A teacher I met said that, "Phonics alone can only take a person up to about 4th grade level, in reading. Then its by sight and contextual (when encountering a new word.)" This strikes me as very bizarre. I know when I encounter a new word I do attempt to sound it out. Has anybody else heard this, and do you know the source of the dogma? (Jayne)
I am a teacher working in a smal private school in England and I am always on the lookout for new resources to help my pupils. Recently I cam across a particularly effective one from the DofES (it's free!). It's called "Playing with Sounds" and it is a supplement to "Progression in Phonics". It is interactive software designed for the Foundsation Stage that tells a story using cartoon characters. I hope that others will find this useful. (Janet M.)
I have just taken an excellent workshop that takes the best of whole language and synthetic phonics and combines them into an excellent process. I found the information on this workshop and many others on the homepage of Erickson Learning. (L.S.)
I'm curious exactly what the combination amounts to. As far as I can tell, either you teach synthetic phonics or you don't. Just dribbling in a few phonetic principles here and there is *not* to teach synthetic phonics. When you teach it, the children have a much better chance >of learning how to read at a relatively early age, like their European and Asian counterparts. (R.T.)
1)
Teaching synthetic phonics alone is not the same as teaching reading. It's the
same as teaching ... synthetic phonics.
2) Some children learn to read well
without synthetic phonics. I still advocate the use of synthetic phonics, but
I went to grade school in the early 60's when whole word/look-say was used and
learned to read quickly. My daughter's early years included very little synthetic
phonics instruction and she is also an excellent reader. My son is very different.
He needs synthetic phonics. But until just about *now* (second quarter of first
grade) he has not been skilled enough to handle even synthetic phonics instruction.
Things are finally starting to click. Let the show begin...
3) The workshop
described does a disservice as synthetic phonics should not be separated from
whole language in the first place. (Andy)
I have also just taken a brilliant workshop founded on similar principles. It was called Animated Literacy by Jim Stone. He has merged latest research from the fields of teachning, reading and speech-language pathology. He incorporates alot of phonological awareness training with print in an fun music filled curriculum that is surrounded by reading from great literature. It was so much fun and he is getting great results. I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience. (JPETORCH)
It's been my experience that about two school years of intensive synthetic phonics is what is necessary to produce truly competent readers. That's what I found out teaching the total nonreaders in middle school. On the average, if synthetic phonics is done intensively, kids should be independent before or by third grade in reading. (S.L.)
One cannot teach sounds and expect the child to figure out how they go together. My kids are developmental and ESE (special ed) and get five words a week that are related to their sounds. Those words are also used to help kids write sentences and express themselves. They can keep them in their "dictionary" to use in their creative writing. The words used in a synthetic phonics program almost totally relate to whatever sound they are learning at the time. Doing this also teaches kids word patterns which, in turn, help them figure out unknown words. (P.P., Calif.)
like the Nelson Thornes 'Sound Start' books. The children really like the story lines. The illustrations are fun and they begin with easily decodable text, e.g. character names Pen, Rob, Ben etc. One of the things that I like about them is that it isn't easy for the children to guess at the words, they have to work them out for themselves.
We have just purchased the Jolly Phonics books. I like them but they are not simple enough for our very early readers. We have just sent off for a copy of the very early Jolly Phonics books but I think they only have single words per page. I have also got a copy of some of the Jelly and Bean books. They have good clear decodable text and pictures, but the text in the earlier books are too predictable, e.g. the word 'cat' with a picture of a cat; 'cat in the hat' with corresponding picture etc. In the early books as soon as you have gone through the book once with the child they remember it rather than reading it. (N.N.)
I have found the CD-ROM Wordshark 3 very useful for the dyslexic children that I work with. The games are exciting, encourage concentration skills and boost the child's confidence as he successfully completes a task. The children are full of enthusiasm as they are learning synthetic phonics and do not realise that they are still doing 'work!' (Karen B.)
My 9-year old daughter has been homeschooled (grade 3), as well as in public school (grade 1,2). Prior to attending school, we taught her how to read using synthetic phonics exclusively. While she reads rather well (occasionally reversing words), her spelling is quite good, except for reversing letters occasionally -- then correcting them on her own. Where she has the most difficulty (reversing numbers and then correcting them) is in math -- all levels, addition through to division.
Can a child be dyslexic in math and still be a proficient reader and speller? Her father and grandmother are dyslexic, but still manage to love to read despite it being somewhat difficult for them. I also notice so many of the characteristics in terms of her daily living. She will simply shut down when she has had too much information thrown at her; she becomes overwhelmed at the thought of organizing her homework, and cannot handle more than two instructions at a time. Your insight, please. (Tina)