Sold a Story podcast

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Not the poster with the daughter. What crazy world do you live in that schools have no responsibility to teach kids how to read?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've been hate-listening to the podcast. Full disclosure: my kids are excellent readers, but one of their best friends is in middle school, and reads at a 2nd grade level (severe dyslexia). She's very bright but needs explicit phonics instruction and the parents assumed all along the school system knew best and was doing best for her. All the wasted years, hours of extra instruction, teachers' efforts. I don't blame the teachers at all. I think the blame lies with the ed schools, who should have been pursuing and teaching the science of reading all along, and should have been lobbying for school districts to use proven curriculum.

A horrifying statistic: approximately 80% of the prison population is illiterate.

Another statistic: approximately 20% of high school graduates are illiterate. 1 in 5. How do we, as a nation, allow this to happen?

This is the biggest national crisis we have. The fact that it is not even in the top 20 political conversations is appalling.

It's hard to learn when kids don't go to school. I'd love to see the attendance records for inmates. I highly doubt they had stellar attendance.

Not fair at all. You obviously have no idea what it's like to go through school with dyslexia. Dyslexia is not the fault of the student, period.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

NP. Holy cow. A huge, huge problem is that teachers of this method tell parents just read to your kids and everything will be fine. Then when your child has actual issues due to not actually being taught to read, they don't listen, they don't have a clue how to recognize actual reading issues. They just keep saying read more at home, even though you've been doing that a ton the whole time. How in the world is that a parent's fault?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

NP. Holy cow. A huge, huge problem is that teachers of this method tell parents just read to your kids and everything will be fine. Then when your child has actual issues due to not actually being taught to read, they don't listen, they don't have a clue how to recognize actual reading issues. They just keep saying read more at home, even though you've been doing that a ton the whole time. How in the world is that a parent's fault?

Huh? Just download a phonics app on your phone and have your kid work on it with you sitting by their side to help them. Slightly more difficult than reading to them but about as easy as it gets. If you can do that everyday at home in lieu of reading a book, why would you risk relying on their teacher to do it when they have 20 kids in the class?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

NP. Holy cow. A huge, huge problem is that teachers of this method tell parents just read to your kids and everything will be fine. Then when your child has actual issues due to not actually being taught to read, they don't listen, they don't have a clue how to recognize actual reading issues. They just keep saying read more at home, even though you've been doing that a ton the whole time. How in the world is that a parent's fault?

Huh? Just download a phonics app on your phone and have your kid work on it with you sitting by their side to help them. Slightly more difficult than reading to them but about as easy as it gets. If you can do that everyday at home in lieu of reading a book, why would you risk relying on their teacher to do it when they have 20 kids in the class?

Ok for about 40% of kids the slapdash phonics app at home May work. But the other 60% require actual structured, systemic instruction in decoding. It isn’t unreasonable to expect that the K-2 teachers are prepared to provide this instruction and have supporting curricula for that purpose. Kids who have mastered those decoding processes proceed to more advanced morphology study that covers irregular words etc.

So while teachers aren’t solely to blame here, most administrators were teachers at one time, so the profession as a whole has a lot to answer for. The colleges of education bear even more responsibility as they are supposed to prepare teachers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

NP. Holy cow. A huge, huge problem is that teachers of this method tell parents just read to your kids and everything will be fine. Then when your child has actual issues due to not actually being taught to read, they don't listen, they don't have a clue how to recognize actual reading issues. They just keep saying read more at home, even though you've been doing that a ton the whole time. How in the world is that a parent's fault?

Huh? Just download a phonics app on your phone and have your kid work on it with you sitting by their side to help them. Slightly more difficult than reading to them but about as easy as it gets. If you can do that everyday at home in lieu of reading a book, why would you risk relying on their teacher to do it when they have 20 kids in the class?

Ok for about 40% of kids the slapdash phonics app at home May work. But the other 60% require actual structured, systemic instruction in decoding. It isn’t unreasonable to expect that the K-2 teachers are prepared to provide this instruction and have supporting curricula for that purpose. Kids who have mastered those decoding processes proceed to more advanced morphology study that covers irregular words etc.

So while teachers aren’t solely to blame here, most administrators were teachers at one time, so the profession as a whole has a lot to answer for. The colleges of education bear even more responsibility as they are supposed to prepare teachers.

Trust me parents can get vastly more done at home with their kindergarteners with respect to reading than would teachers at school. The phonics apps are great, they do exactly what a teacher would do at school, which is to pronounce sounds and practice reading. This is one of the best uses of technology for early elementary right now. Teachers are not specialists in phonics, you as a parent can learn to do almost the same thing very easily with a phonics app. Pro tip: Don't try to do this too early unless your kid is really asking questions and is interested. Best time is to start doing it the beginning of summer before K, and try to do a bit every day thru the summer. You'll be amazed how much they'll be able to do by the end of summer as they start K, they will likely be able to read simple books.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

NP. Holy cow. A huge, huge problem is that teachers of this method tell parents just read to your kids and everything will be fine. Then when your child has actual issues due to not actually being taught to read, they don't listen, they don't have a clue how to recognize actual reading issues. They just keep saying read more at home, even though you've been doing that a ton the whole time. How in the world is that a parent's fault?

Huh? Just download a phonics app on your phone and have your kid work on it with you sitting by their side to help them. Slightly more difficult than reading to them but about as easy as it gets. If you can do that everyday at home in lieu of reading a book, why would you risk relying on their teacher to do it when they have 20 kids in the class?

Ok for about 40% of kids the slapdash phonics app at home May work. But the other 60% require actual structured, systemic instruction in decoding. It isn’t unreasonable to expect that the K-2 teachers are prepared to provide this instruction and have supporting curricula for that purpose. Kids who have mastered those decoding processes proceed to more advanced morphology study that covers irregular words etc.

So while teachers aren’t solely to blame here, most administrators were teachers at one time, so the profession as a whole has a lot to answer for. The colleges of education bear even more responsibility as they are supposed to prepare teachers.

All the way to page 2 for the teacher bashing post.

I think your statistics are made up and typically people refer to phonics instruction as structured and SYSTEMATIC not systemic.

The word the is irregular and needs to be taught pretty early to be successful in reading as it is fairly common in early phonics readers.

But you carry on with your superior knowledge, after all, I am a teacher and i have created the world’s ills. Pandora’s box, thrown out of the garden of Eden, that’s us!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Not the poster with the daughter. What crazy world do you live in that schools have no responsibility to teach kids how to read?

Did I say no responsibility? No. But you are the parent and hold responsibility for the growth and development of your child.

[Anonymous]

When your kid is a f***-up in their 30s, they’re not blaming Ms.Smith from 1st grade, they will blame the parents.

[Anonymous]

the podcast is great in an infuriating way. yes, teachers hold some of the responsibility- just like when doctors do things they shouldn't or any other profession. It sucks to be accountable.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've been hate-listening to the podcast. Full disclosure: my kids are excellent readers, but one of their best friends is in middle school, and reads at a 2nd grade level (severe dyslexia). She's very bright but needs explicit phonics instruction and the parents assumed all along the school system knew best and was doing best for her. All the wasted years, hours of extra instruction, teachers' efforts. I don't blame the teachers at all. I think the blame lies with the ed schools, who should have been pursuing and teaching the science of reading all along, and should have been lobbying for school districts to use proven curriculum.

A horrifying statistic: approximately 80% of the prison population is illiterate.

Another statistic: approximately 20% of high school graduates are illiterate. 1 in 5. How do we, as a nation, allow this to happen?

This is the biggest national crisis we have. The fact that it is not even in the top 20 political conversations is appalling.

I tend to roll my eyes at conspiracy theories but I am starting to think undermining public education is by design. It goes beyond just want to privatize it. An uneducated/undereducated population does not rock the boat and challenge the system. It's all so scary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:if you want to feel totally frustrated and depressed about how reading curriculum in this country changed to whole language/cueing/balanced literacy that had no science and was really developed for poor readers as a last ditch effort- you should listen to this podcast. The reporting is fantastic and there are times you will want to punch some of these smug authors who made a ton off a useless approach to reading. And, some of the teachers who fell for it because they had never been taught anything else just shows how messed up our public education system is. Also, poor George W Bush tried to make the right move to phonics and got bamboozled by lobbyists.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/sold-a-story/id1649580473

I disagree as the reporter doesn’t talk at all about broader issues in public education at least not in any released episodes.
She also doesn’t seem to understand that the reading wars have been happening long before the 1960s. Because of those flaws, I wouldn’t call it great reporting.

If you were to broaden the scope from what she focused on, where would you have taken the podcast? Would you have taken the story back to Horace Mann vs. Noah Webster? And what related educational issues would you have talked about?

[Anonymous]

Not teaching kids phonics is like saying to someone, start walking north and end up in Toronto. Obviously you would need a map. Or teach yourself statistics or Japanese.

One of my kids - in an overseas school - was taught phonics and the next one - in a different overseas school - was taught balanced learning. The one who was taught phonics became a great reader and speller. The other one still thinks she is dumb because she can't spell and still has to guess at words. The next two were taught an experimental program (that taught phonics) and are great readers.

There is a science to reading and some "innovators" decided to throw out the science. It's caused a generation of disaster.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My older daughter was "taught to read" using this shit approach and is STILL behind and not reading well. F_ her kindergarten teacher.

You could take part of the blame as well. It’s not all on teachers.

Why? This was my first child and I trusted the school to teach my child how to read, and I trusted them when I said "she can't read these specific beginner books, is that a problem?" and they said "nope, she's right where she should be." How was I to know any better? I think he moral of the story here is you can't trust educators, which is so, so sad.

Spot on, that's why parents have to be the primary source of teaching for their children until they can fly solo (hopefully by middle school). Listen to, be respectful, but take teacher feedback with some skepticism; you as a parent can (and should) independently assess your kid at a young age and draw your own conclusions in addition to teacher, to reduce risk.