Paul Thomas & SOR- It’s not settled, and it’s not simple: An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

5 Replies

Paul Thomas & SOR- It’s not settled, and it’s not simple: An interview conducted by Dr. Sam Bommarito

I was excited when I found out that Paul Thomas and I would be speaking at the LitCon conference next January and even more excited when Paul agreed this week to do an interview about his book and what he will be saying at LitCon. Here’s a little bit of background about Paul taken from his website:

Now it is time to have a look at the interview. Here are the topics we discussed. They are time stamped.

1. Tell us a little bit about yourself. (01:30)

2. Recent issues of RRQ and P.D. Pearson’s new book have led many to believe that it is “not settled science”.  What is your take on that? (02:50)

3. Does it make any sense to effectively ban selected practices found in balanced approaches to reading, e.g., reading recovery, workshop teaching or guided reading? (6:45)

4. What is your take on some SOR programs, including retention in 3rd grade as a part of the program to raise test scores? (10:47)

5. Cambourne and Crouch recently said we should stop using the Reading Wars metaphor and replace it with the metaphor of the Reading Quilt- with different “sides” adding different pieces to the quilt. Do you see any hope for that point of view? Do you see hope for an end to the divisive discourse?  Do you see hope for ending the reading wars? (13:20)

6. Final thoughts (24:00)

Here is the YouTube interview: https://youtu.be/qoyxLyHP53M

Here is a link to Paul’s Book: https://www.infoagepub.com/products/How-to-End-the-Reading-War-and-Serve-the-Literacy-Needs-of-All-Students

Follow Paul on Twitter: @plthomasEdD 

Here is a link to Paul’s blog: https://radicalscholarship.wordpress.com/

Here is a link to more information about Lou Labrant: https://loulabrant.wordpress.com

Here is a link to the Missouri Reader special issue, which contains the explanation of Cambourne and Crouch’s quilt metaphor and explains why it is a better way of looking at things instead of the Reading Wars metaphor:  https://joom.ag/rXuI

Here is a link to the LitCon conference next January. In addition to Paul and me, my very good friend Mary Howard will also be presenting. See the registration site for details and to discover the many other literacy leaders who will be conducting sessions at the conference: https://literacyconference.org/

Next week, I will be talking about my LitCon presentation. I originally planned to do that this week but wanted to get this interview out as soon as possible.

So, until next week,

Happy Reading and Writing!

Dr. Sam Bommarito (aka, the guy in the middle still taking flak from all sides)

Copyright 2021 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely the view of this author and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization

If you found the blog through Facebook or Twitter, please consider following the blog to make sure you will not miss it.  Use the “follow” entry on the sidebar of the blog.