Phonics

An educational therapist commented as follows after reading my article on phonological awareness at

 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/logical-thinking-phonological-awareness-deficit-luqman-michel/

“I am not quite sure what your criticism of structured literacy instruction is--is your criticism with phonics, or with poorly done phonics?”

What I have been saying since I started my blog is that the sounds of letters are taught wrongly in most schools around the world therefore resulting in kids shutting down from learning to read.

Below is the episode aired by Baby TV around the world. This is definitely not the way to teach sounds of letters. Consonants should not have extraneous sounds added. I have complained to Baby TV to no avail.

Please listen to the YouTube video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8gFfr2b5hU&list=PLcVsbCfjO_ZzZfMxs5U_xQsonLvLOErA7&index=2

Here is a list of the consonants in the video taught wrongly.

B, C, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, N, P, Q, R, V, Y, Z

The above is one of two reasons about 20% of the kids around the world shut down from learning to read. A majority of these kids are wrongly classified as dyslexic.

They are unable to match the sounds to the words taught. They then disengage from learning to read.

Here are a few examples of the words made by the above letters.

If the sound of the letter B is Buh/ber, then how do you pronounce the word bat?

Is it ber-at? (Buh-at.)

Cat, is it Cuh-at? (cur-at)

Hat, is it Ha-at?

In the next few articles, I shall post some videos on what students in the US complained about the sounds of letters.

Logical thinking and phonological awareness deficit

This is a continuation of my previous post on Dr. Reuven Feaustein.

The following is what the lady said in our conversation on LinkedIn;

“I am a Literacy Specialist. I believe that schools should have Instructional Leaders who have a knowledge of the Pedagogy and methodology of how to teach literacy and how to Crack the Code.  It is their role to make sure that there is training for teachers and they are held accountable for student progress.  It is critical that in the early years’ student must have teachers who understand the systematic process of closing the decoding crack.  The Developmental Progression:

Dr.Reuven Feaustein – Logical thinking

I connected with someone on LinkedIn just a little more than a year ago. I made a comment in one of her posts a few days ago and I pray this will open up her mind to the possibility that she may have been misled into believing that phonological awareness deficit is one of the main causes of kids being unable to read.

Pinching a child and then rocking the child to sleep

Here is a Tamil proverb: "Pillaiya killi vittu, thottila aatradhu", meaning, "Pinching a child and then rocking the child to sleep.

The Western world has created major issues facing a majority of the children predisposed to shutting down from learning to read.

AND, they have even coined the word Dyslexia for such kids.

Zack Barnes and Dyslexia

In the article I posted earlier this week, Zack Barnes Ph.D. was said to have made some comments as below.

But Zack Barnes, an assistant professor of education at Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, says that the research is clear that dyslexic students need systematic, explicit phonics instruction.

Who are these dyslexic students? To lump each and every student who cannot read in English as dyslexic is what those with vested interest have been doing for the past more than 50 years.

Richard Allington and dyslexia

In a special report on Education Week Teacher by Sarah Schwartz on December 11, 2019 was an article entitled:

ProminentLiteracy Expert Denies Dyslexia Exists; Says to 'Shoot' Whoever Wrote Law on It.

Here are some extracts and my comments:

Looking at dyslexia with a jaundiced eye

To look at something with a jaundiced eye means to look upon something with prejudice, usually in a cynical or negative way. The word jaundice is an adjective that means showing distaste, envy or bitterness.

Any human being who thinks that what he does not know cannot exist is wearing the crown of ignorance.

Understanding Dyslexia - MindShift

    

         

The Western world is not interested in finding simple solutions to helping children who have shut down from learning to read in English. They want to make it as complicated as possible so that they can make money. Why kill the Golden goose!

A talk to teachers and parents of a kindergarten

The President, Rotarian Stephen Siaw of the Rotary Club of Luyang made arrangements for me to give a talk to parents and teachers of kindergarten kids in a kindergarten in Menggatal, Sabah.

The talk was held on 22.11.2019. Here are a few of the many photographs taken by President Stephen Siaw.

Suicidal tendencies

Yesterday, a friend from the USA wrote a post on FB on suicidal tendencies.

The following is what I read from the internet after I had finished reading the post by my friend.

Wilful Blindness - A revisit

Yesterday, while surfing the internet I came across the word wilful blindness. 

Most of the ‘educated’ professors in UK as well as the USA and Australia, I have dealt with, simply cannot accept that a majority of children classified as dyslexic are actually shut down kids who shut down due to wrong teaching.

Rotary Community Corps & Shut Down Kids

A Rotary Community Corps is a group of non-Rotarians who share Rotary’s commitment to changing the world through service projects.

RCC members plan and carry out projects in their communities and support local Rotary club projects.

Free lessons for Shut Down Kids

I had prepared lessons for my students and had them posted in my blog in 2010. Unfortunately, the service provider, File Den, disappeared without any notice and I lost all my lessons on the internet.

Fortunately, I had printed and saved the hard copies.

With the help of a friend in Rotary Club Luyang we have now produced the book which is available free of charge.

Sounds of letters

The video clip below was sent to me by a teacher whom I spoke to about how sounds of letters of the alphabet are taught in schools. This is how most schools in Malaysia teach the sound of the letters.


https://youtu.be/f-lnIXt5i34

Spelling options for /k/

On 14.3.2019 I gave a presentation to 13 kindergarten teachers in a school in Kota Kinabalu. This is my 3^rd presentation to schools and the first to a kindergarten.

The head teacher had collected questions from the other teachers and asked me many questions and the Q&A session went on for more than an hour.