Sunday, October 31, 2021

Three main reasons why kids disengage from learning to read

 



Here are the 3 main reasons why kids shut down/ disengage from learning to read. I learned this directly from the experts, my students.

This is what my blog has repeatedly said for the past decade.

i.                     Teach the correct pronunciation of sounds represented by consonants

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGGr4uyFdn4

 

Doing the same things over and over expecting different results.

 


Educators have been doing the same things for decades expecting different results. Most of what they write is general and does not add value.

Friday, October 29, 2021

Dyslexia or Instructional Casualties

 


This morning I had a tweet from www.understood.org in response to my tweet. They linked the following resource. LINK


Here are excerpts and my response.

Dyslexia is a common condition that makes it hard to read. Some experts believe that between 5 and 10 percent of people have it. Others say as many as 17 percent of people show signs of reading challenges.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

Main cause of teacher stress and how to avoid it



Yesterday, I read a post by Dr Mary Bousted @MaryBoustedNEU which prompted me to write this post.

Dr Mary Bousted is joint general secretary, with Kevin Courtney, of the National Education Union @NEUnion.

This was her tweet:

The govt. is, apparently, going to focus on getting ‘better’ teachers. Here’s the thing - they have the best teachers ever at the moment. The problem is that far too many leave because the same govt. has made teaching an almost impossible job.

Wednesday, October 20, 2021

Sounds represented by letters

This post is in response to a Tweet by Lucky Girl.

LuckyGirlLinguist @GinaCookeLEX Oct 18 Replying to @luqmanmichel @jeffrey_bowers and 4 others.

“You're betraying your ignorance. There is no such thing as the correct pronunciation of phonemes. Phonemes are abstract psychological categories, not pronounced phonetic units. Phone memes are pronounced differently in different words and different dialects, and that's normal.” (Lucky Girl Linguist)

Friday, October 15, 2021

My challenge to Jeffrey Bowers

 


Jeffrey, why don’t you do the research yourself with my guidance? Get a few teachers around the US or around the world to teach kids in grades 1 to 3 who are unable to read. Ensure they do not have acuity problems. That is, they do not have sharpness or keenness of thought, vision, or hearing.

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

The Role of Orthographic Mapping in Learning to Read (Part 2)

 


The first part on Orthographic on Joan Sedita's blog post may be found here

How does orthographic mapping develop?

The following are extracts from the blog post found here and my comments.

Three intersecting skills must be in place to enable orthographic mapping (Ehri,  2014; Kilpatrick, 2015):

    Highly proficient phonological and phonemic awareness

    Automatic letter-sound correspondence knowledge

    The ability to accurately and quickly decode a word by identifying its sounds letter by letter, and blending those sounds to read the word.

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Empirical evidence for Jeffrey Bowers

 


Here is a tweet by Jeffrey Bowers and my response.

I have responded a number of times, and would be interested in any empirical evidence for your claims. (Jeffrey Bowers). 9.10.2021.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel Replying to @jeffrey_bowers and @KevinWheldall

Do you want empirical evidence to support that consonants should not be taught with extraneous sounds?

You responded once and when I retorted you did not answer.

I suggest you hold a Zoom meeting so that I may educate you on why phonics is not working as it should.

Let us put to rest once and for all this debate between you and Jennifer/Kevin.

Saturday, October 9, 2021

Jeffrey Bowers and Sam Bommarito on Phonics

 



On September 22nd, Jeffrey Bowers twitted the following:

@jeffrey_bowers Replying to @annephillipswa @dmounty14 and 19 others

What do you make if the fact that reading outcomes in England have not improved in over a decade of legally mandated phonics?  No one seems to address the Elephant in the room.

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 Sep 22

Yes this! By the way if England 10+ years of mandated phonics it hasn’t had an impact why on earth are we in the process of trying to mandate it United States. Time to look at all the data before making decisions.

Friday, October 8, 2021

Dr. Rachael Gabriel - whose pronunciation is correct?

                                                                By Dr.Rachael Gabriel
 

Her profile says: Education researcher, writer, host of Literacy Fellows Podcast, Assoc. prof. of literacy education.

Here is a link posted on Twitter by Dr. Rachael Gabriel.

https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-the-science-of-reading-should-make-room-for-skepticism-just-not-for-ignorance/2021/09

I had commented on her post as follows:

Thursday, October 7, 2021

Decode using patterns learned

 



This is a continuation of my zoom meeting with my learned friend from the US. You may read the first part here.

He said that if we teach whole words (referring to me teaching my students the Dolch words) by rote memory then the kids will have to memorise thousands of words. I was shocked that this learned man would say such an idiotic thing. I am beginning to wonder if he too is paid by the people with a vested interest to say such a stupid thing. 

Tuesday, October 5, 2021

Decoding vs reading

 



On 2.10.21 I had a zoom meeting with a twitter/ email friend from the US.

 

He was agreeable with most of the things I said but said that my definition of decoding/reading was wrong. He said that decoding included comprehension.

Saturday, October 2, 2021

Are there any studies on extraneous sounds of consonants?

 



I met Alanna Maurin on 23.12.2020 on Twitter and started sharing with her what I had learned from my students who were unable to read when they came to me for tuition.

She was distraught and at her wit’s end as her son was unable to read and was willing to try anything. 

Please read the previous 2 blog posts for a complete understanding of this post.