Look Jane Look. See Spot.  See Spot Run.  I do, Dick.  I see Spot Run.


These are the words I learned to read by.  I followed Dick and Jane all over their little community.  I read as they chased Spot all around the town and threw a ball for Spot to chase.  When I looked at Spot run, I was soon able to read the words book, took, shook, and many others that ended -ook.  Dick soon taught me to read stick, pick, and lick.  If I could see, I could soon see a tree, or see a bee, or hurt my knee.  If Dick threw the ball, it taught me the words wall, hall, fall, and tall. When it was time for Spot to run, I could have fun in the sun.

  I learned to be intrigued by the words that flew off the page - The words that I could make sense of-the words that  made me into  a reader.  I watched as Sally joined Dick and Jane on their adventures.  I longed for a dog like Spot. I wanted to  throw a ball  for Spot to chase.  I wanted to go with Dick and Jane as they called for one another to come.  Come see.  Come see Spot run.  I wanted to ride in the family's blue car to the farm to pick apples.  I wanted to go on all of the adventures that Dick and Jane were going on in their car.

Yes, I realize the books were not "politically correct."  I went to school with African American children.  I do not remember any of them ever standing up and saying "I will not read anymore about only Caucasian people."  I think they were excited as I was just to be reading.  It seemed that all of us were learning to read.  There were no children left behind. 

I wasn't bored with the words I was reading either.  I was excited that I could read.  I was excited that one word could lead to another word.  I wasn't bored even though new research says I was.  I was learning to read.  (That's the thing about research. The researchers can make it say what they want it to.)

Now we are trying to implement Common Core.  Part of the foundation of that is that students aren't reading complex text. "The text students have been reading over the last 50 years have trended down in difficulty. In other words there's been a dumbing down of the material..." (1)   I realize Dick and Jane may not be considered to be  complex text, but they did give me a foundation to read. This is the text I learned to read with 50 years ago.    Not wanting to brag, but I feel like I am a pretty good reader.  I feel like I have always been a good reader.  I got my start with Dick and Jane.    Learning to read with Dick and Jane now leaves me with an "I wonder."  I wonder if kids were taught with that old boring stuff like Dick and Jane, the kind of reading I cut my teeth on,  would they be able to read more complex text? 

Common Core tells us we need to change the way we are teaching kids to read.  "What we will see as we move into the Common Core State Standards is that we can no longer merely fix the problem by throwing a new reading strategy at it. We must now change the way we teach." (1)  Maybe we need to change back to the way we taught 50 years ago.  The way so many of us learned to read. 

Tonight I sat and visited with three other ladies.  Three ladies who are well educated and have my utmost respect.  Three ladies who also learned to read with Dick and Jane.  As we sat having our professional conversations, I began to think what the four of us have accomplished.  We had to be excellent readers to do the things we have been able to do.   I have to wonder if Dick and Jane are really that bad of people?  Is Spot chasing a ball really that bad of a thing?  Maybe if we went and saw what Dick and Jane saw, we wouldn't have this problem of students not being able to read the difficult text.  Maybe students today need to Come see.  Come see how to learn to read.

In the end what matters is that we get a good start and we learn to love the words and love the fact we can read the words.  When we are able to make kids fall in love with that, we will have hooked them on reading  and they too will become readers who can read the text that is set before them.   Maybe we need to set before them a little Dick and Jane and let kids fall in love with success in reading simple words leading them to love reading overall.

(1)http://www.definingthecore.com/training/introCommonCore/html/1_6.html