Are schools still pushing sight-reading? My sister was “taught” this way and has had trouble her whole life with spelling and seeing how complex words are constructed. She’s very bright, has an advanced degree in mathematics, but she was hampered by sight-reading.
I was taught phonics and developed a facility for language, scoring 750 on the SAT verbal way back when. I’m certain that the ease I have with language is from having been taught phonics. I can’t see how English can be taught without it.
It isn't. Even those posters who insist that they learned to read by using sight or whole word methods learned by phonics. Somewhere or somehow they made the connection between the shape of the letters and the sounds.
By the way, I find it interesting that those, who learned to read at 3 years old, can remember every detail of the method or methods used.
“I’m certain that the ease I have with language is from having been taught phonics. I can’t see how English can be taught without it.”
It isn’t. The question is whether it a good idea to teach Whole Language BEFORE the kids learn sounds...as they must and will learn sounds in order to read at even basic levels. Apparently a lot of people on this site think it’s just fine to poison kids with Whole Language first.