The following is an email from someone I met through a chat group. She contacted me and asked if I could help to teach her grandchildren.
I would like to thank Michel Luqman for all he has done to help my grandson Aidan who is 11 years old has an IEP with Dyslexia and was reading at a 3rd grade level and my granddaughter Lyla who is 8 years old and reading at a 1st grade or below level. Both my grandkids live in Arizona and I am in California.
What reading research (the science of reading) has shown is that there are no differences in outcomes among the various approaches to teaching phonics and that a “one-size-fits-all” approach is not effective. (Dr. Sam Bommarito)
I have written several posts on the importance of teaching the correct sounds represented by letters.
Many of the teachers/ educators say that it is impossible to teach the sounds of consonants without extraneous sounds. They refuse to correct themselves when videos pronouncing the sounds correctly is produced.
One guy says 'one size does not fit all' and everyone who reads that statement repeat it without the slightest bit of thought. They use this as an excuse for the reading levels maintained for the past more than 30 years.
Now, listen to the video clip here which teaches the correct pronunciation. There will be no kid left behind if teachers teach the pronunciation of sounds represented by letters in this manner.
I wrote to APM reports on their article 'How American schools fail kids with dyslexia’ dated 11.9.2017.
Their website says,
APM Reports strives to raise awareness, trigger debate and prompt positive change via non-partisan, independent investigative and documentary journalism.
The following is my email to APM Reports dated 11.9.2017
On 19.2.2023 a lady from San Francisco messaged me on FB messenger. She said that she saw my post on a chat site and liked what I said about teaching dyslexic kids. She added that she is looking for help as the school system has no idea how to teach her 11-year-old grandson.
She told me how her grandson sounded out the sounds represented by the letters and I knew that that was the problem with him not being able to read.
We exchanged WhatsApp numbers and soon after started to get her to follow my lessons on my blog.
She taught her grandson how to read and how to memorise the Dolch words following my blog posts and my YouTube videos.
When educators cannot respond to my questions they ask me for ‘data’ and ‘peer reviewed’ reports.
Dr. Katherine Garforth Twitted the following:
“I have a long list of papers & books to read that are peer-reviewed and published. I would be happy to read your posts if you pay me for my time.’ (Dr. Katherine Garforth).
What Greg Ashman wrote in his post is relevant:
‘…peer review is a relatively new idea. Pretty much all of the science we teach in school was developed in the absence of peer review and so to insist that it is a fundamental component of the scientific method is stretching things somewhat.’
On 23rd May, 2018 Emina McLean @EminaMcLean Twitted the following:
If a child memorises ten words, the child can only read ten words, but if the child learns the sounds of ten letters, the child will be able to read 350 three sound words, 4,320 four sound words and 21,650 five sound words (Kozloff, 2002).
Luqman Michel:
Where did you get this nonsense from?
There was no reply.
Dyslexia Georgia @DyslexiaGeorgia
Twitted the same thing as Emina McLean.
Dyslexia Georgia has more than 1,400 followers and its website says, ‘The Children’s Dyslexia Center of Georgia, you will be taught by extremely qualified faculty members with many years of experience and expertise in Dyslexia.’
The following is a tweet by Dr. Sam.
What works for one child doesn’t always work for another child.
In the history of reading MANY have claimed to have found the answer – in the end their answers worked for some not all the kids.
“Let’s use common sense to find common ground.” Let’s recognize that what works with one child doesn’t always work with another.
Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel May 4
Dr. You are asking for something that does not exist in most people - common sense.
If common sense is common, then why have we been debating for decades without reaching a consensus?
I have said this before and say it again that Dr. Sam is one of a handful of educators that I have high a regard for.
Here is my explanation of why I said that common sense does not exist in most people.
How does a deaf person learn to read just as well as one who can hear?
Read the comment section of my post on ‘How the brain learns to read' – Dehaene Stanislas.
Here is another account by another deaf person who is able to read. This should put paid to Dehaene’s theory which says the following:
Reading requires specializing the visual system for the shapes of the letters, and connecting them to speech sounds.
Teaching letter-sound correspondences is therefore essential.
I have repeated several time for you to think rather than accepting whatever is said by so called experts such as Sally Shaywitz, Dehaene Stanislas, Andy Johnson, Timothy Shanahan, David Boulton, Sharon Vaughn and many others.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/16/us/science-of-reading-literacy-parents.html#commentsContainer
I read a report on Science of Reading in the New York Times dated 16.4.2023.
In the entire report there was no definition of the ‘Science of Reading.’
Why do we keep reinventing the wheel and come up with so-called discoveries which do not improve the level of reading?
Here are some extracts from the article in the New York Times and my comments.
New York Times:
The movement, under the banner of “the science of reading,” is targeting the education establishment: school districts, literacy gurus, publishers and colleges of education, which critics say have failed to embrace the cognitive science of how children learn to read.
Melanie’s Twitter profile says:
Founder Decoding Dyslexia QUEBEC. SOAR WITH DYSLEXIA #CERI Structured Literacy Teacher. #OGA Mother to an amazing #dyslexic. Spreading awareness #dyslexia #sor
I clicked ‘like’ on many of her posts and it was accepted by her. However, when I queried her on some things that were wrong she blocked me.
I find many dyslexia proponents block me when they can’t answer questions.
This is a big disservice to desperate parents of dyslexic kids.
On 2.4.2023 I read a Tweet by Melanie Brethour @melbrethour as follows:
Memorizing words is not aligned with the research. Having students "memorize any whole words, including high frequency words, by sight without attending to the sound/symbol correspondences" is a red flag. @reading_league
So, in a way it is why the greatest dangers are not from foolish people who do foolish things or evil people who do evil things but from good people who persist in doing their foolish wrong things to preserve their beliefs that they are good, kind and competent. (Dr. Carol Tavris)
Dr. Carol Tavris, co-author of the newly released third edition of Mistakes Were Made (but Not by Me): ‘Why We Justify Foolish Beliefs, Bad Decisions, and Hurtful Acts.’
The book explores reasons good people remain wedded to foolish approaches.
I have not read the book but the above is exactly what I have learnt from reading many posts and tweets.
Meanwhile, here is my email to the current minister of education which she has not even bothered to confirm receipt of.
Yesterday, 15.6.2022 was Jack's 10th Day with me. The ninth day was on 24th May 2022.
My only request from Jack's mother when she visited me on the first day was for her to make sure that she spends at least 15 minutes per day teaching him the 8 Dolch words to be memorised. I stressed that I will stop teaching Jack if she does not do this.
Yesterday, I asked her to sit in with Jack while I taught him. He could spell all Dolch words to lesson 12 but not a single word from lesson 13. In addition he did not bring his exercise book in which I add the new 8 Dolch words.
Below is an email I wrote this morning to the principal of the tuition centre who had sent Jack to me.
Good morning,
This is to keep you informed.
Yesterday, Jack’s mother came and I requested her to sit with Jack to see what he has learnt to date and how she can help him to read at home.
Jack came without the only exercise book that he was told to bring each time he came. I wrote 8 Dolch words in it on 24.5.22 for him to memorise at home.
He completed his 9th visit on 24.5.22 when I gave him the sight words from lesson 13.
Yesterday was his 10th day with me. He could not spell even one Dolch word from lesson 13.
I asked Jack in the presence of his mother what he does when he returns home and he said he takes his bath and then plays on his tablet until dinner is ready. After dinner, he watches TV until it is sleeping time.
If his mother cannot see that he has progressed so much in just 1 month and I have another 3 months with him, I do not want to waste my time with Jack.
Of course, his habit of guessing will go on for a while more but...
Regards,
Luqman Michel
Note: I added the last sentence as, at a zoom meeting with the principal and 3 of her teachers on 13.6.2022, the teacher teaching Jack had told me that Jack still guesses.
Of course, he has formed this habit over 3 years to avoid shame of not being able to read like his classmates. This habit will take a bit of time to get rid of.
What is important is that Jack is able to read and spell words that he could not when he came for tuition with me.
On 29.5.2022 Marlene Greenwood @MarleneGreen193 Tweeted the following”
Have you seen this Cluella Study @luqmanmichel about children blending sounds in onset and rime, body and coda, or phonemes?
I read the article linked and then send Marlene a message as follows:
I have read your Cluella study several times. What are the salient points you want to discuss, please?
I have yet to receive a response. Here are the main conclusions of the article.
As a caution, however, it should be noted that with or without added schwa, success in blending fully segmented words was relatively uncommon; only 43% of our participants were correct on any fully segmented items, which is to say that 57% scored zero.
Another limitation for our study is that our kindergarten sample was not proficient in oral blending under any condition.
