Jennifer, that makes so much sense. Carol said: "I never got phonics until I had to teach phonics--even now 20 years later I have to sound out a word first to get to the isolated sound. That's why I teach 4th. Read in the paper this morning that Bill Gates is really pushing phonics for early reading programs. What happened to balance?"
I read the same thing in the paper today and have been pondering it ever since. But when I came upon Jennifer's email, I started to wonder if Gates is so pro-phonics because he was/is an analytic learner and "got" phonics. He may be a global thinker, but appears to be an analytic learner. http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2007/edition_09-23-2007/Intelligence _Report (the comments section is kind of disturbing) This type of all-or-nothing philosophy, especially from someone so well respected (and I do respect and appreciate much that he has tried to do for education), makes me crazy. We know that kids have different learning styles, needs, etc., but many non-educators, especially those who have such an influence on the lives of our students, do not seem willing to admit what we would consider indisputable facts. How can we help those in power to understand that one size does not fit all? What happened to balance and sanity? -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2007 11:10 AM To: mosaic@literacyworkshop.org Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] phonics was spelling lists If you look at the research by Marie Carbo, there are reading styles. Analytic learners tend to get phonics and learn to read easily using it. It makes sense to them. Global learners who need the big picture first have more difficulty with phonics. I think we have to be careful taking an 'all or nothing' position. Every child's brain is different and will learn differently. I think we owe it to our students to find out how they learn and have methods in our toolbox that will meet their needs. Every time the phonics pendulum swings, we lose kids. It isn't all or nothing...we need to look at the students we teach and find the balance. Jennifer Maryland In a message dated 9/23/2007 10:37:31 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: I cannot discount the role of phonics in the process of learning to read, but I can certainly discount much of the methodology adopted to teach it. I think that teachers who encourage much writing in the early grades and are able to effectively support emergent writers in moving from stretching words and hold those sounds to using spelling patterns and analogy do much to build phonetic understanding in their students. When this is combined with word work that draw children from letter-by-letter analysis to using chunks and analogies to figure out those tricky words, I don't know that much more is needed. I am not sure I see a reason to use some of the of the terminology (long vs. short vowels, for example), but if children are aware of patterns such as /ead/, with the knowing that sometimes it sounds like /eed/ and sometimes like /ed/, they can quickly combine this knowledge with meaning and semantics to quickly make informed judgment calls as they read and increasingly refined approximations when spelling unknown words. This is very different from those plaid phonics books, IMO, and I am thinking most upper grade teachers should be quite glad of teachers that establish this knowledge base. Lori ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
