Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters

April 6, 2017

Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters

Kylene Beers and Robert E. Probst are trying to change how we read. In their new book, Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters, the award-winning authors and literacy educators explore a new approach where reading is viewed as a transformational experience rather than a practice of decoding, recalling, and responding to questions. As Bob says, "We're looking for the replacement of artificial and formulaic reading with REAL reading." This week, Kylene and Bob join us in the studio to talk about how teachers can start implementing changes in their classrooms today, ways parents can be reading role models for their children at home, and why it's more important that kids recognize how a text makes them feel than remember the main character's name.

Additional Resources:

Guests:

  • Kylene Beers, EdD, is an internationally known and respected authority in literacy education. She is a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English and has received an NCTE Leadership Award. She has served as a consultant to the National Governor’s Association Education Committee, was the editor of the national literacy journal Voices from the Middle, taught in the College of Education at the University of Houston, held a reading research position in the Comer School Development Program at Yale University School of Medicine, and has most recently served as the Senior Reading Advisor to the Reading and Writing Project at Teachers College, Columbia University.
  • Robert E. Probst, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of English Education at Georgia State University and was a research fellow for Florida International University. He has served as a member on the Conference on English Board of Directors, an NCTE journal columnist, and a member of the NCTE Commission on Reading. He was awarded the NCTE Exemplary Leadership Award presented by the Conference on English Leadership.

Special thanks:

  • Music composed by Lucas Elliot Eberl
  • Sound mix and editing by Daniel Jordan and Christopher Johnson
  • Produced by Emily Morrow

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