Unmasking the Myths: My Decade-Long Clash with Professor Pamela Snow (Part 3 of 3)

Echoes, Evidence, and the PISA Wake-Up Call

Shouldn’t we think before accepting anything we read?

 

Since 2016, when I first read that “reading is biologically unnatural,” I’ve disagreed. This post shows what happens when one researcher makes a claim—and others repeat it without question. Stanislas Dehaene. Pamela Snow. David Chalk. Regie Routman. The myth spreads. The consequences deepen.

Different perspectives – Part 3 – Memorising Dolch (High frequency) words.

 

I teach all my students to memorise the 220 Dolch words. I don’t use flash cards. Who introduced flash cards and why would one foolishly use it is beyond me. English is not pictorial or ideograph like the Chinese script. Even the Chinese script is not memorised by looking at it but by students writing a character a minimum of a hundred times.

I ask my students to list down the Dolch words, introduced in each lesson, in an exercise book and spell out each word five times before going down the list to the next word. Within a short period of time they are able to spell the words. If a kid who is going to vernacular school can learn to memorise 600 Chinese characters in a year what is the problem in memorising 220 HFW? 

Excuses instead of fixing the problem - Dylan Wiliam

 

This is a Twitter discussion where we were discussing whether to teach letter names. Dylan Wiliam joined in in response to my tweet as follows.

On 21.3.2022 I tweeted that

Singapore, Macau and Hong Kong were in the top 4 positions in the PISA test while the UK was in 13th followed by the US. Why are we arguing about teaching letter names when it takes just a short time to teach the alphabet song?

Dylan Wiliam @dylanwiliam Replying to @luqmanmichel @ManYanaEd and 16 others

I suppose you realize that this is an example of a "post hoc ergo propter hoc" argument. And until we control for the vastly greater amount of private tutoring in the jurisdictions that you cite as performing higher on PISA, such arguments are just silly.

You can't teach old dogs new tricks (Final part)

This is a continuation of extracts from a post by Pamela Snow and my comments.

This blunderbuss approach no doubt explains why university lecturers grapple with the frustration of trying to teach first-year students who do not know the basics of how to construct a sentence, in spite of the fact that they have studied English for 13 years and have passed Year 12.

Twitter discussion on 2018 PISA test

Here is a question I tweeted someone and was questioned by another, a teacher from the UK, followed by my responses.

Luqman Michel Jun 7

Do you really need research reports to tell you that consonants should not be taught with extraneous sounds?

I have given you what I have learned directly from my students.

If the Anglo world does not understand should they not do research?

Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

                                            Click on the photo above for a clearer picture.

Phonics advocates keep saying that phonics is being taught in schools.

In fact, only a few schools, even in the UK, are teaching phonics the way it ought to be taught. Otherwise, the UK will not be no 14 in the PISA test and far behind China.