WHY?!? I listened to the whole podcast waiting for the why... why did this happen? How did we get here? Other than just the cult of personalities of those two women, I still have NO IDEA why this happened. What happened to phonics? Where did the stuff that used to work go? So FRUSTRATING. Bari- we’ve listened to a few poscasts now that s…
WHY?!? I listened to the whole podcast waiting for the why... why did this happen? How did we get here? Other than just the cult of personalities of those two women, I still have NO IDEA why this happened. What happened to phonics? Where did the stuff that used to work go? So FRUSTRATING. Bari- we’ve listened to a few poscasts now that spend a whole bunch of time talking around the problem and never actually saying anything. Please... please... do a better job explaining the why.
As someone who spent almost 30 years in public education (not as a classroom teacher) and almost 20 of those trying to move the science of reading into the classroom, I will tell you why. Whole Language, Reading Recovery etc is a cult. In "Sold a Story", Emily interviews Seidenberg. His book has an excellent chapter where he attempts to explain why. Even he suggests that the movement is cultish. That was certainly my experience as well. Also, as one of the commenters here has suggested - administrators charged with making these decisions often know nothing about teaching reading. They believe their cult members as that was the path of least resistance.
I suggest listening to the whole "Sold a Story" podcast.
I think the why is for several reasons.
1. A lot of teachers didn't like the regimentation of phonics.
2. Slick marketing campaigns that based on how teachers want to teach instead of what's effective was wildly successful.
3. Because President Bush was pushing phonics it must be bad
4. The reading recovery approach did show some success when tested in the short term. Lack of follow up testing was a problem.
I would add that teaching to read is best done one on one. For example, it helps me catch my son when he guesses the word instead of sounding it out. Also, I note that sometimes he looks at the end of the word first. So I can reinforce he needs to start on the left hand side.
I'm sure he might have got some dyslexia from me. The good news is you can get past it with a LOT of reading. I'm a fantastic reader now.
WHY?!? I listened to the whole podcast waiting for the why... why did this happen? How did we get here? Other than just the cult of personalities of those two women, I still have NO IDEA why this happened. What happened to phonics? Where did the stuff that used to work go? So FRUSTRATING. Bari- we’ve listened to a few poscasts now that spend a whole bunch of time talking around the problem and never actually saying anything. Please... please... do a better job explaining the why.
I FEEL THIS WAY TOO. We need a lot more of the why is/did this happen.
As someone who spent almost 30 years in public education (not as a classroom teacher) and almost 20 of those trying to move the science of reading into the classroom, I will tell you why. Whole Language, Reading Recovery etc is a cult. In "Sold a Story", Emily interviews Seidenberg. His book has an excellent chapter where he attempts to explain why. Even he suggests that the movement is cultish. That was certainly my experience as well. Also, as one of the commenters here has suggested - administrators charged with making these decisions often know nothing about teaching reading. They believe their cult members as that was the path of least resistance.
I suggest listening to the whole "Sold a Story" podcast.
I think the why is for several reasons.
1. A lot of teachers didn't like the regimentation of phonics.
2. Slick marketing campaigns that based on how teachers want to teach instead of what's effective was wildly successful.
3. Because President Bush was pushing phonics it must be bad
4. The reading recovery approach did show some success when tested in the short term. Lack of follow up testing was a problem.
I would add that teaching to read is best done one on one. For example, it helps me catch my son when he guesses the word instead of sounding it out. Also, I note that sometimes he looks at the end of the word first. So I can reinforce he needs to start on the left hand side.
I'm sure he might have got some dyslexia from me. The good news is you can get past it with a LOT of reading. I'm a fantastic reader now.