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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Roughly 30% to 40% of students will learn to read regardless of which method (or even any method) is used. For the other 60-70% of students, approaches like Balanced Reading / Lucy Calkins / Whole Language simply do not work. Read "Sold a Story". Read the actual peer-reviewed studies with statistical controls. There is real data on this and the results are consistent - those BL / LC / WL approaches do not work for most kids.

Those of you whose kids did well in reading at whichever school almost certainly have kids in that first much smaller group. I am happy your experience was positive, but it does not change how bad some reading curricula happen to be. [/quote]

Can you explain why some kids learn to read regardless of the approach while others don’t (genuinely curious)? My child learned to read by the end of 1st grade, so I never had a reason to question the curriculum and I’m not even sure what approach they use. Fwiw we weren’t one of those families who are tried to teach reading on our own before K, we just waited for them to start school and learn from the teacher. I know there were kids in the class who required outside help though.[/quote]

I would assume neurotypical kids who are not on the autism spectrum nor have ADHD nor have dyslexia can learn alright via brute force [b](read by yourself a la Balanced Literacy BS)[/b], combined with exposure to large verbal or written vocabularies at home and school.

But everyone can learn to read, decide and recode (ie spell correctly) when systematically being taught and tested on phonics, roots/suffixes/prefixes, grammar, and sight words (the anomalies). [/quote]

The bolded above is actually whole language. Balanced literacy is a response to both whole language and the earlier "See Spot Run" look-say approach. Basal readers, which many of us experienced, were an interesting 70s/80s interlude in which a balanced literacy approach was packaged up in anthologized text-books. Balanced literacy instruction today employs more authentic literature experiences and related process writing, and may be taught in a workshop framework. The biggest detriment today to balanced literacy is probably Fountas and Pinnell. They are under attack for their own reasons that I won't go into, but the 'balanced literacy approach' exceeds any one contributor. Despite the recent and much needed introduction of phonics, the Lucy Calkins units [i]when implemented without supplementation[/i], are more whole language than balanced.

'Science of reading' is very similar to 'balanced literacy'. It appears to both draws upon and advance it with a little more of a phonics-forward emphasis. I hope that in the rush to this side of the ship, some of the richest parts of balanced literacy aren't thrown overboard (ie a return to extremely rote learning). But when have we ever gotten reading and writing instruction wrong in this country, LOL.

[b]Balanced literacy:[/b]  "There’s a misconception around balanced literacy that it doesn’t provide systematic, explicit phonics instruction, but it absolutely does. A balanced literacy program as described by Fisher, Frey, and Akhavan, includes all five of the essential components of reading: phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension." https://www.weareteachers.com/what-is-balanced-literacy/

[b]Science of Reading:[/b] "What it IS
A Collection of Research Research, over time, from multiple fields of study using methods that confirm and disconfirm theories on how children best learn to read.
Teaching Based on the 5 Big Ideas
Phonemic Awareness - The ability to identify and play with individual sounds in spoken words.
Phonics - Reading instruction on understanding how letters and groups of letters link to sounds to form letter- sound relationships and spelling patterns.
Fluency - The ability to read words, phrases, sentences, and stories correctly, with enough speed, and expression.
Vocabulary - Knowing what words mean and how to say and use them correctly.
Comprehension - The ability to understand what you are reading. "https://improvingliteracy.org/brief/science-reading-basics#Teaching%20Based%20on%20The%205%20Big%20Ideas

[b]SOUND FAMILIAR?[/b]

[/quote]

You can call it whatever you want. And slap up all kinds of semantics and smoke.

My kid had a sheet from school saying a look at the Pictures and guess. And sh could not easily sound out soundable words for years.

Balanced literacy in practice was mostly whole language. Poor kids.
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