Posted on 08/03/2017 1:41:47 PM PDT by BruceDeitrickPrice
bfl
Yea, but since public schools are free, why should I care what goes on there?
Bump...
This sight word hoax has been my own personal crusade against the schools my children attend. I see the very things described here in BOTH my sons. They have vocabulary and comprehension skills two grade levels above their current, and yet they both struggle reading and spelling. I have literally had to deprogram them and reorganize how they read by focusing on phonics and correct spelling/grammar.
I have used you materials repeatedly in my confrontations with school administrators trying to “label” my kids, and say that there is nothing wrong with my kids, it is their faulty teaching and curriculum that is the root of their difficulties.
When the tell me “you don’t understand education” I reply with, “neither do you”.
I have finally won after a long battle against the administrators/psychs and their attempts to label my kids as ADHD/Dyslexic, by exposing them for their malpractice and incompetence, and have forced the district to use phonics based program with my kids and that they are to drop the use of sight words for them.
This sight words BS has to be fought and defeated. English is a phonetic language, and I use BDP’s articles as ammunition against these dunderheaded administrators who are left babbling like fools.
Thank you Bruce, you have been a wonderful resource for me as a father.
Really? I learned to read in the fifties, and while we learned to recognize some words initially, we learned to read by phonics. We learned the alphabet and the sounds of each letter, including when letters were "silent." Then, "Sound it out" was the standard instruction. We also learned at an early age to use the dictionary and the pronunciation guides for words. Everyone of us became effectively literate readers.
One word: Phonics.
Must be the Decabet....
Teach via phonics and those sight words will be memorized along the way while the kids learn to read. The sight word emphasis to the detriment or exclusion of phonics prevents kids from learning to read. If memorizing sight words is the goal it will be achieved (but would be achieved sooner by proper application of phonics) and the kids will not actually learn to read. My daughter is teaching her two boys, ages 5 & 3, to read with phonics. Her neighbor is trying hard to make her kids (6 & 7)learn their sight words for school. The 5 y.o. reads, that’s READS. The three y.o. can sound out all of Martha and Josh’s sight words and can sound out and read a lot more than the two public school kids(Mac and Laz are homeschooled) will be able to read by the time they are in 5th grade.
“Memorizing Sight-Words is not easy”
I remember having to memorize sight words in the first grade. Not that difficult.
Same here and it is painful to watch 2nd graders who can read a few dozen words and the ones they have not learned as “sight words” are just smudges on the paper to them. It is incomprehensible that “educated” educators would think that the way to teach an alphabetic language is to treat it as if it were Hieroglyphics or Kanji.
I had that horrible reader when I was in grade school. If I hadn't developed an interest in comic books at that age, I might never have learned to read.
“Yea, but since public schools are free, why should I care what goes on there?”
—
There are many excellent public schools attended by people who could well afford pricey private schools. It’s a choice for them.
.
.
Why are yours in public school? You are spending the time reteaching-”reprogramming” them that you could be using to teach them at home and were they NOT in public school they would not be getting infused with all the social propaganda and leftist fantasy that you might not even notice until it is cemented into their brain cells.
In Why Johnny Can't Read (New York: Macmillan, 1955), Rudolf Flesch exposed the shortcomings of whole-word reading instruction, a practice that stubbornly persists six decades later despite the book being a huge bestseller for years.
1) What is motivating these educators?
2) While I agree totally with your education philosophy, you will not see these reforms in the government schools until there is competition in the form of school choice.
Why does Bruce think his book will have more success in reforming the government schools?
I don’t know about this sight thing, but all reading is shape recognition. No one looks at all the letters in a word as they read.
The school will use your children's success ( due to **your** hard work) to prove how wonderful the government school is.
Honestly....Before a parent goes to the effort to move into a “good” school district, they should first find out how many children are being “after-schooled” or sent to expensive tutoring centers.
I taught myself to read at age four. once I learned the alphabet, my mom bought me a “Little Golden Picture Dictionary” and I taught myself to sound out the “ough” (especially!)words, and had a moment of TOTAL realization when I recognized the word “Garage” with its multiple G sounds, silent E, etc. How tough could learning to read be, if a four-year-old could do it basically alone??
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.