and to see "teaching reading" from a new perspective!
An excellent, must-read book for teachers of English / Language Arts. All parents, teachers, and administrators involved with education in any way would also benefit from reading this book.
February 21, 2008
I read this book for a class and it was actually interesting! I agree with many of the author's viewpoints about the teaching of reading. He is a little extremist about using absolutely NO phonics, but makes a great argument for why phonics does not work for many students. Most of the book is easy to read and follow.
December 29, 2008
This book debunks any number of assumptions about reading. The chapter on phonics is a must read for anyone who believes that 'sound it out' makes sense. He looses a star for not citing his sources, which would be helpful. The lack of notations takes some of the authority out of his otherwise passionate defense of sensible reading instruction. Smith is on of the titans of teaching reading.
July 6, 2010
Excellent, no-nonsense book that reminds us how natural an act it can be to read. His main idea that reading must make sense to the learner, and so must reading instruction makes this a very controversial book on literacy.
April 8, 2008
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT!!! Every mom and every teacher in America should read this book! It makes you take a good hard look at teaching reading solely based on phonics.
January 31, 2013
An amazing book. Loved it. "Learning to read involves no special learning skills".
Children learn to read despite the way they are "taught".
Children learn to read despite the way they are "taught".
May 23, 2016
An interesting read, if a little dry.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews