This new book by cognitive scientist, STANISLAS DEHAENE, is attracting a lot of attention. Called ‘Reading in the Brain – The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention,’ it explains the phenomenon of literacy and its effects on the mind.
A Barnes and Noble essay on the book gives a good intro:
How do we go from sounding out syllables, carefully parsing the phonetics of each word, to becoming fluent readers? And how does this incredibly complicated act become automatic, so that evn ths sntnce cn b quikly undrstd?
All very interesting. We were also struck by the early question in the book: why does phonics work while the whole-language method does not? Ane even more telling, with all the evidence that whole-language does not work, why is it still in so many schools? It points to how little impact science is yet to have on educational practices in the US. despite a growing range of learning software and science based reading programs available.
Here’s a link to the review:
