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
Educators have been doing the same things for decades expecting different results. Most of what they write is general and does not add value.
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.
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.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I had commented on her post as follows:
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.
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.
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.
