Reply to For Gen Alpha, learning to read is a privilege, not a right

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don't think it's screens that are slowing the kids down. I am a parent a kindergartener and this is the problem:

1. Kindergarten language arts curriculum is totally developmentally inappropriate. They expect the kids to be writing sentences and "journaling" three months into the school year. They don't learn to sound out letters, they learn "popcorn words" and "guessing the word from the picture".

Kindergarten academic expectations are on par with 2nd grade, without the teachers providing any of the preliteracy/ scaffolding exercises to build up to reading such as phonics awareness or learning to write letters.

There is absolutely zero direct instruction in letter formation past like, the first two weeks of school. Remember as kids how we traced letters for weeks?  My kid has no tracing exercises, just a blank square to write letters.

Without the muscle memory of letter formation, of course the kids are struggling to write! They need to know how to form the letters before they can even write a single word. Writing and reading are so linked, so if you can't do one well the other won't work, either.

Of course the school uses the Columbia University Sold a Story method to teach writing and reading. The school's test scores are abysmal and I get it, they are not teaching the kids to read, they are actually confusing them and hindering their progress towards literacy.

And all this at the age of 5, when many kids are not intellectually prepared to do reading and writing work. They aren't doing any fun experiential learning like "collect leaves" "observe a caterpillar become a butterfly" "grow seeds". Just endless disconnected worksheets and sitting still and turnign school into a grind of disjointed "learning." It's all so sad and disheartening as a parent.[/quote]

Which school system is this ?

Many K reading and Phonics curricula ARE developmentally appropriate for the age. Montessori is over 100 years old and (properly done, which above curriculum is not) reliably works well, as an example.

That said, the K curriculum you describe is almost totally different from the one at our small Montessori school.

In particular, even Columbia U now admits their (Lucy Calkins driven) reading and writing curricula did not work and should not be used.  (Anyone who has not yet listened to the "Sold a Story" podcast should do so pronto.)[/quote]

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