Can Bad Education Inflict Brain Damage?

AmericanChronicle.com ^ | November 10, 2009 | Bruce Deitrick Price

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

Did you use Spalding? I don’t remember how I learned to read but I am teaching my children using “Spell to Write and Read” by Wanda Sanseri. She developed the curriculum from Romalda Spalding’s book “The Writing Road to Reading”. It is awesome and I am going to a seminar in April. So excited!

[Peanut Gallery]

Thanks for the ping. This is one reason I picked the curriculum I did when teaching my son.

I had heard about Romalda Spalding and the Spalding Method when I was teaching in public schools but never had the opportunity to use it. The method teaches vertical phonics and spelling, according to the Ayers’ List of most commonly used words in the English language. The vertical phonics approach teaches the 70 basic phonograms. For each phonogram, it teaches all the sounds each phonogram makes (in the order of how often it makes each sound) and how to write each phonogram. In this method, there is no such thing as a sight word. All English words can be spelled using the phonograms according to specific spelling rules. There are no exceptions. What people think of as “exceptions to the rule” are actually borrowed words that follow the spelling rules of their original languages.

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

I love the 70 phonograms cards! My kids learned them so quickly that I was amazed. I used Hooked on Phonics to teach my oldest to read. They use a blend of phonics, sight words and faulty rules etc. I was so glad I found Spell to Write and Read to teach her to spell and to teach reading to my other children. SWR is based on Spalding’s work.

[Clintonfatigued]

I’ll go further- public education inflicts brain damage, even in the better schools.

[Marysecretary]

Ah, two great minds on a single thought, LOL.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Yes, this is a good statement of the dogma.

I have many articles on Improve-Education.org that try to explain this thing (for example, see “40: Sight Words—The Big Stupid”), and a dozen videos on YouTube.

For anyone with just a few minutes to spare, here’s a good new video titled: “Rudolph Flesch Rules The World of Reading.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lia2bacA22c

Also see “Kindergarten Sight Words: Why They Are A Bad Idea.”

The point, finally, is that memorizing large numbers of words as SHAPES is almost impossible. That’s why we have millions of functional illiterates. And even if a kid could name the 300 Dolch words instantly (a rare thing), what does the child do with all the other words on the page?

[metmom]

I was taught sight reading. Dick, Jane, and Spot.

I loved to be able to read but I still remember way back in first grade looking at the new words and thinking with a sinking heart, that that was an awful lot of new words to memorize and how much work it would take.

I don’t ever remember running across a good phonics curriculum until I homeschooled my kids and did Rod & Staff.

[SoftballMominVA]

The majority cannot be spelled phonetically using basic phonetic rules. I have marked those that cannot

•a **(an a by itself says “a” as in cat)
•at
•an
•and
•am
•are **
•can
•do ** (should be o as in dog)
•for
•go **
•have **
•he **
•here **
•in
•I ** (should be i as in sit)
•is
•it
•like **
•look **
•me **
•my
•my**
•no **
•play **
•said **
•see **
•she **
•so **
•the **
•to **
•up
•we **

Silent e’s cannot be sounded, nor can single “o”s or double vowels.

[SoftballMominVA]

should have marked “for” also. The ‘r’ controlled vowels are the devil to sound out

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

Until I started teaching my children to read, I had some of these misconceptions as well. I was so thankful to find a program that taught solid phonics. It really helped me to see that our language makes sense! It was an epiphany.

These words can all be read phonetically if the children are taught good phonics rules plus ALL the sounds that the letters make and are taught that some combinations of letters make distinct sounds(phonograms). For example ‘ph’ together makes the sound /f/ instead of /p/ then /h/. There are about 70 basics phonograms. 26 are the alphabet letters of course and the rest are letter combinations called multi-letter phonograms.
I went through the ones you marked and demonstrated how they can be sounded out.

•a- The letter ‘a’ has 3 sounds, /a/ /A/ /ah/. This word uses the 2nd sound /A/.
•at
•an
•and
•am
•are- This uses phonetics plus silent e rules.
•can
•do- ‘o’ has 3 sounds /o/ /O/ /oo/. This word uses the 3rd sound.
•for
•go- This word uses the second sound of ‘o’.
•have- Phonetics plus silent e rule (English words do not end in V, so a silent e is needed)
•he- ‘e’ has two sounds, /e/ and /E/, here the 2nd sound is used.
•here- This uses the 2nd sound of ‘e’ and silent e rules, the vowel sound changes because of the silent ‘e’
•in
•I- ‘I’has two sounds, /i/ and /I/,the second sound is used here.
•is- ‘s’ has two sounds. /s/ and /z/, the second sound is used.
•it
•like- Second sound of ‘i’ plus silent e rules
•look- ‘oo’ is a multi-letter phonogram that has three sounds /OO/ as in food, /oo/ as in took, and /O/ as in floor, the second sound is used in this word.
•me- Second sound of ‘e’.
•my- ‘y’ has three sounds /y/(yellow), /E/(baby), /I/(my).
•no- Second sound of ‘o’ used here.
•play- ‘ay’ is a multi-letter phonogram that says /A/, may be used at the end of English words.
•said- ‘ai’ is a multiple letter phonogram that says /A/, not used at the end of English words, This word can be exaggerated to read /s/ /A/ /d/. Sounds a little like sayed which is what the word means.
•see- ‘ee’ is a muli-letter phonogram that says /E/
•she- ‘sh’ is a multi-letter phonogram that says /sh/ like hushing someone, ‘e’ uses it’s second sound.
•so- Second sound of ‘o’.
•the ‘th’ is a multi-letter phonogram with 2 sounds, unvoiced as in ‘think’ and voiced as in ‘that’. This word uses the voiced sound and the ‘e’ uses it’s second sound.
•to- Third sound of ‘o’.
•up
•we- Second sound of ‘e’

While silent e’s cannot be sounded out, there are rules governing their usage. Single o’s and double vowels can most certainly be sounded out if you know all the sounds that they make.

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

I have heard good things about Rod and Staff. Did you learn alot along with your children. I have learned so much. I was always a reader and great speller but I have learned WHY things are spelled the way they are. I think I was taught with a blend of phonics and sight words.

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

“should have marked “for” also.”

This is a three letter word with two phonograms
‘f’ and ‘or’, and it sounds just like when you say it in this phrase ‘you or I’.

[SoftballMominVA]

These words can be spelled using spelling rules, true (with the exception of have) but the ones i marked cannot be spelled phonetically, which is by sound

You illustrate my point by listing the needed rules to spell them

Which, btw, your rules are correct for the most part

[SoftballMominVA]

if have followed the spelling rules, it would aways read like the ending of “behave”

have and love are outliers that follow French rules

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

“The majority cannot be spelled phonetically using basic phonetic rules”

This was your first post.

This is the next one.

“You illustrate my point by listing the needed rules to spell them”

You contended that they CAN’T be sounded out using basic phonetics rules and I illustrated that they CAN be sounded using phonics rules. Then you say I made your point by sounding them out with the rules that you say can’t be used. I am not following.

[SoftballMominVA]

•are- This uses phonetics plus silent e rules.

The ‘are’ that follows phonetics plus silent e rules is the are in ‘care’

are is an outlier or an ‘oddball’

•here- This uses the 2nd sound of ‘e’ and silent e rules, the vowel sound changes because of the silent ‘e’

here is an outlier/oddball ‘r’ controlled word following French norman rules

•said- ‘ai’ is a multiple letter phonogram that says /A/, not used at the end of English words, This word can be exaggerated to read /s/ /A/ /d/. Sounds a little like sayed which is what the word means.

‘said’ uses a short e sound such as in head. It follows the Italian Renassaince rules

there are a couple of other issues, but you get my drift I guess

[christianhomeschoolmommaof3]

Are you talking about spelling or reading? We spell phonetically in our homeschool but most people don’t. My original point is that the words in this list can be read phonetically and I showed you how they could be. Spelling and reading are closely related. Most public school teach them as different and unconnected activities but they are not. I taught my son how to read by teaching him how to spell.

[SoftballMominVA]

You said

Here is a sight words list for Pre K: All these can be sounded out phonetically except “said”.

I said

They cannot

you then added phonetically PLUS rules and I agree with that.

Sight words are sight words because they can’t be spelled out with pure phonics, but need the addition of rules for proper spelling

[SoftballMominVA]

Here is a sight words list for Pre K: All these can be sounded out phonetically except “said”

is what you said

and no, they can’t be sounded out with pure phonics, but need the addition of rules to make them sound/spell/read correctly

I have a masters in reading from UVA. I can do this all night

[SoftballMominVA]

I taught my son how to read by teaching him how to spell.

....which is pedagogically correct. Most teachers without a firm background in reading teach spelling and writings as distinct skills separate from the act of reading. I happen to hate ‘spelling lists’ for example

Word study (phonics), comprehension, fluency, and writing are all interconnected - neglecting one or separating the skills causes all areas to be weak and produces a reading with overall weak skills

I looked at the website you linked and it has some good information and quite a bit of truth, especially when it talks about whole language, which I abhor.