The so-called “Reading Wars” have been heating-up lately (see The Best Resources For Learning About Balanced Literacy & The “Reading Wars”).

I tend to think that some phonics advocates are doing more of the “heating-up” by arguing against a “straw-man” by saying their opponents don’t support phonics.  I don’t know any teachers who are actually against phonics, including myself.  I’m against phonics being used in a drill-and-kill way, which is how I have often seen it used.  I write about how I teach phonics in The Best Articles & Sites For Teachers & Students To Learn About Phonics.

In the past two days, I’ve seen three new and thoughtful reflections on this issue.  None are behind a paywall, and all are worth checking out:

Getting a read on low literacy scores is from Stanford.

There’s more than one good way to teach kids how to read is from The Conversation.

Reconsidering the Evidence That Systematic Phonics Is More Effective Than Alternative Methods of Reading Instruction is a new meta-analysis of reading instruction research.