A Centrist Perspective on What Tim Shanahan Had to Say in his latest blog post: Analyzing SOR 2.0 by Dr. Sam Bommarito

The “my way or the highway” views expressed by what I call the social media version of SOR are not the only views being shared in the SOR community. I’ve already talked about Seidenberg’s latest pronouncements indicating that while direct, explicit phonics instruction (synthetic phonics instruction) is needed in the early stages of reading development,  readers eventually need to have the focus of instruction shift from explicit to implicit instruction. He called this “achieving escape velocity”.  I wrote an entire blog about this point and how this take-off point is seen by many to correspond to what Clay called a self-extending system LINK. I call this newest vision of SOR,  SOR 2.0.  I see Shanahan’s latest blog as an example of the kind of thinking that goes into SOR 2.0.

Tim Shanahan has a long-standing friendship and collaboration with Tim Rasinski. Tim Rasinski co-authors the book Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading. In that book, Tim and his co-authors maintain that teaching is both an Art and a Science. In a recent Facebook post, Leah Mermelstein called what Shanahan had to say in his post a nuanced point of view. I agree with Leah. Let’s look at the post to see what is involved in that nuanced point of view.

LINK to the blog.

Here are a few key excerpts from Shanahan’s blog.

“Science may contribute to that, but it will never be sufficient. Art must have a place.”

“Maybe we educators start from a better spot. Witness Chase Young, David Paige, and Tim Rasinski’s book, Artfully Teaching the Science of Reading. That title certainly argues for a unity in this regard.”

“Yes, with research, we can identify potentially positive practices. What we can’t do is tell teachers how best to implement these insights in real classrooms. Having everyone mindlessly read a purpose-setting script at the start of a lesson may be a no-brainer. Noticing that some kids neglect that purpose, seems more in the realm of art.”

“Science and art are both about trying to maximize student learning. (bolding is mine)

Science powerfully identifies what has been proven to be workable. I believe only foolish educators would ignore the valuable insights it offers. But those educators must recognize that these findings cannot be implemented successfully without a lot of effort aimed at making them work.

Art, on the other hand, includes everything else that teachers do to increase success. For me, William Faulkner’s definition of art is best: “Art means anything consciously well done.” That’s where patience, careful listening, empathy, rapport, clarity, and persistence come in. Knowing when to double down and when to back off. Implementing a science of reading successfully requires a thoughtful dose of such ingredients – items that may not have shown up in the research study, but which certainly were in the classrooms with the greatest learning.

Remember the old commercial? “Peanut butter and chocolate, chocolate and peanut butter, two great flavors that taste great together.”

Perhaps we need to hire an advertising exec to come up with something like, “Art and science, science and art… two great sources of success that work great together.” (bolding is mine) I doubt that will sell anything, but its heart is in the right place.”

My thoughts about Shanahan’s blog entry.

I’m not saying that Shanahan and Seidenberg view themselves as centrists. I am saying that the ideas they have expressed lately (what I have dubbed SOR 2.0) hold out hope that taking a centrist approach is not only plausible but also ones that I would highly recommend. We may yet be able to find common ground using common sense. Here is the chart I use to explain what I think the centrist approach is all about.

We must all recognize that, over the years,  no one approach has given us all the answers. There is no one science of reading. There is only the Sciences of Reading and all that that implies LINK. As Shanahan rightly points out, the teacher should not have carte blanche to leave out instruction, especially in teaching phonics. On the other hand, I think that the questions of how and when to implement particular practices is clearly part of the art of teaching. We need laws that empower teachers, not restrict them. We need to take the kind of nuanced view about this subject that folks like Shanahan seem to be embracing. Dare to dream!

So, until next week, Happy Reading and Writing.

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

Copyright 2024 by Dr. Sam Bommarito. Views/interpretations expressed here are solely this author’s views and do not necessarily reflect the views of any other person or organization.

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