Why kids shut down/ disengage from learning to read

My friend who knows how to do a professional YouTube video is currently not available. As such I am doing this simple video to hopefully convince educators why many kids shut down from learning. I have said over the last 10 years that many smart kids disengage from learning to read when they are confused.

‘When Science and Literacy Collide’ by Mark W.F. Condon

Here are some extracts from the article'When Science and Literacy collide'

I share this slightly wonkish topic here to offer some essential perspective to assertions in the press that teachers aren’t using the science of literacy research in their instructional decisions. That’s of interest mostly because the disappointing end-of-year test scores of reading proficiency have stagnated for 20 years.

For how many more years are we going to dupe the world with the same stuff that has been repeated for years?

What is the ‘science of literacy research’? What does it say about how to teach letter sounds?

IPA, ITA and The Magic Ladder (Part 2)

The following article, extracted from Children of the Code, was posted by me on LinkedIn in September 2015.

Has any educator bothered to comment on my post? No! And why not? Afraid to offend... How will we eradicate illiteracy?

Unfolding the Ambiguity in the Code:

Siegfried Engelmann:

 In other words, we've let the kids tell us what we were doing wrong… The only one that didn't totally strike out was ITA, which was sort of like an adaptation of the International Phonetic Alphabet.

ITA, IPA and David Boulton's Magic Ladder (Part 1)

 

The following is what our David Boulton had said in his LinkedIn exchanges with me. Please read my post on this here.

"Children of the Code avoided advocating solutions so as not to be dismissed as having an agenda other than learning deeper into the challenge. 3 decades of work have culminated in a solution, an entirelydifferent approach to supporting learning to read.

I had said that this is utter nonsense that only the uninformed will believe. Most of America will believe anything that their ‘Gods of education’ say without thinking.

India too has been afflicted with wrong phonics

Last year the parent of one of my past students requested me to help her sister in India whose child was not reading at grade level.

I spoke with the mother, via Whatsapp, and asked her to record how her daughter read a few of the consonants I gave her.

Here is an audio of the sounds (now converted into a video) of the few consonants I had sent her to have it recorded.

Why is it so hard to improve reading achievement?

This post is a response to what I saw on Twitter this morning by Timothy Shanahan.

His post today was;

            Why is it so hard to improve reading achievement? What aren’t we doing right?

I have made many comments on Timothy’s blog posts and he cherry picks comments he is comfortable with and ignores the others which he cannot respond to.

If a child can speak

On 27.12.2019, I came across an excellent blog by Mark Anderson @ Manderson. The author had taken great pains to write the article. He has done extensive reading but is still groping in the dark as to why many children cannot read in English.

Unfortunately, he is looking for research reports and is unable to think for himself. He is not going to find any research reports telling him the wrong ways the letter sounds are taught. He has to wait for research students doing research based on what is in my blog.

Following are a few excerpts from his article with my comments as usual.

Is phonics the culprit

Yesterday, 23.1.2020, I read a post by one Amy Gibbons which stated the following;

There is 'little or no evidence' that phonics improves reading, study finds.

Academic says we should consider 'alternative methods of reading instruction', despite minister's support for phonics.

Empirical evidence

An educator who had worked in several positions for 45 years and who is 80 years old and now retired – said on 11.1.2020 in a comment on one of my posts;

“As long as it is empirical, Americans are comfortable

but if it isn't empirical it is suspicious stuff.”

What has happened to the common sense of the American people?

Letter sounds taught in Malaysia

Here is one of several video clips I received from a teacher in Malaysia on how letter sounds are taught in most Malaysian schools.

Adding extraneous sounds to consonants

This is a follow up to my post yesterday.

This is how consonants are taught all over the world. 

Beating Dyslexia

Many of the YouTube videos I had complained about have been deleted.

Corroborative evidence – from the horse’s mouth -David Boulton

The following is what is extracted from a YouTube video by David Boulton 

Unnatural confusion?

                                                 Image taken from Children of the Code.

The following is the departing message from David Boulton to me on LinkedIn in 2017.

Dr. David Boulton:

I have been bombarded over the years with people 'certain' that if only their way was adopted (spelling reform to instructional method) everyone would be great readers. I don't have the time or interest in being the object such people want to stroke themselves with. I am clear and on the record for decades re what is the reason children struggle to read English. If as you say you have been through my work you'd know that. I appreciate that you help people. I don't want to engage further with you. I am not interested in being a platform for self aggrandizing. I wish you all the best.

David Boulton/ Luqman Michel on LinkedIn

Let us take a short break from ‘Corroborating Evidences’ and see what David Boulton has to say. 

The following was a discussion with David Boulton on LinkedIn. sometime in 2017.