Explicit, Systematic Phonics in Early Literacy Contexts…. Ok That subtitle for our reading this week scared me. I got flashbacks of the “reading van” that I was forced to attend as a child. The “reading van” was a trailer attached to our school that had a mired of different torture tactics to suck the life out reading and writing. There were worksheets upon worksheets of phonics skills and piles of erasers to erase any and all mistakes. There were red markers to highlight all your deficiencies and a giant clock to tick out the remaining minutes of your pathetic little life!!
Do we acquire a language or do we learn a language? Although I feel that phonics is a part of the learning process I don’t think that it is the, “be all end all” of learning. Communication, comprehension and the desire to be understood, are some of the driving forces behind the acquisition of a language. The Cusumano article uplifts me because she states things like:
o Practices such as these may actually stunt the natural development of writing skills in young children.
o The learning can progress rapidly if the child discovers and tests out the rules themselves instead of having them imposed from without.
o Adults need to look for and value the message without insisting on cleaning up conventions at this stage of growth
o Yet this writer appears to be moving towards conventional spelling under her own steam.
o Provide praise and encouragement for the ideas without criticizing the errors in conventions.
The chapters in Sound Systems weren’t as bad as I thought they were going to be. They did talk about making the lessons meaningful and discussed the importance of phonemic awareness and phonic skills. I also appreciated having a tool to be able to evaluate the progress of a students learning by seeing the percentage of conventional spelling. However, I am hesitant to make the learning of a language solely around word recognition and the ability to sound out words. What about learning through meaningful text, exploring different writing possibilities and supporting creativity and the desire to be understood?
Am I out in left field here?
Amy, no, I don't think you're out in left field. I grew up in a whole-word district. When I came to college in Indiana, I was the only one of my friends who knew how to spell. Apparently, when the first big wave of phonics hit the state, no one had any money to train the teachers. They got some books and the message that invented spelling is always ok as long as the idea gets across. Imagine, thousands of 18-year-olds spelling phonetically!
ReplyDeleteI think things are much improved now. I see the approach in Sound Systems as a more balanced approach between the pattern-making of whole-word and the sounds of phonics. The reality is that english can't always be boiled down to rules because there are always exceptions.
Hopefully there are now fewer schools sucking the life out of reading and writing. Although the advent of the copy machine has made worksheet hell very tempting for some educators, I must say.
Amy,
ReplyDeleteI was talking with my husband (he had grade school experiences similar to yours) lastnight and talking about the example of the little gut who misspelled Encyclopedia and how that the child should be praised for trying and not punished because he didn't get something right that was beyond his "developmental scope". He said that it was a very cool idea and wishes that he had an adult in his life that thought along those lines. He more related to the reading last week where the child was so caught up in the rules that he could not be creative. "The dog was brown. The dog was black. etc... For some this is what it means to write! I hope we can change that!!!!
Amy,I love the question, "Do we acquire a language or do we learn a language?" I think it parallels the nature/nurture question to which I would answer, yes. Both are necessary to beggining readers. However, while phonics is a valuable tool for helping children to decode written symbols, and even reproduce them,it does not teach creativity and self-expresion.
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