Reading Wars

“Whole language” proponents insist that the “look and say” method of teaching reading is the best method. “Phonetics” teaching is a method of teaching children to read and pronounce words by learning the phonetic value of letters, letter groups and especially syllables. Both techniques have merit, but it appears that the use of phonetics offers more advantages in mastering the art and skill of reading.

Following are some pointers to look for in a good reading program. Many of these suggestions are from people who have devoted their entire careers to the improvement of education. They are Dr. E.K. McEwan, from her book Angry Parents: Failing Schools; Dr.Hirsch Jr., from his powerful book The Schools We need & Why We Don’t Have
Them; and Drs. Jeanne S. Chall, Vicki A. Jacobs and Luke E. Baldwin, three reading specialists, from their indepth research called The Reading Crisis. Discuss these suggestions with your child’s teacher.

A. Make children aware of the characteristics of print. Print awareness includes the purpose of reading, the structure of written text. how stories work, what a word is, how words are composed of letters, what spaces signify, and the ability to scan left to right and then sweep diagonally left and one line down.

B. Begin teaching the conscious understanding that a spoken word is made up of a sequence of speech sounds directly and explicitly at an early age such as kindergarten. Children must be able to hear the individual sounds of their languag’ They must be able to disconnect or “unglue” sounds in words in order to use an alphabetic writing system. This skill is absolutely essential in learning to read and tr write. If children cannot hear and manipulate the sounds in spoken words, they will have an extremely difficult time learning how to map these sounds to letters and letter patternsthe essence of decoding.

C. Show children exactly how to sound our words through blending the sounds. This must be done in daily practice sessions. This skill must be “overlearned” so that it becomes highly accurate and automatic.

D. Correct oral reading errors. Children benefit when they receive corrective feedback, regardless of whether the errors influence the meaning of the passage.

E. Do both phonetics and wholelanguage. But be careful at the beginning of teaching to stress phonetics. Once it is mastered strive for reading comprehension.

Immerse students in challenging and excellent reading material. Students must become voracious readers. Once students have acquired the ability to decode, the single most important activity is to have them readreadread! Reading a lot is one of the most powerful methods of increasing fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension, and becoming educated about the world.

If your child is not reading at his age appropriate grade level and the teachers are not applying some of the above suggestions, demand to know why not and what they intend to do to bring your child up to the appropriate level. Do not accept report card grades as a true indication of the child’s reading ability. They are not an accurate indication. Your child should be reading according to his age level. Period! Nothing more nothing less. Demand a reading competency test if you suspect your child is not reading well.

If your child is in the primary grades and is not being taught to read properly, either teach him yourself or find someone who can. You cannot afford to wait. I wager that every child who becomes a juvenile delinquent, a bully at school, or a dropout has been a poor reader since grade one. Act now before it is too late!