If it is true, as Jerome L. Rekart asserts at the end (p. 13) of the first chapter of his book, The Cognitive Classroom (New York: Roman & Littlefield, 2013) that "Educators are applied cognitive scientists," then I can think of no better place to seek theory to apply in practice than the books of Daniel Willingham.

This one is no exception: it is concise, highly readable, and contains a plethora of useful information for the instructor at any level. Dr. Willingham has a way of summarizing research that does not attenuate or trivialize it, but rather makes it accessible--and more importantly, usable--for even a dolt like myself. Very highly recommended.

This book contains an overview of cognitive models of the different tasks involved in reading. The strength of this book is its clarity. Each chapter is focused and well structured to make it easy to understand the key points. Each chapter opens with an agenda for that chapter and ends with a summary and implications. The separation of the summary and implications highlights another strength of the books: Willingham's careful separation of what we know from research and ways that can be applied, e.g., in the classroom.

On the theoretical side, the tasks involved in reading are letter recognition, translating letters to sounds, translating sounds to words, figuring out the meanings of words, connecting the meanings of words to extract the meanings of sentences, of sentences to get the meaning of passages, and extracting ideas to get an overall sense of a text. The common theme among these is that at all levels, reading is a statistical process. We see information and it activates an information network. Identification is accomplished when one option is sufficiently more strongly activated than the rest. This is especially interesting in the context of word meanings. We do not represent words with concrete meanings. Rather words/concepts are connected with each other and the strength of connections define words.

On the practical side, the most important tool for improving all of the tasks involved in reading is to do more reading, especially in ways that encourage positive emotional attitudes. This may make improving reading skills seem like a hopeless, circular task. However, Willingham presents some ways of kickstarting the cycle. We can provide opportunities to read for utility (e.g., if kids are interested in pets or cooking, encourage them to read about the topic). We can also encourage positive associations with reading, e.g., bedtime reading, books as gifts, and reading as a family value.

Overall, this was a good read, despite the occasional flow-impacting meta that comes from reading a book about reading. :-) ( )