Why was Balanced Literacy so popular for so long?

[Anonymous]

I know that curricula changing to reflect the latest popular theories has to drive teachers insane, but isn’t it nice that the new thing is to have the cognitive science of learning drive instruction?

[Anonymous]

You still haven’t returned to the classroom yet are teaching fulltime?

So many good classroom teachers get fed up with the BS move to tech full-time in non-classroom positions: ESL, special education, specialist positions, etc.

[Anonymous]

Yes teachers colleges have to blame for lack of rigor but as with all multigenerational scandals you have to follow the money. There were fortunes made off of this b. S. - here’s looking at you Lucy Caulkins and many still are being made! Talk about reparations. Every single solitary dyslexic is owed part of these fortunes made. Utter corruption from our school admins and boards for not doing their due diligence either. I am thinking of a particular MCPS super who got a big vacation to Australia and New Zealand as a retirement gift for giving such a contract to such a company…swine!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I know that curricula changing to reflect the latest popular theories has to drive teachers insane, but isn’t it nice that the new thing is to have the cognitive science of learning drive instruction?

Yes but this science has been around for 20 yrs. School districts buy whatever the new fad is. It’s scary that the people in charge who make these decisions aren’t teachers.

[Anonymous]

1. Effective marketing

Lucy Calkins and Fountas & Pinnel put together very slick marketing. It was not consistent with the science then or now, but it shows the power of marketing.

2. Money

The players above have gotten rich through effective marketing - and sale - of ineffective teaching materials.

3. Publishers always need to sell a new different curriculum. There is not as much profit if one sells an effective curriculum, because then the schools wont need to buy a new one in a few years time.

4. Education schools

Professors cannot get published, or get tenure, or get promoted for saying any existing approach (i.e., actually being used) is good enough. One can only get published, tenure, or promotion by saying everyone should teach in a different way.

[Anonymous]

Laziness.

And it probably also temporarily improved their diversity measures because everyone was guessing. The bottom came up and the top came down. Never mind that those kids, especially the ‘diverse’ ones, never learned to read and were stuck at a first grade guessing game level for all of their high school texts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:It’s popular because it’s easy and lazy to “teach”.

My kid brought the following Balanced Literacy sheet BS home:
1) use the pictures for clues
2) look at the beginning letter
3) look at the ending letter (wtf?)
4) make a good guess
5) read to the end of the sentence
6) as yourself, “does this make sense?”

No it does not. This self-teach picture BS should not be how k-4 literacy is “taught.”

Poor kids.

Pitiful

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm paywalled from the NYT article but this article from earlier this year is a good explainer on how balanced literacy gained popularity and then abruptly lost it:

https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/

One takeaway I have from reading about the reading wars, as a parent of a pretty new reader, is that kids really do need both explicit phonics instruction but "whole language" approaches (read alongs, talking about stories, examining context, etc.) to become strong readers, but while parents can do a pretty good job of contributing to the latter part, schools and teachers are much better situated to teach phonics.

If teachers just focus on the whole language piece, that leaves parents to fill in the gaps with phonics. But teaching phonics is actually a learned skill and most parents aren't good at it. I know because I tried to do it with varying success during Covid when it was clear my DD needed help with it because she hated Zoom school and would not pay attention during phonics instruction via Zoom (I do not blame her, that is not a good way for a kindergartener to learn). But it's freaking hard! First, you have to learn a lot of the phonics rules that you basically forgot years ago once you became a fluent reader. Also, you have to learn how to teach it to a 5 year old. I'm not an ECE teacher, I am good at talking to my kid about all kinds of things but I don't have any training on how to break down a relatively technical instruction for that age group. I muddled through and I know it helped some, but it was nothing compared to what an actual trained teacher with experience can do with phonics, as I learned once my child returned to in-person school.

But reading to my kid, talking about books and ideas, discussing context? I'm great at that. We read all kinds of books, we find different ways to talk about them, it's a bonding time for us and it just fits right into our life. I'm not saying I don't want teachers to do that portion at all, I'm just saying that if they can only do so much of it, I have the rest more than covered at home. But phonics? Kids should learn that in school from a teacher trained to teach it, because it's actually not that easy to teach. And kids are at school all day anyway! The idea that for years kids were being taught phonics via home supplementing while they spent the day doing read alongs and "whole language" practice? It's really dumb and I'm glad that era is over.

https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2VROSOXRA8F44&keywords=teach+your+child+to+read+in+100+easy+lessons&qid=1673066925&sprefix=teach+yo%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1

Very easy, I taught all of mine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

None of my teacher colleagues thought phonics was boring. There is nothing boring about seeing a child read for the first time. It's not boring to the kid and it's not boring for the teacher. As usual, people who didn't completely understand kids, child development and the science of reading made the decisions. These programs basically encouraged students to guess based on pictures and context. They should be ashamed of themselves but yet they still try to push their methods despite all evidence to the contrary.

Yep. As a teacher who worked in very low-income, low test score schools, I was constantly observed, evaluated, and critiqued on the way I implemented the reading program my district required me to follow. Though I felt phonics instruction was a missing component, I was not in a position to make a single decision about what training I got in reading instruction nor in what I taught or how--neither was my principal. It all came from the district level. It was clear to us teachers that the instruction wasn't meeting the needs of the students, but if we didn't follow the program given to us, we would be poorly evaluated and lose our jobs.

Yup. I've been a teacher since 1991 in DC area public schools and have always provided direct instruction in phonics and decoding but until this year, have always had to hide it in my lesson plans. Even now, I have to minimize the amount of time my direction instruction appears to take up. My (remedial) students make phenomenal progress over the course of the year but it doesn't happen by magic - it takes hours and hours of organized instruction and practice, and yes, the practice looks boring. Same as playing scales on the piano does - it is skill based at first, not meaning based.

I don't understand why higher ups in the school district don't understand this, but I've come to believe they just don't have any faith that phonics instruction actually works. they are worried that if you allow students to be taught phonics, they will still be in 6th grade filling in the middle vowel sound of works on a worksheet instead of reading real literature. The flaw in this thinking is that, if you do not teach students to decode, they will be in 6th grade unable to read the real literature and needing to listen to it read aloud to them.

*it takes TIME* to teach remedial decoding but if you know how to do it and you have enough time with the student, it can move very very quickly. I just need the time, and the permission from the principal, the school district and even the state to be providing "below grade level" reading instruction during their regular reading language arts time. Not just for a 6 week intervention period, but all year if necessary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm paywalled from the NYT article but this article from earlier this year is a good explainer on how balanced literacy gained popularity and then abruptly lost it:

https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/

One takeaway I have from reading about the reading wars, as a parent of a pretty new reader, is that kids really do need both explicit phonics instruction but "whole language" approaches (read alongs, talking about stories, examining context, etc.) to become strong readers, but while parents can do a pretty good job of contributing to the latter part, schools and teachers are much better situated to teach phonics.

If teachers just focus on the whole language piece, that leaves parents to fill in the gaps with phonics. But teaching phonics is actually a learned skill and most parents aren't good at it. I know because I tried to do it with varying success during Covid when it was clear my DD needed help with it because she hated Zoom school and would not pay attention during phonics instruction via Zoom (I do not blame her, that is not a good way for a kindergartener to learn). But it's freaking hard! First, you have to learn a lot of the phonics rules that you basically forgot years ago once you became a fluent reader. Also, you have to learn how to teach it to a 5 year old. I'm not an ECE teacher, I am good at talking to my kid about all kinds of things but I don't have any training on how to break down a relatively technical instruction for that age group. I muddled through and I know it helped some, but it was nothing compared to what an actual trained teacher with experience can do with phonics, as I learned once my child returned to in-person school.

But reading to my kid, talking about books and ideas, discussing context? I'm great at that. We read all kinds of books, we find different ways to talk about them, it's a bonding time for us and it just fits right into our life. I'm not saying I don't want teachers to do that portion at all, I'm just saying that if they can only do so much of it, I have the rest more than covered at home. But phonics? Kids should learn that in school from a teacher trained to teach it, because it's actually not that easy to teach. And kids are at school all day anyway! The idea that for years kids were being taught phonics via home supplementing while they spent the day doing read alongs and "whole language" practice? It's really dumb and I'm glad that era is over.

20+ years of parents complaining is NOT abrupt.

The complaints from parents were continuous, but the shift in teaching pedagogy was pretty abrupt in many instance, and Covid was a major driver as teachers re-entered the classroom and had to get real about what works and what doesn't. Plus it was easier for teachers and schools to placate parents pre-Covid. Now parents have more insight into the curriculum, often having seen it in action via Zoom. And there is a much greater sense of urgency due to Covid learning loss.

I also found the anecdote at the beginning of the Time article interesting, about the teachers in Oakland who were switched back to a phonemic awareness approach and hated it FOR YEARS. Before finally people started recognizing that it worked. To me that's so alarming because IME a focus on phonic pays instant dividends for a new reader. And that's true whether this is a kid who is dealing with dyslexia and is below grade level and hates reading, and a kid who is learning to read with very little explicit instruction. Watching a kid learn to decode language in a systemic way is really rewarding because it's a tool they can use forever. It will make their lives easier. It's crazy to me that teachers who had been using Balanced Literacy for years could go years on a phonics-first approach and still argue against it. Especially because a phonic first approach is not like hours and hours of phonics a day. It doesn't eliminate read alongs. It just requires 15-30 minutes of phonemic focus daily. That's it. And the rewards are immediate and huge. What are they fighting against? I truly do not get it.

It is not in the interest of equity to continue a phonics-based approach.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm paywalled from the NYT article but this article from earlier this year is a good explainer on how balanced literacy gained popularity and then abruptly lost it:

https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/

One takeaway I have from reading about the reading wars, as a parent of a pretty new reader, is that kids really do need both explicit phonics instruction but "whole language" approaches (read alongs, talking about stories, examining context, etc.) to become strong readers, but while parents can do a pretty good job of contributing to the latter part, schools and teachers are much better situated to teach phonics.

If teachers just focus on the whole language piece, that leaves parents to fill in the gaps with phonics. But teaching phonics is actually a learned skill and most parents aren't good at it. I know because I tried to do it with varying success during Covid when it was clear my DD needed help with it because she hated Zoom school and would not pay attention during phonics instruction via Zoom (I do not blame her, that is not a good way for a kindergartener to learn). But it's freaking hard! First, you have to learn a lot of the phonics rules that you basically forgot years ago once you became a fluent reader. Also, you have to learn how to teach it to a 5 year old. I'm not an ECE teacher, I am good at talking to my kid about all kinds of things but I don't have any training on how to break down a relatively technical instruction for that age group. I muddled through and I know it helped some, but it was nothing compared to what an actual trained teacher with experience can do with phonics, as I learned once my child returned to in-person school.

But reading to my kid, talking about books and ideas, discussing context? I'm great at that. We read all kinds of books, we find different ways to talk about them, it's a bonding time for us and it just fits right into our life. I'm not saying I don't want teachers to do that portion at all, I'm just saying that if they can only do so much of it, I have the rest more than covered at home. But phonics? Kids should learn that in school from a teacher trained to teach it, because it's actually not that easy to teach. And kids are at school all day anyway! The idea that for years kids were being taught phonics via home supplementing while they spent the day doing read alongs and "whole language" practice? It's really dumb and I'm glad that era is over.

https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2VROSOXRA8F44&keywords=teach+your+child+to+read+in+100+easy+lessons&qid=1673066925&sprefix=teach+yo%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1

Very easy, I taught all of mine.

You had compliant kids who very likely were not dyslexic. This program just made my DD cry. Yet, two years at a private school with teachers trained in OG and she is reading on grade level, knows phonics better than the kids in Gen Ed, and is now reading for fun. She definitely needed someone who was not her parent and who was trained in teaching phonics.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm paywalled from the NYT article but this article from earlier this year is a good explainer on how balanced literacy gained popularity and then abruptly lost it:

https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/

One takeaway I have from reading about the reading wars, as a parent of a pretty new reader, is that kids really do need both explicit phonics instruction but "whole language" approaches (read alongs, talking about stories, examining context, etc.) to become strong readers, but while parents can do a pretty good job of contributing to the latter part, schools and teachers are much better situated to teach phonics.

If teachers just focus on the whole language piece, that leaves parents to fill in the gaps with phonics. But teaching phonics is actually a learned skill and most parents aren't good at it. I know because I tried to do it with varying success during Covid when it was clear my DD needed help with it because she hated Zoom school and would not pay attention during phonics instruction via Zoom (I do not blame her, that is not a good way for a kindergartener to learn). But it's freaking hard! First, you have to learn a lot of the phonics rules that you basically forgot years ago once you became a fluent reader. Also, you have to learn how to teach it to a 5 year old. I'm not an ECE teacher, I am good at talking to my kid about all kinds of things but I don't have any training on how to break down a relatively technical instruction for that age group. I muddled through and I know it helped some, but it was nothing compared to what an actual trained teacher with experience can do with phonics, as I learned once my child returned to in-person school.

But reading to my kid, talking about books and ideas, discussing context? I'm great at that. We read all kinds of books, we find different ways to talk about them, it's a bonding time for us and it just fits right into our life. I'm not saying I don't want teachers to do that portion at all, I'm just saying that if they can only do so much of it, I have the rest more than covered at home. But phonics? Kids should learn that in school from a teacher trained to teach it, because it's actually not that easy to teach. And kids are at school all day anyway! The idea that for years kids were being taught phonics via home supplementing while they spent the day doing read alongs and "whole language" practice? It's really dumb and I'm glad that era is over.

+1. Totally agree! Our school essentially shifted to a more structured literacy approach this year and it's like night and day. Last year DS was being sent home with sight words to memorize but trying to get him to read CVC words in a decodable reader without relying on a picture cue? Impossible. I was frankly freaking out and researching phonics programs because they just weren't doing it in school at all, but similarly I felt woefully unqualified. Now they actually use a real phonics program in school this year and it's starting to click for him.

[Anonymous]

We taught our DC the alphabet and Phonics starting at about 18 months. At 3 1/2 years, we then used Bob Books every day to teach reading. After finishing all of the Bob Books, we then moved on to other readers. This can work for many many kids, but those with dyslexia would benefit from specialized O-G instruction. Our DC were not dyslexic.

Our idea was if DC got exposed at school to the 3-cueing stuff, they would ignore 3-cueing because they already were able to read above grade level.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm paywalled from the NYT article but this article from earlier this year is a good explainer on how balanced literacy gained popularity and then abruptly lost it:

https://time.com/6205084/phonics-science-of-reading-teachers/

One takeaway I have from reading about the reading wars, as a parent of a pretty new reader, is that kids really do need both explicit phonics instruction but "whole language" approaches (read alongs, talking about stories, examining context, etc.) to become strong readers, but while parents can do a pretty good job of contributing to the latter part, schools and teachers are much better situated to teach phonics.

If teachers just focus on the whole language piece, that leaves parents to fill in the gaps with phonics. But teaching phonics is actually a learned skill and most parents aren't good at it. I know because I tried to do it with varying success during Covid when it was clear my DD needed help with it because she hated Zoom school and would not pay attention during phonics instruction via Zoom (I do not blame her, that is not a good way for a kindergartener to learn). But it's freaking hard! First, you have to learn a lot of the phonics rules that you basically forgot years ago once you became a fluent reader. Also, you have to learn how to teach it to a 5 year old. I'm not an ECE teacher, I am good at talking to my kid about all kinds of things but I don't have any training on how to break down a relatively technical instruction for that age group. I muddled through and I know it helped some, but it was nothing compared to what an actual trained teacher with experience can do with phonics, as I learned once my child returned to in-person school.

But reading to my kid, talking about books and ideas, discussing context? I'm great at that. We read all kinds of books, we find different ways to talk about them, it's a bonding time for us and it just fits right into our life. I'm not saying I don't want teachers to do that portion at all, I'm just saying that if they can only do so much of it, I have the rest more than covered at home. But phonics? Kids should learn that in school from a teacher trained to teach it, because it's actually not that easy to teach. And kids are at school all day anyway! The idea that for years kids were being taught phonics via home supplementing while they spent the day doing read alongs and "whole language" practice? It's really dumb and I'm glad that era is over.

https://www.amazon.com/Teach-Your-Child-Read-Lessons/dp/0671631985/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2VROSOXRA8F44&keywords=teach+your+child+to+read+in+100+easy+lessons&qid=1673066925&sprefix=teach+yo%2Caps%2C167&sr=8-1

Very easy, I taught all of mine.

Gosh I love that book so much. And no, pp, my kids weren't compliant. I'm so glad I taught my kids to read because the parents who didn't had to do a lot of remedial work afterwards or had kids still not reading by 2nd. After seeing how reading and writing is taught in elementary schools, I really don't have any faith that anything is being taught well in school. It seems if I want my kids to learn anything, I have to teach them myself. All of my kids needed direct instruction.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We taught our DC the alphabet and Phonics starting at about 18 months. At 3 1/2 years, we then used Bob Books every day to teach reading. After finishing all of the Bob Books, we then moved on to other readers. This can work for many many kids, but those with dyslexia would benefit from specialized O-G instruction. Our DC were not dyslexic.

Our idea was if DC got exposed at school to the 3-cueing stuff, they would ignore 3-cueing because they already were able to read above grade level.

I think 3-cueing is great to learn at higher grades if you want to increase reading speed. The best readers figure it out on their own. It should never be taught to kids who can't read yet.