Monday, May 18, 2020

Hurray! A solution to the Reading Wars by Dr. David Boulton



This is a revisit of Dr.David Boulton’s response in 2017

    Dr. David Boulton’s response:
    Learning-Activist, Non-Profit Executive Director, Theorist, Technologist, Author, Consultant, PD…
    I concern myself with all children (2/3 of U.S. kids) who do not reach grade level proficiency (reading transparent to learning at their grade level). https://youtu.be/yjjtHytskqs


    At the core are three issues (which are described in detail on the COTC site): 1) insufficient readiness for the challenge of learning (auditory/linguistic/cognitive/speed) 2) unnatural confusion 3) self-blame>shame (distraction/avoidance) https://youtu.be/h0XQyKbqSjI


    Children of the Code avoided advocating solutions so as not to be dismissed as having an agenda other than learning deeper into the challenge. 3 decades of work have culminated in a solution, an entirely different approach to supporting learning to read: https://youtu.be/lDVNUvocVz4

My comment: My concern is exactly the same as that of David Boulton – the kids who do not reach grade level proficiency of reading.

As for the core issues, I know what is the unnatural confusion and this is what I have written to the experts in the Children of the Code.

i.                     Unnatural confusion is caused by teachers teaching the wrong pronunciation of the phonemes of consonants. I have dealt with this in detail in my blog with numerous examples.

ii.                   Kids are also confused when they are not informed that letters represent more than one phoneme. A as in apple; A as in ace; A as in about; A as in art; A as in also.

The shame described by David above is a result of kids being unable to read. To avoid this shame many such kids, misbehave and many of them end up in prison.


I wrote to David about the causes of confusion as above. He either does not understand or disagrees with confusion due to the wrong teaching of the pronunciation of phonemes. However, he understood the confusion caused by letters representing more than one phoneme. He cut me off as his connection on LinkedIn. A year later he came up with the Magic ladder as an entirely different approach to support learning to read. (see above).  


He knows as well as I do that this so-called 'entirely new approach' will not work as this was already tested under ITA and IPA and failed. 


Read my post on this here and do read the comment of a reader on LinkedIn who had studied I.T.A. 



I believe that the first two links in David’s comments were on videos teaching the pronunciation of phonemes wrong. David deleted the videos immediately after I had commented on them.

Something is amiss...


2 comments:

Unknown said...


Dear Michal .

Dont be discuraged. The truth will set us free to help young readers read well with proper pronunciation of phomenes.

I am convinced your method is helpful and I am going to start again with Yashua aged 6 , from chapter one of book one ensuring he reads the words well with correct phomenes. The videos sent to me is very helpful so I will ensure I teach the right way too.

I will start this evening and I will forward to you through Aunty Lena.

Gratefully yours .
Doris Woon

Luqman Michel said...

Thank you Doris, for the videos I have received. You are doing an excellent job. Let us not forget that there will also be 'bad influence' from school- that which has already been learned and that he will continue learning when he goes back to school.
I believe you will see a difference when you take in a student who has not been influenced by any other teaching.
To get a kid to unlearn what he has learned earlier is no easy task.
I wish you continued success.