S1-01. The Knowledge Gap: Natalie Wexler
10/16/19 • 37 min
2 Listeners
What’s broken in our education system? Natalie joins Susan for a provocative talk about her latest book, The Knowledge Gap, and how a knowledge-based curriculum can change classrooms—and students’ futures.
Quotes
“Kids actually love to learn stuff. They love to feel like they’re experts. It does wonders for their self-esteem.” - Wexler
“Once teachers try it and can see what can happen...they’re going to say ‘I’m never going back to what I was doing before.” - Wexler
Resources
Natalie Wexler’s books:
The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it
The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grade
Natalie Wexler’s articles:
“Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong: The Case for Teaching Kids Stuff” (The Atlantic, August 2019)
“Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years” (The Atlantic, April 2018)
Additional resources:
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham’s education blog
Want to discuss the episode? Join our Facebook group Science of Reading: The Community.
Episode Content Timestamps*
2:00: Introduction: Why is Natalie Wexler?
4:00: The meaning of "content"
6:00: How did the problem of not teaching content evolve? Why do we need to teach content?
10:00: Observations from a knowledge-based classroom
13:00: Education reform and the current attention on knowledge building
17:00: Classroom teachers: Addressing misconceptions and confusion, and insight
26:00: The knowledge gap issue beyond just the individual teacher
34:00: The connection between content and writing
36:00: Top things for listeners to take away from this episode
*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute
What’s broken in our education system? Natalie joins Susan for a provocative talk about her latest book, The Knowledge Gap, and how a knowledge-based curriculum can change classrooms—and students’ futures.
Quotes
“Kids actually love to learn stuff. They love to feel like they’re experts. It does wonders for their self-esteem.” - Wexler
“Once teachers try it and can see what can happen...they’re going to say ‘I’m never going back to what I was doing before.” - Wexler
Resources
Natalie Wexler’s books:
The Knowledge Gap: The hidden cause of America's broken education system--and how to fix it
The Writing Revolution: A Guide to Advancing Thinking Through Writing in All Subjects and Grade
Natalie Wexler’s articles:
“Elementary Education Has Gone Terribly Wrong: The Case for Teaching Kids Stuff” (The Atlantic, August 2019)
“Why American Students Haven't Gotten Better at Reading in 20 Years” (The Atlantic, April 2018)
Additional resources:
Cognitive scientist Daniel Willingham’s education blog
Want to discuss the episode? Join our Facebook group Science of Reading: The Community.
Episode Content Timestamps*
2:00: Introduction: Why is Natalie Wexler?
4:00: The meaning of "content"
6:00: How did the problem of not teaching content evolve? Why do we need to teach content?
10:00: Observations from a knowledge-based classroom
13:00: Education reform and the current attention on knowledge building
17:00: Classroom teachers: Addressing misconceptions and confusion, and insight
26:00: The knowledge gap issue beyond just the individual teacher
34:00: The connection between content and writing
36:00: Top things for listeners to take away from this episode
*Timestamps are approximate, rounded to nearest minute
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S1-02. Background knowledge and education reform: Robert Pondiscio
Robert shares what inspired him to embark upon his esteemed career path and how we must acknowledge and address that children come to school from different places and backgrounds along their language trajectory in our schools. Susan and Robert discuss the latest in education reform, the knowledge gap, how it is only going to get larger as kids move through grades, the limited time we have to correct it, and how to start doing so.
Quotes:
“Language is heavily dependent upon readers making correct inferences about context, and that’s background knowledge.”
“Language is a series of inference-making, that’s all knowledge-dependent. And if we’re not operating from the same base of knowledge, it all breaks down.”
Resources:
Robert Pondiscio's book:
How the Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, and the Battle Over School Choice
Robert Pondiscio's articles:
How to improve literacy after elementary school
The lost children of Hirsch: Will a fresh argument for content-rich curricula make a difference?
Additional resources:
"How knowledge helps", an article by Daniel Willingham
Teaching Content is Teaching Reading video by Daniel Willingham
Want to discuss the episode? Join our Facebook group Science of Reading: The Community.
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