Posted on 10/27/2018 7:17:20 AM PDT by reaganaut1
Our children aren’t being taught to read in ways that line up with what scientists have discovered about how people actually learn.
It’s a problem that has been hiding in plain sight for decades. According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress, more than six in 10 fourth graders aren’t proficient readers. It has been this way since testing began. A third of kids can’t read at a basic level.
How do we know that a big part of the problem is how children are being taught? Because reading researchers have done studies in classrooms and clinics, and they’ve shown over and over that virtually all kids can learn to read — if they’re taught with approaches that use what scientists have discovered about how the brain does the work of reading. But many teachers don’t know this science.
What have scientists figured out? First of all, while learning to talk is a natural process that occurs when children are surrounded by spoken language, learning to read is not. To become readers, kids need to learn how the words they know how to say connect to print on the page. They need explicit, systematic phonics instruction. There are hundreds of studies that back this up.
But talk to teachers and many will tell you they learned something different about how children learn to read in their teacher preparation programs. Jennifer Rigney-Carroll, who completed a master’s degree in special education in 2016, told me she was taught that children “read naturally if they have access to books.” Jessica Root, an intervention specialist in Ohio, said she learned “you want to get” children “excited about what they’re reading, find books that they’re interested in, and just read, read, read.” Kathy Bast, an elementary school principal in Pennsylvania, learned the same thing.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Sounds about right. So basically, a sound a week would have everyone reading by the first grade.
My (almost) 17yr old taught himself how to read when he was 3.
I also know that missionaries of my church have translated the bible ( using our alphabet) for people who have no written language. These people do learn to read it fluently in their own language.
This isn't my area of expertise at all but I do know from living in Costa Rica that children in this nation learn to read using phonics.
BTW, did you watch the Cathy Newman interview of Jordan Peterson?
The Mom, a professor of English, initiated my learning to ‘read’ when I was about two years of age. We progressed rapidly to ‘word recognition’ and accelerated that. I thought everyone read 800-1,500 words per minute. Did make me a compulsive reader though, (I’m the person in the rest room checking the T.P. for watermarks......
I teach Latin to K, 1st and 2nd graders. They love it!
Bingo.
This applies in many ways to our approach to medicine, also. And why we keep letting builders build substandard homes in areas with hurricanes and tornados. Lots of money to be made in cleaning up messes which should never have happened, and keeping things in a perpetual substandard state.
One more thing:
It is my understanding the children born deaf have a very hard time learning to read written language and that most do not progress beyond the 3rd grade level. They see each written word as a hieroglyph.
Perhaps there are other Freepers who know more about this subject.
Phonics, good. Sight words, bad. They force the little not-yet-readers to MEMORIZE 1000 sight words in Kindergarten. It confuses them greatly, they learn to guess at shapes and never learn that letters have sounds. Read to your kids, just read. Refuse to teach them sight words. But no ....
I taught my 6 yr old how to read with 2 items, old Dick and Jane style books, and a Paddle that you bounce that little ball with. Took 6 weeks. Teacher said he was Disabled in reading/math, wanting him in a ‘special programs’. Same with Math, his dad wrote a Computer program for the old Commodore 64, simple math flash cards, as there weren’t any to buy, add/subtract, in 6 weeks grades went from D- to A/B’s. They create problems to gain more money for the school system and to label your child. Also improved his attention span. Still hates to read. But he can and I made him sound out the words.
Didn’t have any more Teacher issues.
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