Are Dr. Sam Bommarito and the other educators that naive? Part 1

 

I don't believe that Dr. Sam is that naive not to be able to think for himself.

Here are tweets by Dr. Sam Bommarito and my responses.

And Andy Johnson has started a respectful conversation with someone from the "other side". They are doing a series of YouTube posts on this. That's the way science should operate- both sides respectfully listen to each other and then talk about the issue. Hope Andy's example is the start of a trend. This one is the third in the series.  So even though they disagree with each other they are both talking and listening to each other.

Luqman Michel

Did you actually listen to their dialogue? Andrew thinks there is no reading crisis because the graph shows a flat line from 1972 to 2022. David says that NAEP shows that about 60% read below proficiency level.

To me, it appears absurd that one can say there is no reading crisis.

 

To say there is no reading crisis because the illiteracy levels have maintained at the same level throughout the years since 1972 is downright ridiculous.

Not one of the 'educators/ teachers on Twitter or other social media have ever discussed matters to completion with me. Most of them block me when they are unable to answer questions asked of them.

These are my tweets today – 27.8.23 – in response to the above:

Dr. What I wrote to both David and Andrew and many other educators in 2015 is that I disagree with the > 35-year-old theory that phonological awareness deficit is the cause of kids being unable to read. My reasoning was simple - almost all my students could read in Malay but not in English. All you need to do is to think if this makes sense and you don't need research reports.

Anyway, I have told you several times that this theory was debunked in 2017.

7 years were wasted because educators wanted research reports instead of thinking.

To my following tweet on 14.8.23:

I wrote emails to both of them in 2015. Both refused to accept what I discovered and wanted research reports to support what I discovered. Dr. Sam, do we need research reports for everything? Can't we think logically anymore?

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 responded as follows:

In the world of research, there is the issue of replication. You have to be able to replicate results for them to be significant replication requires formal studies.  One of the key issues here is. If you use your methods on other children and from other places will they still progress? So the answer is if you want other people from other places to consider your yes you do have to do research.

I did not respond on 14.8.23 as I thought that Dr. Sam was fully aware of the Tweets by Alanna Maurin but this has been re-posted by someone again today and I thought I should say something.

Luqman Michel @luqmanmichel

Dr. Sam, you were in the Twitter discussion in December 2020 when Alanna Maurin asked why her son despite one year of specialised systematic synthetic phonics taught by a tuition center in Australia was unable to read. None of you offered any advice. I volunteered to teach her.

After 2 lessons from my blog, she Tweeted that her son was then eager to learn to read. She asked why and all you did was to tell her that she found a teacher who knew how to teach him. You refuse to see when you look and refuse to listen when you hear.

When I wrote to Timothy Shanahan in 2015, Timothy said that teaching 50 dyslexic kids successfully is not good enough to prove anything.

Now, Dr. Sam is saying roughly the same thing. Why can’t any of these educators do research on what I have discovered?

The following is what Alanna Maurin said on Twitter:

Alanna Maurin:

After just two lessons he is now asking me to help him read words from packages, from his games and he now sounds t p b l f d correctly every time.

Dec 26, 2020, 6:14 AM

He's attending to print and reading words that he hasn't mastered the code of yet.

This is a child who for a year has been switched off to reading and struggled to decode and blend simple cvc words and was distressed by his inability to retain 'tricky' words out of context.

The question that Dr. Sam and other educators should ask is why was Alanna's kid suddenly interested in learning to read. He complained of stomachache when it was time to go to school. Why did the stomach aches disappear? 

The following was Dr. Sam’s response:

Dr. Sam Bommarito @DoctorSam7 @AlannaMaurin

 What works with one child doesn't always work with another. Glad you found something that is working for your student. Here is a blog in which I try to make it clear one size doesn't fit all.

I have taught many such parents and Dr. Sam knows it too but he wants to go about his ‘one size does not fit all’ meme.

I did not record many of my other parents whom I taught but for those who have not read the testimonial from California please read it here.