My Emails to Dr. Reid Lyon (Part 3 of 3)

7.8.2015

Good evening Mrs. Diane,

I just read another article by Dr. G Reid and my comment follows what he wrote:

Reid Lyon Answers

It is unfortunate that the debates surrounding whole language versus phonics continues to detract from the critical issue - what instructional approaches, strategies, and programs are most beneficial for which kids at which phases or reading development?

- See more at: http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/read.what.works.lyon.htm#sthash.Q579j6eT.dpuf

My Response: Any instructional approach, strategy, and programme is suitable for about 80% of kids in the world learning to read in the English language. This is obvious from the fact that children learned to read when Phonics was wholly taught in US prior to the 1970's; the 80% of kids also learned to read when 'Whole language' method was introduced in the 70's.

However, about 20% of kids were illiterates when they left school regardless of whether they were taught phonics or whole language.

As such we should only be looking at why the illiteracy rate has not come down. What is the reason for the 20% not achieving grade level reading ability? It has nothing to do with whole language instruction or instruction in Phonics.

Please acknowledge receipt of this and yesterday’s e-mails.

Happy Days,

Luqman Michel

10.8.2015

Dear Mrs. Dianne and Dr. Lyon,

I have sent 2 e-mails about reading and have not received a response.

Please respond so that I can decide what to do next.

Kind regards,

Luqman Michel

10.8.2015

Dear LUQMAN MICHEL,

We received your emails.  We are on travel and cannot commit the time needed at this time to a thorough response.  As you can imagine we receive hundreds, if not thousands, of emails and feel it only fair to respond thoughtfully, when time allows.

It is smart of you to reach out to many researchers for feedback, e.g. Sharon Vaughn, G.R. Lyon ....and others like:

Our Nations Reading Panel;

http://www.nichd.nih.gov/publications/pubs/nrp/documents/report.pdf

The National Right to Read:  http://www.nrrf.org/

Denise Eide's YouTube presentation - & https://www.logicofenglish.com/books/uncovering-the-logic-of-english

Literate Nation :  http://literatenation.org/

The Florida Center for Reading Research:  http://www.fcrr.org/

Oregon Center :  http://reading.uoregon.edu/

National Institutes for Reading and Reading Disorders:  https://www.nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/reading/Pages/default.aspx

https://www.smu.edu/Simmons/AboutUs/Directory/TeachingLearning/Mathes

Your community is blessed to have someone like you helping children develop the skills needed to be the best they can possibly be!!!!

We wish you the best in your quest, 

Diane and Reid Lyon

Note: I wrote to the above lists to no avail. What is the point in reaching out to researchers when they do not respond?