Phonics WHY?

For years it has been debated whether reading should be taught through a phonics approach or a sight word approach. Science has provided us the answer to this highly debated question. It appears the phonics approach has greater benefits.

There is no question that young children can memorize approximately 90 words for rapid recall and appear to be readers. When they begin to be exposed to multisyllabic words some are able to use their knowledge of vocabulary and context clues to read the word but the majority hit a wall and have know idea where to start in order to decode larger words. They often struggle with spelling, especially with multisyllabic words. Many times this has been called the “second grade wall.” This is because by the middle of second grade the students are being exposed to larger passages and also unfamiliar words.

Our language is made of sounds, which are represented by symbols making it a linguistic language. The word “phonics” came from the instructional approach in the mid- 1960’s through the process of teaching young students to read through word parts (Chall, 1967). The National Reading Panel in 2000 chose not to use the word phonics and instead separated the broad category into two different skills, phonological awareness and alphabetical principle which were once taught together. Their reasoning was that we needed to be able to distinguish and hear the sounds in our language before starting to attach symbols. There is no question many students are able to learn these skills simultaneously without difficulty, but for those students who struggle it has been found they need the scaffolding which the phonological awareness provides (Moats & Tolman, 2009).

Possibly one of the major stumbling blocks with phonics is that you must to know all the graphemes (groups of letters which represent a single sound) along with the rule behind them (Hempenstall, ND). There are linguistic rules which represent the sounds those sets of letters make, yet we do not require our teacher to fully understand these for the language they are teaching. Then assumptions are made.  Noa Webster, known for his dictionaries, published one of the first spelling books used in American classrooms in 1829 modeled from The American Spelling Book (1804), providing the rules for our English language. 

Don Potter created a web published document of Websters American Spelling Book - 1804

This document will provide you with a complete understanding of phonics and what your students need to understand to be successful readers and spellers.

References:

 Chall, J. (1967). Learning to Read: The Great Debate. New York: McGraw-Hill. 372 pp. 

 Hempenstall, K. (No date). Some issues in phonics instruction. Education News 26/2/2001. [On-line]. Available: http://www.educationnews.org/some_issues_in_phonics_instructi.htm

Moats, L, & Tolman, C (2009). Excerpted from Language Essentials for Teachers of Reading and Spelling (LETRS): The Speech Sounds of English: Phonetics, Phonology, and Phoneme Awareness (Module 2). Boston: Sopris West.

Potter, D. (2008) http://donpotter.net/pdf/websterspellingbookmethod.pdf)

Creating Readers in Kindergarten

Creating Readers in Kindergarten

Every primary teacher subconsciously wants their students to be good readers. What if there was an indicator that could give you high probability that your students would have a high chance of becoming an on-grade reader by third grade? This may be one of the best kept secrets in education because there is one. Students who master alphabetical principle in kindergarten or the first part of first grade have an extremely high probability of being on or above grade level in reading by the time they are in third grade.

If your child was sick and there was medication to make them well we would probably all make sure the child received the medication. Yet that is not the case with education and learning to read. Looking at data of students who have not mastered alphabetical principle in kindergarten the percent of below level readers in third grade, the percentages come very close to the same.

Oregon has the poorest graduation rates in the nation and only 14% of students entering kindergarten are able to recognize any letters (Otto, 2017). For years third grade tests scores have been used to predict graduation rates along with the number of prison beds that will be needed in the future. Knowing this information, along with knowing how we are able to turn those numbers upside down, our proficiency rate has remained the same for the state.

Many kindergarten and first grade students are able to memorize words and stories so they appear to be readers. They sound like readers, they look like readers, but then they hit second grade and multisyllabic words, they have no idea how to decode those words because they had not mastered alphabetic principle in kindergarten or first grade. Now at second grade they are having to go back and learn those skills and this becomes a setback they struggle to overcome by the end of their grade.

It’s time to take the medicine and get these students reading. There is no question that it is hard work and help is not going to come from parents/guardians for many of these students. Kindergarten and first grades need to be restructured along with the focus of the students mastering alphabetical principle instead of just moving forward with the curriculum. Curriculum does not teach the students, teachers do; and therefore the teachers need to intensify their instruction and do whatever it takes to make sure their students have mastered knowing their letters and sounds along with blending them in kindergarten and first grade. The students will then be ready to apply this information to decoding multisyllabic words in second grade keeping them on track to become a strong reader.

If students are reading and on-grade level no one will question a teacher’s teaching. It’s when students appear to be falling below the grade mark when microscope seems to come out. Remember, all standards are geared toward the students being able to read on grade level. If you have a student who falls below, you need to make sure you step back and teach that skill to mastery. This means you need to be RELENTLESS  and AMPLIFIED in your instruction to get those struggling students to mastery. Hoping they will simply absorb the information has not worked in the past and it is up to you to help those students learn the information. You will be giving that student the gift of learning.

There is no question that this requires hard work but isn’t student success worth the effort?

Reference:

Otto, R.,(2017), What is grade-level reading and why is it important?, Children’s Institute