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Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?
New York Times ^ | October 26, 2018 | Emily Hanford

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 ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: arth; education; frankfurtschool; literacy; phonics; publiceducation; reading; socialism
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Rudolf Flesch wrote "Why Johnny Can't Read" in 1955. Government schools have little incentive to use effective instructional methods, because they are quasi-monopolies.
1 posted on 10/27/2018 7:17:20 AM PDT by reaganaut1
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To: reaganaut1

Phonics.


2 posted on 10/27/2018 7:20:14 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: reaganaut1

Is it because there is more money to be made in continuing problems than in solved problems?


3 posted on 10/27/2018 7:22:37 AM PDT by americas.best.days... ( Donald John Trump has pulled the sword from the stone.)
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To: reaganaut1

Because the job of pubic school teachers is to create good little inctrinated and ignorant socialists, who will vote accordingly one day.

(If unfamiliar with The Frankfurt School, search on it.)


4 posted on 10/27/2018 7:22:54 AM PDT by polymuser (ItÂ’s terrible to contemplate how few politicians are hanged today. - Chesterton)
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To: reaganaut1

I believe it was Henry Ford who said that he doesn’t want intelligent workers, just read workers.

I think you’ll find that attitude throughout the government. If we had intelligent workers, they would be less likely to be fooled and complain and act when they are being screwed over.

That’s not what the government wants.


5 posted on 10/27/2018 7:23:55 AM PDT by Jonty30 (What Islam and secularism have in common is that they are both death by cults.)
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To: reaganaut1

And he was right then and just as right now. Phonics is the key. No “science” necessary. Need a real wake-up call? Pick up a set of McGuffey Readers. See if your child is reading at the levels suggested.


6 posted on 10/27/2018 7:24:11 AM PDT by Mach9
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To: reaganaut1

Funny, I was able to read before I entered Kindergarten. That was 4 decades ago. I don’t trust public schools to do anything right (except for leftist indoctrination and dumbing-down, they’ve got that down pat).


7 posted on 10/27/2018 7:24:45 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj ("It's Slappin' Time !")
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To: miss marmelstein

Phonics.


Still.

This must be one of the NYT’s stopped clock moments. :)


8 posted on 10/27/2018 7:26:14 AM PDT by cuban leaf
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To: cuban leaf

The Times is completely out of its mind - it’s starting to look like The Guardian it is so bad.


9 posted on 10/27/2018 7:27:10 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: reaganaut1

With modern education, we are now effectively taking fourteen years to do what used to be done in eight. Most college bound students spend two years in remedial classes before doing actual college level work.


10 posted on 10/27/2018 7:27:45 AM PDT by yuleeyahoo (The nation which can prefer disgrace to danger is prepared for a master and deserves one. Hamilton)
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To: miss marmelstein

Phonics. Not Whole Language. Not Look Say.


11 posted on 10/27/2018 7:28:20 AM PDT by amihow
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To: reaganaut1

Reason 147,196 to homeschool.

Look see type reading probably works if you want to end reading comprehension at Dick and Jane books, but if you want to really know how to read, especially higher level literature, you simply must know phonics.

Not every kid will enjoy reading though. We have four kids. We homeschooled and graduated them all and used the phonics method.

One worked for many years in a library and bookstore. She loves introducing books to kids and is currently going to college for her library science degree. Another works for a Christian book publisher, wants to become a proofreader and has 247 books on her Christmas list. ( she might get three), The other is an aerospace engineer, so I assume he’s pretty fluent at hard reading. The fourth reads well, but has no enjoyment in books. It is what it is.


12 posted on 10/27/2018 7:29:16 AM PDT by cyclotic ( Democrats must be politically eviscerated, disemboweled and demolished.)
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To: miss marmelstein
---yes---while I almost never even clickon a NYT article this is correct and the disgusting part is we have been going through this "debate" for most of my lifetime.

"Phonics" is the only proper way to learn to read---

13 posted on 10/27/2018 7:29:31 AM PDT by rellimpank (--don't believe anything the media or government says about firearms or explosives--)
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To: reaganaut1

“See Jane run”

The aunt of a friend had a stroke and couldn’t read. She was elderly and had been a teacher. She went back to the way she used to teach her students to read, probably in the ‘40s and ‘50s, and taught herself again...to read.

If an immigrant cannot read in their native language, they will find it nearly impossible to read in another language even with learning the basics of that language.


14 posted on 10/27/2018 7:30:06 AM PDT by huldah1776 ( Vote Pro-life! Allow God to bless America before He avenges the death of the innocent.)
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To: americas.best.days...

It is because our public school reading programs have been purposely dumbed down in order to produce dumber (and easily influenced) citizenry.


15 posted on 10/27/2018 7:30:16 AM PDT by abclily
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To: Jonty30

That certainly has something to do with it.
However, the change in technology has meant
that children no longer have to read to learn.

When I grew up, print was the only way information
could be transmitted, now it’s different.

The advent of VR and future systems is going to change
even the way it’s done today. Not necessarily for the better
either.


16 posted on 10/27/2018 7:31:17 AM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: reaganaut1

“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 ... READ. Not rants on Twitter, but ACTUAL BOOKS.


17 posted on 10/27/2018 7:33:38 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: reaganaut1

Sight reading is best, IMO. Why learn something phonetically only to have to correct and relearn it. Seems like a waste of time. Are spelling cops and reading cops at odds with each other? I read some time ago cities were forced to spend $MMs to change all their street signs back to mixed case letters after some nitwit deemed it best to have them printed in all caps. Seems people don’t quickly recognize words in all caps and it was causing problems for drivers.


18 posted on 10/27/2018 7:35:24 AM PDT by bk1000 (I stand with Trump)
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To: miss marmelstein
Phonics.

You mean Fonics ?

19 posted on 10/27/2018 7:35:50 AM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lost my tagline on Flight MH370. Sorry for the inconvenience.)
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To: UCANSEE2

“kids need to ... READ.”

And before they can read, they need to be read TO by their parents. All the time. I have a picture of Mom reading “Chicken Little” to me, and a picture of my two cousins and me “reading” the book. It’s upside-down, but we were totally into it. We were two.


20 posted on 10/27/2018 7:36:12 AM PDT by MayflowerMadam ("Do not discount anything in which Donald Trump is involved." - Rush Limbaugh)
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