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Sometimes a picture isn’t worth a thousand words
July 13, 2012 by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at 09:22 AM
Dorbooks is an excellent blog about all aspects of teaching beginning reading. Click here for a sample posting - this one concerning the use of pictures in readers for beginners. Although the Balanced Literacy/Whole Language crowd make a big fuss about attractive storybooks with delightful illustrations, it turns out that beginning readers would likely be better off if their readers had no pictures. As a reading tutor who used illustrated readers from time to time, I often noticed that my students were forever losing their place as their eyes raced all over the page to get clues from the illustrations. They did much better if they had only the printed words from which to get the meaning.
Also on the same site -
http://www.dorbooks.com/phonicsblog/2012/04/27/dyslexia/
“One first-grade public school teacher supplements her regular reading program with Phonics Pathways and had all of her first-graders reading in only three months, including English-language learners and students with dyslexia and other learning problems.
She then had a literature evening for parents, and all 32 students got up on the stage—including English language learners and those with learning problems—and read selections from William Bennett’s Book of Virtues. It was a magical moment, and the parents were absolutely thrilled. Just blown away!
A District reading teacher concluded: “Phonics Pathways does not teach comprehension, but it unlocks the secrets of sound/symbol relationships allowing comprehension to become the focus. Students, now able to read words they could only guess at before, can meet reading at its most vital level — they can read for meaning!””
http://www.dorbooks.com/phonicsblog/2012/04/27/dyslexia/
They sure do make a lot of fuss over balanced literacy / whole language, but ignore the reading outcomes of the students. Louisa Moats - Whole Language High Jinks
http://www.k12.wa.us/Reading/ReadingFirst/pubdocs/Moats2007.pdf
“The failures of whole language are many—from failure to teach phonics and other language skills
explicitly and systematically, to an overly personalized, nondirective approach to reading comprehension. For millions of children who struggle to learn to read, the results are disastrous.’
Just this morning - a group in the United States called Decoding Dyslexia by parents has been spreading throughout the states and is receiving international attention.
A group of parents, like most parents would like to see - there kids to become good readers and balanced literacy / whole language does not work.
“If the taxpayers knew how much money was wasted on special education curricula that do not work, they would be outraged. Eighty-five percent of special-education students have some form of dyslexia. That accounts for thousands of parents who do not have a say in their child’s education.”
http://www.newsworks.org/index.php/speak-easy-archive/item/41187-nj-parents-of-dyslexic-children-ready-for-action&Itemid=219
Back to the Dorabooks blog - “Whether dyslexia is inborn or acquired, direct, explicit phonics is the only and indispensable key to fluent and accurate reading with excellent comprehension. Learning how to read logically and sequentially also develops clear and precise thinking skills that spill over into other disciplines as well — math usually improves without tutoring, and critical thinking in general sharpens.”
On top of the fact that the reading science research has proven that balanced literacy / whole language is a poor method to be used in reading instruction. What has the education system been waiting for since the early 1990s?