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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]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.[/quote]

20+ years of parents complaining is NOT abrupt.[/quote]

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.[/quote]

Private schools here aren’t getting real.

They are still F&p, whole language, and balanced literacy garbage.

And never did any remedial math or phonics after reopening full time in fall 2021. Sad. Lost two years of elementary school foundational material and teaching. [/quote]

Our private claims to be Balanced Literacy but they still do 1 hour of phonics every day so I don’t know. I am very pleased with how much my Ker has learned though. She can sound out, read, and spell words really well[/quote]

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