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The so called “reading wars”


MintyBiscuit

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MintyBiscuit

Read this today and found myself oscillating between saying “exactly that!” and being absolutely infuriated by it


https://www.smh.com.au/national/kids-in-the-crossfire-it-s-not-just-that-they-can-t-read-it-affects-every-minute-of-their-day-20201203-p56kf6.html


My kids school starting trialling their synthetic phonics program when DS was in kindy (he could already read fluently before school) and we’ve since had DD who started last year exposed to the program. For her it’s been remarkable to watch it unlock the part of her brain that has always loved books and being read to, and allowed her to flourish with her reading. Overall the school has had impressive results since implementing it, and even those teachers who were skeptical initially are converts.


Interested to hear what experiences others have had with their kids schooling and the approach to teaching reading

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purplekitty

My children went through primary when the whole language theory was in fashion.


I was a reader support person and the whole thing was a disaster IMO.

There was no evidence to back the approach and it failed a lot of students having difficulties.


My Yr. 3 daughter could read better than a Yr. 6 student I was helping.

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I'm not sure what they did but I have a teacher in the family dealing with many late high schoolers who are reading at about a year 3 level.

And I know multiple students who have finished school or are in senior high school who have made it to the start of year 12 without having studied a single book in English.


I also know many parents who had children a few years back getting glowing school reports, where their reading is not identified as an issue but it very clearly was an issue given they couldn't read at all at home.


I'm hearing less of the last complaints now than I was. I'm not sure if that's because of classroom changes or that the age groups of the kids of friends has changed?

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Phonics. Phonics all the way. DD's school changed from Jolly Phonics to Read Write Inc when she started school, and it improved the reading results for all year levels across the whole school. I really like it. I don't understand the whole word approach. It makes no sense to me.

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My kids went to Montessori, which is a bit different to either approach (I think of it as child-led rote learning as a lot of the activities are based on repetition), until my youngest was year 2 and eldest year 4. Then they went to a school that used a phonics program.


My experience is that each child learned differently, with my eldest using a sounding-out, rule-based approach to learning reading from a young age, which I found slow but steady. She now has very good literacy skills.


My youngest was a natural whole language reader, who would make good guesses based on pictures and memory. They had an advanced vocabulary at a young age but always struggled with the rules of English, and still do to some degree.


For myself, I was taught to read by my mother, before I went to school. She used homemade flashcards of whole words and parts of words. It wasn't any system, as she made it up, but it taught me very methodically and I understand words as their parts as well as their whole. Something that struck me in the article was the argument from whole language teachers that they wanted their students to love reading and didn't want to bore them. I love reading, even though I was taught in what could be considered a boring way.


I know that when you love doing something, you do it more and get better at it as a result. The thing is, you're not likely to love doing something if you're not good at doing it. So you need that first step to learn how to do it and sometimes that's boring, often it's frustrating, but you need to get through it to get to the enjoyment.


The mistake that whole language teachers are making is thinking that it's the content of books that makes people love them, when early readers first need some proficiency before they can enjoy the content.

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Very grateful both my kids have learned phonics.


Eldest was at a public school for FYOS and they used jolly phonics.


Second was private for FYOS and they’re using Initia-lit.


I really like the initia-lit program and books. The writers of the program have done an amazing job.


Even now my year 5 boys spelling revolves around sounds. This week it is the d and dd sounds. Another week it might be the oo ou ow (?) sound. That constant repetition helps cement things for kids who struggle.

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I've been a teacher for over 30 years. I have never not taught phonics.


The phonics around these days, however, is much better taught and analysed.


Some kids still struggle at reading though, and saying synthetic phonics is the answer to all is not true. My daughter struggled at reading and she was taught phonics very well.


I don't know of any schools who don't teach phonics via a synthetics phonics approach at the moment.

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I've been a teacher for over 30 years. I have never not taught phonics.


The phonics around these days, however, is much better taught and analysed.


Some kids still struggle at reading though, and saying synthetic phonics is the answer to all is not true. My daughter struggled at reading and she was taught phonics very well.


I don't know of any schools who don't teach phonics via a synthetics phonics approach at the moment.

 

Yes, this is what surprises me too. Every school I know of (NSW) has used a phonics based programme to teach reading, ncluding the public school my kids go to, and the phonics program continues all the way through til year 6 (My DD started school on 2005). They did mention in the article that there seems to be state differences, so maybe that's where the problems lie?

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I have no idea what the school uses to teach reading. We're not told.

Apart from sightwords and readers coming home in the first year or 2, we see nothing really about how they learn. No homework and books only come home at the end of the year.

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I've been a teacher for over 30 years. I have never not taught phonics.


The phonics around these days, however, is much better taught and analysed.


Some kids still struggle at reading though, and saying synthetic phonics is the answer to all is not true. My daughter struggled at reading and she was taught phonics very well.


I don't know of any schools who don't teach phonics via a synthetics phonics approach at the moment.

 

Gosh you're lucky, I'm still dealing with a handful of schools using LLI as their targeted intervention and in one case Reading Recovery is still the official program (although the teachers there ignore that and do targeted phonics).


I do agree though, there's not much of a 'war' left. The OG approach using a structured, synthetic phonics program - not analytical phonics - is the best method. It wont magically fix those who have legitimate reading disorders but hopefully the next gen will be luckier than us poor millenials/early gen z.


FYI: parents would be appalled to learn how little early literacy and numeracy teaching is contained in the University curriculum. Most teachers have to teach themselves anything past the basics. And when they've been through school when whole language was the thing this can be incredibly difficult for them.

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Sancti-claws

My daughter was a casualty of the whole word approach - we had a special class parent meeting about homework and were told we were NOT to assist our children with their new way of learning to read etc etc and now my daughter is 21 and has no joy in reading and had a very real struggle with dealing with the scientific reading that was required for her course.


I think part of it is because she was always going to have a harder time reading but was not assisted by a system that wouldn't let us sound out syllables but instead looked to word shape and context.

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My DD was taught using whole word but she was a child, as her principal said, that could have been taught to read by a monkey. I was having parent helpers compliment me on teaching her to read before she started - I didn’t she just picked it up immediately.


They changed to phonics when she she was in grade 1 and so DS has learnt that way. I think it’s better but I also know he’s not that interested so he doesn’t seem as good a reader as his sister.

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Kiwi Bicycle

I have come up with one problem with phonics and that is for kids who have speech issues and sounding out a word doesn't work as they cannot say a sound correctly. It also meant the teacher had to realise just because they said a word incorrectly, didn't mean they don't know the word. In DS's case, we ended up whole word learning the top 100 words just to get him past this issue until his speech caught up.

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I think our school does a hybrid. They have phonics, sounding out and for the words that doesn’t work for decoding based on the sentence. They also have sight words. I’m sure they used to stop these in kindy, but Dd in year 1 is still doing them.

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My kid could be described by that’s article. In his case yes they did a phonics program and yea he had access to multi-lit which is evidence based and uses phonics. However, there are issues. Yep he can sound out a long word, but does that mean even in yr7 he is reading at more then a grade 3-4 level? Nope. Because he can’t tell if he’s sounded out the word properly, he doesn’t always know what the word means and he has had to be explicitly taught by our speech therapist comprehension strategies. Because multilit is all about phonics, it just assumes once you can sound out words you’ll know what they mean... but the kid is behind and he’s spent 4 hours a week at the remedial classes since prep, some times missing those key English lessons where they learn about drawing context from the sentences and comprehension strategies. Or those haven’t actually, you know been taught despite the synthetic phonics program in place. Actually he’s not the only kid like this at our school. I’m currently having the same issues with my younger kid, can sound out and read a medical textbook but can’t tell you what it means. And from listening to the yr 5 teacher during our meeting earlier this term, this is becoming more noticeable in a number of kids. So somewhere there has been some failure.


While I think multi-lit was good and is brilliant for a number of kids I also think it’s impact needs to be assessed and when kids are not getting anymore from it they need to be able supplement it in such a way that is useful. Not halfway through grade 6 when the kid is due to move into highschool like my kiddo. And now he’s in grade 7 and reading/writing plays a significant part of his work and frankly he’s struggling. We are “lucky” I guess that he attends a highschool with experience with kids struggling with literacy and they provide somewhat interventions in structured short bursts during English.


Also you know why? Schools needs more funding to support kids with dyslexia and dysgraphia (and dyscalculia). They need to be able to recognise it. It makes a significant impact and frankly it shouldn’t be that 20/30 years ago when I was in primary school my sister was getting higher levels of support then nowadays.


(Note my older kid is dyslexic, dysgraphic , has a language delay and adhd/ASD both of which impact working memory and processing speed which is really needed for reading. He also loves books. We have to many freaking books but it getting to the point now he wants to read the same books as his peers and his reading ability just isn’t there and it’s hurting this love of book).

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I know plenty of schools who teach phonics because they have to, but it isn't backed up in anything outside of that 10-15 minute lesson each day. Spelling is taught whole word. Levelled readers, not decodable readers, are sent home each night. Writing involves looking at the shape of the word and copying down words displayed around the room. And all phonics instruction stops after Year 1. Yes, they might have a 'gold-standard' phonics program, but they're still holding onto whole-word or balanced literacy ideas.


Most actual supporters of phonics teaching won't argue that if you teach a kid the sounds, they'll magically be able to read and understand all texts everywhere. Reading instruction needs to include morphology from an early age, learning and understanding what base words mean, and how that is changed when you add prefixes and suffixes. Word origins and how words relate. You teach the word 'two' and link it to twin, twice, twenty. Any reading instruction needs a robust vocab program and the explicit teaching of background knowledge in order to make it effective.

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JohnnyComeLately

I am so puzzled by this, and don't really understand the different approaches. And yes, i read the article 🙂


Can any teachers (or anyone else knowledgeable) link to an explainer?


I am in Qld, with a Yr 1 child. I know they've done jolly phonics, but it seems like they're doing a blended or hybrid approach? They have sight words to learn, as well as being encouraged to understand words from their context.


Do they learn things like an 'e' at the end of a word changes the vowel sound, how an 'igh' word is 'sounded out', breaking down words into syllables they can sound out and put together?

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Kiwi Bicycle

From my limited knowledge plus talking to our speech therapist, there are some words like " is" that have to be taught as sight words, they don't fit into the phonics framework. I actually think a blend is probably the best, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket as such. Kids learn differently.

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[mention]JohnnyComeLately[/mention] the silent e rule is taught as part of phonics. I don't know the exact term but I remember rules coming home with v-e/vce (v meaning vowel/c meaning consonant) means a long vowel as in say the same of the letter a-e says ay. -igh is /eye/ the long I sound. We didn't do a lot of sight words, almost every "word" can be sounded out. is = /i/+/s/, two sounds blended together. One and once are some of the few words that don't work phonetically. Most sight words are phonetically okay, but for some schools they consider them easier to rote learn.


[mention]MagdaRegis[/mention] I suspect half the issue with out school was that the spelling program they used for years that interacted with the reading/morphology of words and understanding vocabulary played a part. even though spelling and reading are actually different abilities and functions (decoding and encoding). They have now changed and already I have a kid more enthused because they are teaching the technical knowledge of words, such as root words (Latin roots), and how they intersect to make a work and impact the spelling. This also includes affixes as explicit lessons. And then taking these skills and discovering vocabulary and how to decode the meaning of unknown words.

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From my limited knowledge plus talking to our speech therapist, there are some words like " is" that have to be taught as sight words, they don't fit into the phonics framework. I actually think a blend is probably the best, rather than putting all your eggs in one basket as such. Kids learn differently.

 

A vast, vast majority of schools, even those who run brilliant phonics programs, will still use sight words. That said, there is a push to move away from just remembering those words. As [mention]CrankyM[/mention] mentioned, a lot of the sight words that are listed for children to learn can be sounded out. e.g. that - th-a-t, am - a-m, this -th-i-s.

Yes, sometimes they won't use the primary pronunciation of a letter, but they'll often still follow a common pattern which can be taught and generalised over a wide range of words. e.g. a single s at the end of a word often makes a z sound, like in is, was, his, logs, clothes. The letter a after a w makes an 'o' sound, like in was, wash, want.


I'll admit that the word 'one' is completely bizarre though.

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LemonMyrtle

I thought phonics was the norm these days? My kid are taught phonics. And hand symbols to go with it (which my second son loves, tempted to teach him sign language) They are taught several possible sounds for each letter. As well as digraphs and some basic rules. All in prep. They also have sight words for more common words. The whole thing works so well, I am impressed by it.


It’s soooo much better than how I was taught to read, which must have been whole word reading, or something, it’s the reason I was a bad speller for so long. It didn’t suit me, I don’t have the memory to memorise a bunch of words. The whole thing seemed illogical.


It’s sad if kids are still being taught the way I was taught to read.

Interestingly, one of the teachers at DS’s school sits in with his class when his teacher does phonics because she never learned them, and it’s her first year teaching grade one. Her whole class joins DS’s class for phonics lessons, and they learn together.

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