Why Are We Still Teaching Reading the Wrong Way?

New York Times ^ | October 26, 2018 | Emily Hanford

[mewzilla]

My mother taught me to read before I entered kindergarten. Then publik skrewl proceeded to screw up my spelling by shoving phonetics down my throat.

Grades K-2 were a nightmare.

[MayflowerMadam]

“Sight reading is best, IMO.”

Maybe in music, but I don’t see how you can go wrong with phonics. “Correct and relearn”? I never had to do that and I always was fastest reader in my classes, with best comprehension test results.

I do understand that how people learn is unique to individuals. My husband is dyslexic, but has a PhD in Physics, so he had to take a different — and difficult — path to comprehending what he read.

[NonValueAdded]

Common Core Math, meet Common Core Reading.

[C210N]

Maybe it have a corellary - ephonics.

[Lizavetta]

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

Post of the day. Absolutely correct.

[Track9]

I’ve been thinking the same thing. Really low end people over there.

[TexasKamaAina]

Yes, kids should be read to starting well before they could ever be expected to read. Phonics is absolutely essential. I was in first grade at the height of the look-say method and I am grateful my parents spent time teaching me phonics.

But sight is a good adjunct.

Rough, through, bought, though.

Head, bed.

Knead, feed.

Etc.

[IronJack]

Ignored in this piece is the fact that kids can't read because their teachers are too busy indoctrinating them with leftist pap to hold them to any standards. And the participation-trophy generation can't be flunked because they're too lazy or stupid to learn because that might harm their fragile egos.

So they cruise through their courses without learning squat, while countless academics ponder a question whose answer has been clear for decades.

[UCANSEE2]

but if you want to really know how to read, especially higher level literature, you simply must know phonics.

I understand, given what you said, your devotion to phonics. However, phonics is a made up term derived from the word phonetics. The whole concept of sounding out words has been around for a long, long time, but it doesn't always provide the correct spelling.

What DOES work is to read 'higher level literature'. Even if you don't understand what the words MEAN yet, your exposure to them gives you the correct spelling. Sooner or later, the student will 'hear' the words used and understand their meaning via the context. That info is stored in the brain with the already correct spelling.

That is how to learn how to spell words correctly.

All other methods are Fony.

[PapaBear3625]

I taught all my children to read before kindergarten using Hooked on Phonics. Since they were already reading, it was harder for any “credentialed” teacher to screw them up.

Still wound up home-schooling them eventually.

[UCANSEE2]

Phonics is the key

According to the Phonics concept, how does one spell Phonics ?

[Lizavetta]

Why learn something phonetically only to have to correct and relearn it.

Correct and relearn it? What does that mean?

I learned to read in the 1960s using phonics i.e. every letter has one or two sounds. I taught my children this way. No one had to correct or relearn anything. What are you talking about? Not being flip ...

[Lizavetta]

And no one dares to call it EDUCATION MALPRACTICE, which is what it clearly is.

[MayflowerMadam]

Remember that old joke that "fish" spelled phonetically is "ghoti"? gh, pronounced as in enough or tough o, pronounced as in women /ˈwɪmɪn/ ti, pronounced as in nation

[UCANSEE2]

And before they can read, they need to be read TO by their parents.

How do orphans learn to read ?

[tiki]

They need a combination, IMO.

[UCANSEE2]

Ephonics.... would that B4REALZ ?

[MayflowerMadam]

Seriously?

[2nd Amendment]

After 30 yrs. of being out of the business, I decided to try substitute teaching to supplement my retirement. Folks, it’s worse than you think out there. Kids are told to stay away from rote memorization. Instead of just knowing the answer to addition and subtraction they have to make some grid that I don’t even understand. Instead of teaching competition and grade achievement they are told to give “affirmative” notes to each other. It’s no wonder we have a generation of snowflakes. If they disrupt the classroom they go down to a special office and “discuss” their oppositional defiance syndrome.

[UCANSEE2]

Phonics is absolutely essential.

So, you are saying that before the new wave concept of PHONICS was invented that people could not read nor write accurately ?