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Why We Have More Than 40 Million Functional Illiterates
American Thinker ^ | 08/24/2015 | By Bruce Deitrick Price

Posted on 08/24/2015 7:00:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind

Hundreds of websites still casually assert what is probably the most destructive sophistry in the history of education:

The Dolch Sight Words [created in the 1940s] are a list of the 220 most frequently used words in the English language. These sight words make up 50 to 70 percent of any general text….Dolch found that children who can identify a certain core group of words by sight could learn to read and comprehend better. Dolch's sight word lists are still widely used today and highly respected by both teachers and parents. These sight words were designed to be learned and mastered by the third grade.

Even at a glance, you may see several problems.  Just because they were “designed to be learned and mastered” by the third grade doesn’t mean they will be.  The majority of children cannot master these words by any grade, if by master you mean name them with automaticity at reading speed

“Respected by both teachers and parents” is a slippery construction that conspicuously omits mention of “reading experts who conduct research.” 

Furthermore, even if these words make up two thirds of a text, that means a child cannot read every third word.  Nothing resembling reading can take place. 

Note that phonics instruction would allow the student to read every word by the second grade.  But the sight-word method promises that by third grade, the children will know a small subset of English words but still remain largely illiterate.  What sort of promise is that?

Even all that is not the full indictment.  Trying to memorize many graphic designs – and that’s what learning to read with sight-words entails – is virtually impossible.  The brain becomes cluttered with hundreds of partly memorized designs, all of which look quite similar.

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Education; Society
KEYWORDS: illiterates; literacy; reading
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1 posted on 08/24/2015 7:00:03 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
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To: SeekAndFind

Because tolerance.


2 posted on 08/24/2015 7:00:56 AM PDT by Old Sarge (I prep because DHS and FEMA told me it was a good idea...)
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To: SeekAndFind

A fair percentage of those appear to be “professors” in our lib arts departments.


3 posted on 08/24/2015 7:01:22 AM PDT by Da Coyote (Di)
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To: SeekAndFind

But they be old skool - we noo skool


4 posted on 08/24/2015 7:02:27 AM PDT by Mr. K (If it is HilLIARy -vs- Jeb! then I am writing-in Palin/Cruz)
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To: SeekAndFind

Most in the NFL and NBA?...


5 posted on 08/24/2015 7:02:53 AM PDT by Resolute Conservative
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To: SeekAndFind

An Illiterate People are a Controllable People.?


6 posted on 08/24/2015 7:02:59 AM PDT by MeshugeMikey ("Never, Never, Never, Give Up," Winston Churchill ><>)
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To: SeekAndFind

Ask the liberals...


7 posted on 08/24/2015 7:02:59 AM PDT by Hotlanta Mike ('You can avoid reality, but you canÂ’t avoid the consequences of avoiding reality.Â’)
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To: SeekAndFind

How many illegals are here? 20 million Plus? There’s half the problem


8 posted on 08/24/2015 7:04:20 AM PDT by goodnesswins (hey..Wussie Americans....ISIS is coming. Are you ready?)
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To: SeekAndFind

Well, we don’t have to worry about them being offended by this article. They’ll never know.


9 posted on 08/24/2015 7:04:35 AM PDT by GreenHornet
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To: SeekAndFind

Dolche Sight Words and because 15% of our population is foreign born.


10 posted on 08/24/2015 7:05:54 AM PDT by skeeter
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To: SeekAndFind
The two biggest sources of Functional Illiterates are:

  1. Publik Skoolz
  2. Imported third worlders

    . . . in that order.

And, yeah, I was reading simple books by second grade and fairly complex books by grade four. As were most American kids who were lucky enough to complete elementary school in the 1960s.

11 posted on 08/24/2015 7:06:37 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: goodnesswins

RE: How many illegals are here? 20 million Plus? There’s half the problem

We have to ask the author if illegals are counted in the mix. If not, then the problem is even more dire.


12 posted on 08/24/2015 7:06:43 AM PDT by SeekAndFind (qu)
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To: SeekAndFind

Illegal immigrants only increase this dismal statistic.


13 posted on 08/24/2015 7:07:19 AM PDT by monocle
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To: SeekAndFind
Immigration.

There are 10.4 million students from immigrant households in public schools, accounting for one in five public school students. Of these students, 78 percent speak a language other than English at home. Overall, one in four public school students now speaks a language other than English at home.

14 posted on 08/24/2015 7:09:42 AM PDT by kabar
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To: SeekAndFind

Irony = See prior thread title.


15 posted on 08/24/2015 7:10:13 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus-)
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To: monocle

As do legal immigrants even if they are supposed to speak English.


16 posted on 08/24/2015 7:10:30 AM PDT by kabar
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To: Vigilanteman
Publik Skoolz

Imported third worlders . . . in that order.

Publik skoolz AND the teecherz youyuns

17 posted on 08/24/2015 7:10:38 AM PDT by immadashell (The inmates are running the asylum.)
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To: SeekAndFind

18 posted on 08/24/2015 7:11:04 AM PDT by Gamecock (Many Atheists: "There is no God and I hate Him!")
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To: immadashell
Publik skoolz ARE the teecherz youyuns

No AND involved.

19 posted on 08/24/2015 7:12:54 AM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: SeekAndFind

So how is it that Chinese kids learn to read?

Just throw’in bombs. All my kids learned phonics because they were home schooled.


20 posted on 08/24/2015 7:13:17 AM PDT by Politically Correct (A member of the rabble in good standing)
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