As Maryland state leaders join their peers across the country in pushing for policy reforms grounded in the science of reading, we ask: By focusing primarily on instruction, are we addressing the full range of challenges that impact reading literacy? While improving reading instruction with evidence-based practices is critical, one important question remains unexplored: the impact of our digital culture on children’s ability to develop and maintain sustained, focused, and thoughtful reading skills.
Some might question whether this kind of reading is feasible in today’s fast-paced, distracted digital world. However, as Maryanne Wolf convincingly argues, this level of deep engagement is attainable and essential for developing critical thinking, empathy, and understanding. Wolf describes deep reading as a journey into the “innermost sanctuary” of our hearts and minds. In that space, we don’t just understand or absorb the author’s words; we actively reflect on their ideas, moving beyond them to develop our own. Deep reading nurtures the intellectual and emotional capacities that make us human. So why is this form of reading the one most at risk today?
The science of reading has shown that learning to read is not a natural process, but rather requires explicit and systematic instruction and practice (also here and here). Unlike spoken language, which humans instinctively acquire through exposure and interaction, reading is a skill for which our brains are not biologically programmed. In other words, humans do not learn to read simply by being exposed to books or by watching others read. Therefore, the reading brain must be intentionally built by repurposing and rewiring areas of the brain; the science of reading policy aims to ensure that all children receive the best instruction to achieve this goal. However, we are learning that structured literacy instruction in elementary school is not a one-time thing. To maintain and grow our reading ability, we must actively nurture, use, and protect this magnificent infrastructure that is the reading brain. For, as Wolf argues, the plasticity of the brain is its greatest strength, but also its Achilles heel: what is built can be undone. And that is what our digital culture could be doing.
Research indicates that the habits we develop when reading on screens can reduce our brain’s ability to engage in deep reading. Digital devices overwhelm us with features like endless scrolling, bombard us with distractions like notifications and algorithm-generated suggestions. They overload us with so much content that it only lingers briefly in our minds, rather than being transformed into consolidated knowledge or original thought. When much of our reading is done this way, our ability to engage in slower, more thoughtful reading diminishes. Habits developed for digital reading (like skimming and scanning, which are necessary to handle the volume of information we receive on screens) carry over when we read on paper. However, these defense mechanisms are unnecessary when faced with the simplicity of a printed page, and can impair our attention and patience to engage deeply with the text and, ultimately, our reading comprehension (and here, too).
This reality highlights a dilemma that is not fully recognized within the reading science community: as the country embraces evidence-based reading instruction in primary and secondary schools to improve literacy outcomes, our rapid – and perhaps uncritical – adoption of digital technology may inadvertently undermine these efforts.
Meanwhile, concerns about digital technology have predominantly focused on mental health. However, learning and academic problems are increasingly emerging as important stand-alone concerns that deserve equal attention. For example, a recent Pew survey found that 72 percent of high school teachers consider student phone distraction a “major problem.” Yet less than a quarter of the world’s countries have policies in place to limit smartphone use in schools. In the United States, at least eight states have recently passed regulations to limit student phone use during the school day.
While smartphones are obvious distractions, the conversation about technology in education extends beyond them. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, devices like Chromebooks have become essential tools in American classrooms, exposing students to many of the same distractions as smartphones while simultaneously displacing books and print materials. Perhaps reflecting this shift, the National Council of Teachers of English recently declared that it is time to “relegate book reading and essay writing to the highest level of English language arts education.”
Given these realities, we need a new framework to leverage technology in learning and meet the challenges of the digital age. Reader, come homeMaryanne Wolf proposes a similar approach to dual language learning. In Chapter 8, she outlines a roadmap for building a new kind of bilingual literacy, one that allows students to shift between different reading modes depending on the medium (digital or print) and the purpose of reading. For children ages 0-10, learning to read and developing deep reading skills should occur only in print. During this time, appropriate digital uses would include developing new literacies such as programming and coding, using high-quality developmental games to develop automaticity, and materials that supplement print resources. Around age 10, students can carefully transition to reading in digital formats and receive instruction on how to read deeply across different media. To effectively prepare students for the digital age, we must guide them in navigating both digital and print environments, allowing them to shift cognitive gears as naturally as bilingual speakers shift languages.
Slowing down is also our challenge. Can we pause the rapid adoption and integration of technology into teaching and learning? Can we examine the research to better understand where technology has proven to be an effective teaching tool and where it delivers diminishing returns? Are we brave enough to admit that technology may not be living up to its promise when it comes to creating thriving readers and thinkers?
Currently, reading-focused and technology-focused communities often operate independently, each absorbed in specific concerns, such as debates over the role of phonics or how to enforce bans on phones in schools. While these issues are important, they can cause us to forget the forest for the trees. Perhaps a shared focus on preserving deep reading can help both communities step back and see the bigger picture. Events like the upcoming conversation between Emily Hanford and Maryanne Wolf at Planet Word offer an opportunity for the reading science community to learn about other important factors that can impact literacy. By uniting around this goal, perhaps we can overcome small internal differences and disagreements and focus on this ambitious goal of preserving our best ways of reading, thinking, and writing.
