I have just taken an excellent workshop that takes the best of whole language and phonics and combines them into an excellent process. I found the information on this workshop and many others on the homepage of Erickson Learning. (L.S.)
I'm curious exactly what the combination amounts to. As far as I can tell, either you teach phonics or you don't. Just dribbling in a few phonetic principles here and there is *not* to teach phonics. When you teach it, the children have a much better chance >of learning how to read at a relatively early age, like their European and Asian counterparts. (R.T.)
1)
Teaching phonics alone is not the same as teaching reading. It's the same as teaching
... phonics.
2) Some children learn to read well without phonics. I still
advocate the use of phonics, but I went to grade school in the early 60's when
whole word/look-say was used and learned to read quickly. My daughter's early
years included very little phonics instruction and she is also an excellent reader.
My son is very different. He needs phonics. But until just about *now* (second
quarter of first grade) he has not been skilled enough to handle even phonics
instruction. Things are finally starting to click. Let the show begin...
3)
The workshop described does a disservice as phonics should not be separated from
whole language in the first place. (Andy)
I'm also curious. Exactly what you take "whole language" to mean -- in concrete, practical terms, not in further jargon. You see, if it involves "whole word" learning or the "look-and-say" method at all, I have to say that evidently the phonics part of the combination is not done well. Once a child knows how to read using phonic principles, there is no need for any of this "look-and-say" stuff, feeding them a few new words to recognize each lesson, and so forth. They're off and running. (Mary T.)
I have also just taken a brilliant workshop founded on similar principles. It was called Animated Literacy by Jim Stone. He has merged latest research from the fields of teachning, reading and speech-language pathology. He incorporates alot of phonological awareness training with print in an fun music filled curriculum that is surrounded by reading from great literature. It was so much fun and he is getting great results. I'd be interested in hearing more about your experience. (JPETORCH)
It's been my experience that about two school years of intensive phonics is what is necessary to produce truly competent readers. That's what I found out teaching the total nonreaders in middle school. On the average, if phonics is done intensively, kids should be independent before or by third grade in reading. (S.L.)
One cannot teach sounds and expect the child to figure out how they go together. My kids are developmental and ESE (special ed) and get five words a week that are related to their sounds. Those words are also used to help kids write sentences and express themselves. They can keep them in their "dictionary" to use in their creative writing. The words used in a phonics program almost totally relate to whatever sound they are learning at the time. Doing this also teaches kids word patterns which, in turn, help them figure out unknown words. (P.P., Calif.)
I am a kindergarten teacher and use a synthetic phonics approach - the Jolly Phonics scheme. Our range of reading materials for home reading are really out of date, tatty, boring schemes. I am desperalty seeking a really interesting scheme which builds on the children's phonics knowledge taught in class. Other schemes I have seen so far look to be quite dull. Most of my children are Afro-Carribean boys and Ii need something to really appeal to them! Any ideas gratefully received' (Jane R-W.)
like the Nelson Thornes 'Sound Start' books. The children really like the story lines. The illustrations are fun and they begin with easily decodable text, e.g. character names Pen, Rob, Ben etc. One of the things that I like about them is that it isn't easy for the children to guess at the words, they have to work them out for themselves.
We have just purchased the Jolly Phonics books. I like them but they are not simple enough for our very early readers. We have just sent off for a copy of the very early Jolly Phonics books but I think they only have single words per page. I have also got a copy of some of the Jelly and Bean books. They have good clear decodable text and pictures, but the text in the earlier books are too predictable, e.g. the word 'cat' with a picture of a cat; 'cat in the hat' with corresponding picture etc. In the early books as soon as you have gone through the book once with the child they remember it rather than reading it. (N.N.)