(From American Teacher, Oct. 1999)

Teaching reading is a job for an expert, says the AFT, because learning to read, far from being natural and easy, is a complex linguistic achievement. It requires that teachers master a distinct body of knowledge and specific skills for teaching reading.

In a report called Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science, the AFT summarizes research findings about effective reading instruction and calls for improvements based on that research in teacher education programs.

The report notes that research has provided the basis for a consensus among educators and scientists about what constitutes effective reading instruction. Researchers estimate that fully 95 percent of all children can be taught to read if the following teaching strategies are employed:

• Systematic and explicit instruction in phonics, decoding, comprehension and literature appreciation.
• Daily exposure to a variety of texts, both fiction and nonfiction, as well as incentives for children to read independently and with others.
• Vocabulary instruction that emphasizes the relationships among words and among word structure, origin and meaning.
• Instruction in comprehension that includes predicting outcomes, summarizing, clarifying, questioning and visualizing.
• Frequent opportunities to write.

The AFT calls for the development of a core curriculum, based on reading research, for teacher preparation and inservice professional development.

The report notes that many teacher preparation programs have failed to adequately prepare teacher candidates to teach reading. "The fact that teachers need better training to carry out deliberate instruction in reading, spelling and writing should prompt action rather than criticism," notes the report. "It should highlight the existing gap between what teachers need and what they have been given."

To that end, the AFT calls for establishing core standards and entry-level assessments for new teachers; aligning teacher education curricula with standards for students and teacher licensing requirements; creating professional development institutes for professors of education and master teachers; urging developers of instructional materials to improve them according to research findings; and investing in high-quality professional development for teachers.

Already the booklet is having an impact on the public. When it was featured in an article in the Baltimore Sun  in the summer of 1999, the AFT received nearly 200 requests for copies in just two days.

Teaching Reading Is Rocket Science: What Expert Teachers of Reading Should Know and Be Able To Do is available from the AFT for $5 per copy; $3 each when ordering five or more copies. Request item #3720. Send prepaid orders to AFT Order Department, 555 New Jersey Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20001. Attn: L. Ellis.   The report can also be downloaded at: www.aft.org/pubs-reports/downloads/teachers/rocketsci.pdf.