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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote][b]The problem is that researchers often oversell their findings[/b], so they sound like they'd solve a lot of problems with little effort. But what I don't understand is why it hasn't become obvious yet that there are no quick fixes. It's just wishful thinking.[b] I'm also not convinced of what someone said earlier on this thread, that some kids don't do well with phonics and need other approaches. [/b]I think that's part of the problem--thinking that there needs to be something special and new to help the kids who just can't learn with conventional approaches, or who have the wrong "mindse[/quote]

1. When I was in grad school, one of my professors stressed the "halo effect" for pilot programs.  Pilot programs are frequently successful because of the motivation and attention given to them.  That leads to "overselling" the findings.
When a program makes it to the classroom without all the bells and whistles, then reality sets in.

2. I said that some kids struggle with phonics in a post earlier.  (I taught hundreds of kids to read in first grade and K.)  Some kids have auditory processing issues.  That does not mean that we don't teach them phonics--it just means that instruction should not be limited to phonics.  Sight words have their place.  Context clues have their place.  But, there is no question that phonics should be the premier teaching tool for reading instruction.  There are people who are posting who think that nothing but phonics should be taught.  Phonics should be the backbone, but there are other things that kids should learn in order to read with comprehension.

Rhyming words is a first step.

Some kids also have visual processing issues.  If they cannot sort out "alike" and "different" with letters, they are not going to learn the sounds of those letters.  These are the baby steps that most people on here take for granted--but if children have not been exposed to rich language and visual stimulation of printed materials, there are many steps that must be taken in order to teach them to read.

If you are an English speaker, take some time and look at Chinese characters or Arabic and see how easy it is to distinguish them from one another.  If a child has not been exposed to letters, it is not automatic.  It must be taught.[/quote]

Interesting, thanks. I totally understand there will be kids who have difficulty with sensory/visual processing and therefore issues with phonics, but this should be rather exceptional, no? I taught my son solely using phonics (sound/letter matching with pictures I drew!) And the rest he got from using early readers frequently and we learned about words that couldn't quite be sounded out but we never spent much time "studying" sight words.  I'm not trying to suggest that what worked for him would work for everyone but phonics really seems foundational. One interesting thing I discovered recently (that you probably already know) is that phonics is baked into the alphabet! Many (most?) letters in the alphabet originated as pictures/symbols that corresponded to some object whose name had relevant sound. So for example, 'A' is 'aleph' which means ox ('A' originated as a pictograph of an ox head).

Re: the halo effect for pilots, no doubt. Also, researchers careers loom large. Lucy Calkins is a prime example. I don't want to lump Carol Dweck in with Calkins, but there are many scientists who are more interested in getting famous and making $ than properly testing their theories and interventions before they are unleashed on the world. [/quote]

DP.  I posted up thread about my anecdotal experience.  I taught both of my kids to read at 4-4.5 before kindergarten.  They both already knew their letters, sounds and names.  They both could already rhyme and clap syllables.  I bought some highly regarded phonics readers (MCP, excellent books) and my first read through them and then was a fluent reader entering kindergarten.  My second couldn't make heads or tales of CVC. Just didn't even know where to start, he didn't get it.  So I bought some newer readers that used the "Look at the _____ snake, truck, caterpillar" with pictures and he got the idea.  Then we went back to the phonics readers and then he had the idea and read through them and was a fluent reader.

No issues with dyslexia or visual processing or a vocabulary poor environment.  Just a different sort of brain than his brother.  He needed phonics and something else, too.[/quote]

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