Morphology and Etymology (Sara J Peden)

I have always been talking about kids who will shut down/ disengage from learning to read if the pronunciation of phonemes of consonants is taught wrongly. I leave it to teachers in schools to worry about vocabulary, comprehension, fluency, grammar and whatever else that needs to be taught. If the foundation is taken care of, the rest can be taught. They will not disengage from learning to read.

Now Sara J Peden tweeted the following;

@SaraJPeden  Apr 16 Replying to @luqmanmichel

I think you have a narrower definition of phonics than do I. Silent letters aren't always 'outside' of phonics; they're part of phonics. Sometimes letters are markers. Phonology, morphology and etymology all must be taught. is 1 spelling 4 /short a/ sound. Etymology often can explain.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

OK, we should teach morphology and Etymology in Pre-school or in kindergarten?

Sara Peden Advancing Structured Literacy Practices Apr 16

Replying to @luqmanmichel

Not too much. Adding the morpheme to a noun to pluralize would be something I teach at a really early point. But most morphology/etymology comes a bit later for me. It's challenging to be systematic about it. That's where I'd like to improve my practice.

My comment now: So, why did Sara even bring up morphology and Etymology when we are talking about pre-school and kindergarten?

I have seen the above kind of behaviour often to go on a tangent and discuss things that are irrelevant.

All I want is for educators to discuss seriously why there are smart kids leaving school as illiterate. 

What can we do to arrest this problem?

From the onset starting with Sue Lloyd they had said that teaching the pronunciation of phonemes of consonants by adding extraneous sounds cannot be the reason for kids disengaging from learning to read. 

Let us not forget Timothy Shanahan, who said that there is no empirical evidence to prove that consonants should not be taught with extraneous sounds. 

I, on the other hand, have discussed with my former students and know for a fact that this is the main problem. 

If one cannot accept what I have discovered than one should come up with an alternative reason. But, No! They give me vague replies such as ‘there are many reasons’, we must teach vocabulary, grammar, we must teach morphology and etymology etc.

Yes, grammar, vocabulary, etc. are important but these do not cause a kid to disengage from learning to read.