Teaching 1st grader to read, "sounding it out" not allowed?!

me ^ | today | me

[Gennie]

I don't know if anyone has followed a few threads I have put up over the past few years about our school district having "issues". Anyway, our older son is now in first grade and has been bringing home a folder nightly with simple books to read, same as when our daughter was in first grade. I help him nightly to read the book, it takes about 5 minutes and he can essentially read them himself, but because he just graduated to a new level (where the books become harder), some of the words in the new books he cannot get right off the bat. In the past, I have always told him to try to sound out a word if he is having trouble, "cat" would be "cuh-aaaaaa-tttttuh" and so on. Anyway, last night while making dinner, I had him read his assigned book. We came to a page where he did not know what the word "rivers" was. I told him to sound it out, and he told me NO! His teacher told him that they need to follow the "reading strategies" and that is NOT a reading strategy and that if someone tells you to "sound it you", tell them NO. I was shocked, annoyed and then became irritated.

I then looked through his folder and saw that there were two papers in there that were new, one which was a large picture type form of "reading strategies", and listed various ways as to how a child can figure out what a word is. Then there was another paper in there which again said "Miss _ first grade classroom presents reading strategies...Tools for reading!", this was obviously meant for the parents. On the back, it stated the same strategies to use while reading and at the bottom says "Please note: There is no reading strategy that requires students to 'sound out' the word. Many words cannot be ;sounded out; and therefore, this is NOT a strategy taught to students. Please refrain from asking your child to do this when they come to a word they do not know." Image below...



Now I can understand the idea that this not be the LONE method of teaching a child to read, but from what I gathered was told in the classroom and is also indicated on paper, this is a method that the children are not allowed to learn and should tell any adult who thinks otherwise NO! This isn't the first time we've had issues, and told our son that while this may not be something he will learn in school, if he is having difficulty with a word before anything else I would at least want him to try sounding it out, like he has done successfully in the past. Out of curiosity, has anyone dealt with this in their school?

[Westbrook]

When it comes to school, there’s no place like home.

If you can’t homeschool, then make the sacrifices necessary to find a good church or synagogue school.

[cripplecreek]

Sounding words out worked fine for me.

[Jewbacca]

Other than the Carden Method, which is how Israeli kids learn English, I guess.

[cuban leaf]

Everything below the word “please not” is an opinion. And it is an opinion backed up with no facts. I’d ignore it, but first I would talk to the teacher to see what empirical evidence they are using to attempt to change my behavior toward my child. And if I disagree with their position still, then I ignore their warning and give my child information and instruction on “questioning authority”.

[BenKenobi]

There’s absolutely no word that can’t be sounded out.

Case in point, my class collapsed in giggles with Shechem yesterday. :)

[cuban leaf]

—If you can’t homeschool, then make the sacrifices necessary to find a good church or synagogue school.—

You can also try stuff like this:
http://www.khanacademy.org/

Public school is SOOOO 19th century.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

A reading "strategy?"

There is no "strategy" to reading.

I'd get your kid Hooked on Phonics or something like it and tell the affirmative-actioned teachers to F themselves.

[Sacajaweau]

But the majority of words CAN be sounded out...it's why we work in groups early on....tell, bell, well, I realize these are one syllable....but that's the starting gate. And teaching kids to spell words that they aren't told the meaning of is dumb.

See a word. Spell a word. Write a word. Use it in a WRITTEN sentence.

[Tennessee Nana]

Oh poorly educated Nana...

I was told to “sound-it-out” first by my mother and older sisters then by my teachers...

Then in their turn I told my own children and my grandchioldren to do the same...

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

we waz robeded ov a gud lernnin...

:)

[Hodar]

So I guess Phonics has no merit at all, huh?

I wonder if these learned educators would care to compare the literacy rates prior the “improvements” to what they have created now.

It's hard to have respect for teachers, professional respect, when they jump on a ‘New’ idea for the sole reason that it's ‘New’. No need to test the theory, no need to see if this leads to improved results, no need to do any studies whatsoever - just knee-jerk reactions, and consistent drops in the quality of student we are graduating.

Most anyone with an ounce of integrity would find it an insult to their professionalism for the state to create a test to determine whether the student was worthy of a Diploma - yet that is exactly what we have.

To even add more salt to the wound (if pride ever existed) is to compare the results of American students to the rest of the world; and we are falling behind further - year after year. If it wasn't so serious; I'd call it pathetic.

[ArrogantBustard]

Miss Blank is trying, deliberately, willfully, and with malice aforethought, to create illiterates.

Bluntly, she is trying to damage your son's mind.

[M. Thatcher]

I would be in the principal’s office. NO ONE is going to undercut what I tell my children in my own home. And anyone who instructs my child to tell me “No” about anything will be on the receiving end of a lawsuit.

[WOBBLY BOB]

in shop class I used to pound it out.

later days, in the Army, we would shoot it out.

[cripplecreek]

Dear Teacher

Please refrain from stealing my tax dollars to pay for your Cadillac health care plan.

[cuban leaf]

“please not” = “please note”

Doh!

[HOYA97]

I would strongly recommend that you start attending your PTA meetings and see if other parents are having the same concerns you are. I would suspect there is more to the story here. When districts/boards start to introduce strategies like this It makes me ask the question what is the impetus for this change? There are many methods that have been tried for many decades that are very effective. Why the need for change?

[Thane_Banquo]

Being a proficient reader leads to being a proficient thinker. Being a proficient thinker leads to not voting for Democrats. Not voting for Democrats leads to teachers being required to actually WORK for a living, instead of getting exhorbitant pensions in exchange for party donations while doing nothing. Ergo, no sounding out.

Honestly, this stuff is not hard to figure out if you just recognize how liberals benefit from destroying our country.

[KarlInOhio]

That whole idea of associating symbols with sounds is doomed to fail. We'll be switching to Chinese writing or maybe the pre-alphabetic cuneiform or hieroglyphic scripts. Also far too many children have become hooked on phonics and had to be sent to whole word rehab.

[ArrogantBustard]

My morbid curiosity leads me to wonder what it is that Miss Blank considers a “reading strategy”.