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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Yes, but if I employ you with my tax dollars, I don't want your [b]anecdotal[/b] experience. Teach the way the experts say to teach.[/quote]

I am the teacher to whom you are responding.

How many subjects do you need in order for the observations to not be "anecdotal?"

I taught over 500 5-7 year olds to read.  During the time I taught, I experienced at least three different methods preferred and studied by "experts."  My conclusion: no one method is the best for all kids. A balanced approach is best.  And, yes, phonics and decoding is included in that balance.  [b]But, if you think that method should be exclusively used, I strongly disagree. [/b]
I assume that you are the parent of the dyslexic child who has spent lots of money on tutors.  I am glad your child is succeeding.  I'm sorry his teachers did not include decoding in their instruction, but decoding alone is not the best method.  And, I suspect that his tutoring includes instruction one-on-one and/or very small groups.  You do understand that you are offering "anecdotal" justification for your preferred method?
[/quote]

I'm not the parent you are responding to.  I'd say the sentence I bolded is a straw man argument.  If you think people are arguing that "phonics is all that should be taught", then I understand where your disagreement is coming from.

People like me aren't arguing that ALL that should be taught is phonics.  And we have to be careful that we understand exactly what is meant by teaching "phonics" -- I use that term to mean teaching the underpinnings of decoding.  That starts with being able to segment words into individual phonemes, orally -- and to blend individual phonemes into words.  Mostly this is a process that children naturally develop, although if they are slow to develop there are games and activities you can do to encourage the ability to develop.  Many children pick this part up so naturally through simple exposure to rhymes and songs and games that there is no need for formal instruction.  But if children don't pick it up they do need this to be developed.

After you are sure children can blend and segment phonemes, they need to have a letter sound match.  The simple code (one to on correspondence) and then that advanced code (two + letters represent one sound).  That's BASIC decoding and should be taught first, although again many children who have strong oral vocabulary and strong segmenting and blending skills can actually pick this up more or less on their own through repeated reading and sight word instruction -- that's why teachers and parents think that the sight word method works for some students.  It does work, but only because the students on their own are capable of hearing the word, seeing the word, matching the letters and sounds and doing all the segmenting in their heads.  Essentially through teaching sight words you are allowing them to learn how to decode on their own.  They aren't skipping the decoding part, they just do it without you teaching it to them.

But kids who don't have the ability to blend and segment well when they are taught to read one syllable words really need to be instructed in how to decode and encode.  That might be 30% of your first graders.  This is the group I work with and mostly care about -- the group of K and 1st and even 2nd grade students who need direct, systematic, and sequential instruction in decoding skills.

Again NO ONE is saying that reading instruction stops once kids learn to decode!   For many kids the decoding instruction is over (or wasn't even needed) by the end of 1st grade!  What instruction is still needed can come through spelling lessons.   After kids are able to decode two and three syllable words, there's still the vast majority of reading instruction to come -- comprehension, fluency, intonation, character and plot development and so on.   Learning how to interpret written symbols and turn them into speech is only the very first step.  But if you don't get that first step you will be forever hindered in all the higher order skills.

It is vital to be able to decode first, so that you can do all those other meaningful things involved in reading.  [/quote]

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