Posted on 12/01/2005 4:25:16 PM PST by ncountylee
LONDON, Dec. 1 (UPI) -- Starting next year, all British school children will learn to read using the traditional technique known as synthetic phonics.
A report released Thursday said that, by the age of 11, children taught by the phonics method are typically three years ahead of others in reading ability. Jim Rose, a former director of the Office of Standards in Education and the report's author, also found that synthetic phonics works best when used alone and not in a combination of methods, the Times of London reported.
Rose recommended that children be taught nothing but phonics until they are 5, followed by a rich exposure to language. Under the present system, phonics is combined with the "look and say" method where whole words are taught.
"I am going to adopt the recommendations in this report to make sure that synthetic phonics is taught systematically and early in British schools as quickly as possible," Education Secretary Ruth Kelly said in a BBC interview.
END
There goes spelling.
Seems like an awfully early cutoff, to me.
This is a proven method of instruction. California threw this out years ago, and the children there paid for it....dearly. In standardized tests, after using the "whole language method" California children scored lowest in the entire nation, scoring above only Guam.
But the NEA and other liberals keep pushing the "whole language" guessing approach anyways.
Excellent. There's nothing more pathetic than watching an adult try to figure out what a word is, when they haven't been taught phonics.
Kids that are taught phonics are sounding out difficult words and reading easily a lot earlier than other kids.
Why it was ever stopped, I can't imagine.
So, how does one use phonics to pronounce "drought", "nought", "worchestershire" and "colour"?
Whole Language is a joke. It teaches "creative spelling" rather than just teaching kids that there is a right and wrong way to spell. Heaven forbid we damage their self-esteem. I taught Language Arts in AZ for 7 years during the height of the whole language movement. I hated it, and was very happy when my principal took it upon himself to switch to a phonics-based program.
It's doesn't matter since no one on the face of the earth knows how to pronounce "worchestershire".
Fantastic news!
I took fonix fo 5 yerz and I spel gude.
So WONDERFUL to hear you say that! There's hope!!
Half-way through Kindergarten, my daughter hadn't even learned all her letters, much less how to read. They spent all their time on self-esteem group therapy type of crap and 'reading' lines like "Brown bear, brown bear what do you see....I see Susie looking at me" ad nauseum. It was absurd!
I pulled her out of school and home schooled her from January to June. She learned to read, perfectly, by the end of February....and was ahead of most students in every class in her reading abilities (and therefore, in learning other subjects) for the rest of her school years.
I'm also very glad that at least Governor Gray Davis did something right in California....forcing all teachers to go back to teaching at least SOME phonics instruction (after seeing how badly, year after year, the children in that state did on reading tests).
Eye took hole languige trayning, and eye can rite reelly wel.
I learned to read with nothing but phonics. I'll take you on in spelling contest anytime, anywhere.
Phonics?????
Why???????????
Can't EVERYONE memorize 100,000 words so they can read the 'whole language' method?
You would win.
You forgot the great George Bernard Shaw's speeling of FISH
GHOTI
Some folks even claim that woostesher sauce has anchovies in it.
"So, how does one use phonics to pronounce "drought", "nought", "worchestershire" and "colour"?"
You learn them the way you learn an idiomatic expression - by exposure. And memorization; those words are exceptions.
My daughter was taught exclusively with "look and say" and it held her back immeasurably. Straight phonics is the way to go, IMHO.
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