Posted on 04/22/2015 1:48:12 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
This short graphic video explains why phonics is what matters, and almost everything else they add in the public schools is a waste of time.
When possible, the Education Establishment will banish phonics on the grounds that it is irrelevant and doesn't work. But even when they admit some phonics into the schools, these malevolent ideologues will try to encumber the whole learning process to such a degree that children learn at half-speed, if they learn at all.
All the phonics experts say they can teach almost all children to read in the first grade. That should be the gold standard. If you've got a school in your community where children can hardly read in the second or third grade, you know you've got a deliberate failure.
Reading remains the single biggest problem in the public schools, and as well the single biggest opportunity. Get rid of all the bad methods, and you will have a Renaissance.
(As for which program is best, there seem to be a half-dozen excellent choices. Many people still swear by Samuel Blumenfeld's Alpha Phonics. I know a schoolteacher who raves constantly about Sing Spell Read Write. Don Potter loves Blend Phonics (http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/blend_phonics.html)
As long as the program is systematic phonics, and not some mishmash of phonics and other methods, then you will be okay.
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video link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEaEmGTTqxQ
I don't know how to embed this video. Is there a way?
But not for long. By the second grade, I was plowing through 200 pages a day. It is a direct transfer of the author’s written words into your brain, without any sounds involved.
Slaves are forbidden to learn to read.
My how the times haven't changed!
I learned on phonics. By the time I was around 2nd or 3rd grade I was able to read just about anything.
While I’m sure I developed a lot of complex vocabulary and understanding after that, I don’t remember spending any amount of time “learning” to read after that point. Learning all the grammar rules of the the English language was a pain but that is different from simply being literate.
In fact, I was bored to tears later on when forced to do spelling exercises in other schools. It was pointless make work since I was at a college reading level by 5th grade and the spelling of most words can be derived from phonics. Only words with a very foreign origin deviate and have to be memorized. Otherwise you can use phonics and grammar rules to work out how a word must be spelled.
I feel terrible for every child who does not learn this. It becomes automatic. A part of how you think that requires no effort. It is a crime not to teach it.
Look up a children’s reading primer from the late 1800s. It will blow your mind. Many if not most adults today would have real trouble reading it.
BTTT.
hmmm... I just heard someone recently say that they couldn’t read when they were in about 6th grade (I think it was Ron Kessler) and he was taught phonics and was able to catch up quickly. Now he’s the author of 20 books
I used McGuffy. It works.
Perhaps your way of learning reading works for only a small percentage of individuals....
Phonics has been shown to be a superior method of teaching reading for decades. However, the education establishment keeps dabbling with variations of the “look say” method that has failed for decades.
I used Hooked on Phonics for all 3 of my babies. By kindergarten, they were reading at a tested level grade 2 (and with the oldest a grade 3). I read at least one age appropriate story to them every day before nap time as well. IMHO, the see and say method is the lazy way of learning. Cat is not Katt. Wrong is not ronj. The funny thing is the method I used took about 15 minutes a day.
Some people have photographic memories and some have perfect pitch. I was just reading about an autistic guy who can hear any music once and then play it on the piano.. These are wonderful abilities. But they don’t tell us anything about the ordinary person’s experience. Second graders who can read 200 pages a day are probably one in 1 million or perhaps 10 million. it’s like being 7 feet tall.
I’m happy for your skills. The bad side of it is that you pretend to say something helpful for the ordinary school situation.
The title is potentially ambiguous. “IS phonics” has nothing to do with the Islamic State. As WJC famously said, it depends on what the meaning of IS is.
I was reading the newspaper and writing cursive before kindergarten.
Thanks! Mom and Dad.
See Sammy the Snake Slither.
Unless it’s French. You’d starve trying to sell “Hooked on Phonics” to them.
You aren’t kidding, I’ve actually gotten pretty good at reading and being able to speak French, but for the life of me to try to understand somebody speaking it is dang near impossible.
My eldest daughter was reading on her own by 4. When we took her to the Catholic elementary school that she ended up attending, the woman who was testing the incoming class of 1st graders came running out into the office area and asked me, excitedly, if I knew she was reading already. Yeah, I said, since she was about 3. Single words at 3, sentences by 4. She is a brilliant girl, though.
When she was in 2nd grade, the Catholic school had children beginning to do cursive. I told my brother, a teacher in a public school for all of his life, that Erin was beginning to learn cursive. He snorted and said that her teacher was going to be disappointed, because my daughter was too young to learn cursive. Well, at the end of the 2nd grade, I told my daughter she should write (cursive) a short letter to her Uncle. She did so, I sent it, I never heard a word back from him.
I think that kids are capable of a lot more than we think. I also think that this drive to get rid of cursive writing completely has some connection to the fact that the teacher would have to teach cursive, and it takes a bit of time. Don't bother, just print everything. I am always shocked by the number of people, even on FR, that don't think writing cursive is at all important. I personally think that adults who can only print would be a pretty sad state of affairs. And, I think the adults themselves agree because there are classes for adults now that teach cursive writing.
Well, that is the goal, and most literate people reach it eventually. You can’t be sounding out words when your boss gives you a 100-page report to look through and comment on.
Most reasonably intelligent people can read directly by the 4th or 5th grade.
My youngest learned to read at 4, and in kindergarten she was going to 6th grade for reading. My husband read stories to the kids every night and my youngest was supposed to pick out every “a” she saw, then every “and,” then every “the.” Before we knew it, she was reading. My grandson learned the alphabet by age 2 from TV, and now he’s reading at 4-1/2. Some kids just pick it up like that, especially if they have good memories.
reading maps and topology aren’t important either, until your ‘Lectronaxs fails...
Then you better have a map and understand what you are looking or do what I have to do sometimes when I hike: Create a map and mark the heck out of it...
I bought the “Hooked on Phonics” package when my Daughter was 2 years old.
I wanted to get ahead of the curve.
Opened the box and quickly realized that a “structured” learning tool was not going to work.
Thankfully, her mother, my ex, had in her nature to talk/speak constantly. Thankfully for my girl but it drove me crazy. When I say constantly I really mean virtually every second of the day she was talking.
I attribute this to my daughters extraordinary verbal and reading skills. She always tested 2 or 3 grades ahead.
While I always read to her at night, she never went through any structured program on “How to read”.
Young children are sponges for new information and IMHO, they will learn as long as their parents engage them directly.
When so-called “parenting” books hit the shelves and were all the rage I was immediately skeptical. There was however one book, I forget the author and think it was titled “Touch points”. He outlined certain stages of a child’s development as they grew up. IIRC, the book wasn’t about “do this or do that”, but about what a parent can expect from their child at these “Touch Points”, transitions if you will.
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