A Response to our Critics: Agreements, Clarifications, and Children

Abstract

Compton-Lilly and colleagues respond to recent critiques of their viewpoint article, Stories Grounded in Decades of Research: What We Truly Know about the Teaching of Reading—published in The Reading Teacher. We first respond to specific concerns raised by our critics. We then discuss recent legislation being enacted in statehouses across the United States that does not reflect current research. Finally, we reiterate two preeminent concerns that were not addressed by our critics: (1) instruction must be responsive to readers and (2) teachers must bring a vast range of expertise to competently serve readers who bring multifaceted literate and experiential knowledge to texts. Reiterating concerns raised by other readings scholars, we worry that attending to microdimensions of arguments creates false binaries, obfuscates important areas of agreement, and distracts attention from what truly matters: children.