STLinATL

Cognitive science has provided solid evidence for strategies like retrieval practice–but those strategies only work if they’re applied to substantive content or transferable skills. Too often, literacy instruction emphasizes isolated skills, such as “making inferences,” which do not easily transfer across subjects. The overwhelming focus on such skills at lower grade levels, combined with a failure to recognize the heavy cognitive load imposed by reading and especially writing, leaves many students without the knowledge and skills assumed by the curriculum later on. Even in the age of AI, it’s crucial to have that knowledge and those skills stored in long-term memory. To unlock every student’s potential, we must dismantle the artificial barriers between reading, writing, and learning—both in research and in the classroom.