Yesterday, 25.1.2021 (USA time 24.1.2021) I had a Twitter discussion with Dr. Daniela O’ Neill. At the end of the discussion she said:
I think we actually agree. Because English is an opaque language, scientifically backed instruction that is based on how the brain learns to read is all the more important for children learning to read in English.
The following is from the conversation between Dr. Kathryn Garforth and Jennifer Buckingham.
Sight words or one that has been memorized based on its shape vs the word that has been orthographically mapped. Because I see in many classroom teachers sending home Dolch words and expect kids to memorise them. Let us talk about why that is not the best approach and how memorizing a word is different from mapping it orthographically in your brain (Kathryn Garforth).
Somehow NONSENSE makes a lot of sense to most of the people around the world.
Let us look at the absurdity of the following statements by the two ‘educators’.
‘A’ stands for apple but changes a little bit depending on the letters before it or after it. So, it doesn’t sound exactly the same. The idea of a phoneme is a construct that is not true. (Dr. Kathryn Garforth)
It’s a simplification to think about phonemes as having a single sound, however our brains are able to cope with that slight variability in that co-articulation that happens according to the consonant or vowel that’s on the other side. (Jennifer Buckingham)
The following are statements made by Jennifer Buckingham on the conversation between Kathryn Garforth and Jennifer Buckingham found here.
Blending the speech sounds is not easy for every child – to take those speech sounds and put them together so that they make a recognizable word.
GPC’s (Grapheme Phoneme correspondences) must be learned to a level of automaticity so that blending can happen.
The reading wars have been going on for decades. The more I read tweets by teachers the more I understand why the wars have been going on for so long.
Many teachers are unwilling to discuss with an open mind. They are like the prince in an Indian fable who had caught a three legged rabbit and started proclaiming that all rabbits are three legged.
They are exactly what Charlie Munger had described about the human egg.
I commented on a tweet by Pam Kastner which was responded by Erin Harrington, Narelle Lynch, Denyse Ritchie and David M. (a grade one teacher in Australia), Dr. Kathryn Garforth and Emily Hanford.
When I clicked on ‘Home’ to skim through what others were tweeting I saw a tweet (in no way related to the tweet above) by Jasmine lane @MsJasmineMN, a teacher.
Too many folks out here reading to respond instead of reading to understand.
