Rod Everson @OnTrackReading

@BostonGlobe At first I wondered at the well-behaved, attentive, children. Then I noticed all the black pants legs in the background.

We're soon going to throw into the mix a phonics workbook for parents to teach reading to their kids. It differs in approach by teaching multiple sounds for certain letters right away so words like his, has, is, no, do, and to can all be taught phonetically. Field testing is well underway. If anyone is interested in hearing more about it, let me know. Our regular offering, the Advanced Code Phonics Workbook, has been available for over twenty years, but it is aimed at helping struggling readers. The new workbook is for parents wanting to make sure their kids learn to read, and read well.

It's mainly an issue of what to teach first to a beginning reader. A lot of them already know letter names before beginning reading instruction, for example. A program that avoids letter names initially won't bother them at all. But many don't know letter names and they need to learn three things already: how a letter looks; what sound is associated with it; how to print it. Adding the letter name at that point is just adding to the memory load. It's relatively easy to avoid doing that, so some phonics programs do. Eventually, it becomes useful to refer to spellings, as in "We use the UR spelling of the /er/ sound in 'burn'," and the IR spelling in 'bird'." It's relatively easy to add letter names to the mix once they're through the basic code.

Jarred, I'm jumping in late here, but I do agree with Liz. It's not necessary to teach letter names initially. I see your point, but here's how it's handled in my own curriculum: Child sees "i" and is told it's the /i/ sound in "it." Same with "t." Then, when before writing "i," he's told (in our curriculum, but only a few others) that it can be two sounds, /i/ or /ie/. (The /ee/ sound in "ski" is delayed to a later lesson.) He's then instructed to write "i" several times. while saying /i/../ie/ each time. Same with "t" but just saying /t/. But, when he then writes "it," he just says /i/ when he writes the "i" and /t/ when he writes the "t," then "it" when he's done. This works well for young children and removes the need to add letter names to the memorization task until sometime later. Granted, most beginning reading curricula don't teach both sounds at once /i/../ie/, but kids are quite capable of handling that level of logic.

I, too, have worked with many kids to get them comfortable with phonics (and not guessing.) Here's one tip: When a child makes an error of some sort while decoding a word, start EVERY correction with "You said _____" and put what he said on the blank." The reason? He just said exactly that and will agree with you. That gets the correction off on the right foot. After a time, the child will even react positively by re-examining what he said and will seek to self-correct before even hearing your correction (which is not the answer, but an explanation of where he went wrong, like omitting a sound, or moving a sound.)

@GlobeEducation It's an indication of the sorry state of education today that the state has to mandate the teaching of phonics, yet that's apparently the point we have reached. English phonics is messy; all the more reason to teach it and to do so in an efficient manner.

Phonics is the efficient route to becoming a proficient sight reader. Decoding takes place down a slower pathway in the brain. But while decoding is going on, new synaptic connections are being generated down a faster pathway. Once a word is decoded enough times, the fast path is activated and that word is instantly recognized. So, ironically, the efficient way to gaining a huge sight-word vocabulary is via decoding using the phonics content of the word, rather than via sight-word memorization.

Grades are supposed to indicate a level of preparation for taking on the next level of challenge. Unfortunately, in a lot of schools today, that's no longer true. Part of the reason for the "Mississippi miracle" is that grades are now meaningful there. You fail to earn a passing grade, you repeat the grade. Another reason is that the system then changes up the instruction to increase the odds of passing the next time around, not just more of the same.

I agree. The guessing is tough to stop. I see it a lot at the multisyllable level when working with 3rd to 5th graders. I think that's because public schools don' t have a good multisyllable decoding method to teach. The six-syllable method is typical. Even teachers have to learn it, which indicates that they never used it as kids themselves.

@cha0sultimate @rockinontheweb Sure it's a vowel, the /ie/ sound in shy, the /ee/ sound in happy, the /i/ sound in gym. Each time it's the spelling of the vowel sound in those words.

@sleepingpixiee @rockinontheweb That's because sometimes it is a vowel (gym, happy, shy) and other times it's a consonant (yes, year, yard). a, e, i, o, and u are always vowels and every English word will contain at least one of the six vowels.

@beezeebecky @rockinontheweb The letter "y" acts as a vowel in the same three ways as the letter "i": Tim/gym; he/happy; Hi/my. Both can be /i/, /ee/ or /ie/. And it's usually a consonant at the beginning of words (yes, year, yarn).

@aronaaax @rockinontheweb It's possible to decode many words beginning with "y" by saying the /ee/ sound as you noted with yankee. But then try it with "year" or "yeast" and you get "ear" and "east." The consonant "y" differs from the /ee/ sound in that the jaw is thrust forward a bit initially.

@Katherine111594 Hi Katherine. Is there a listing of homeschool conventions somewhere? I've written a beginning reading program for parents who want to teach their child to read and would like to discuss it with homeschoolers.

@blocht574 @JamesAFurey Sorry, Ted. Haven't been in here for quite a while and only realized yours was an old post after I replied.

@blocht574 @JamesAFurey Mr. Bloch. Phonics is the logical way to teach reading. The fact that it doesn't work for all kids doesn't mean it shouldn't be the first step in the process. And voting against adding it to curriculum implies it's not in there now. That's educational malpractice if true.

@C_Hendrick Montessori emphasizes developmental processes. I suspect that's the difference. Time spent teaching early reading skills might be better spent working on development of gross- and fine-motor skills and visual perception skills first.

@kevinbparry A dictionary giving in to persistent errors, rather than setting a standard. What's the definition in a 1950's dictionary? My guess is every two weeks, but I could be wrong.

A huge part of the problem is that the teachers who get the best results are not the ones guiding curriculum. If a math teacher (any grade) says that the new math curriculum being considered is crap, and that teacher has been turning out better-prepared students than his peers year after year, well, then the new math curriculum being considered is probably crap. And if that teacher is turning out better results that his peers while not following the current math curriculum, then the current curriculum is probably crap. And the teacher should be asked how he's doing it, and be safe in saying that he's using his own curriculum. He should then have input on changing the current curriculum. Unfortunately, I doubt that most school administrations go about it that way, although I could be wrong.

In a perfect world, parents would have thoroughly learned English phonics when they were taught to read, and would then easily be able to pass that information on to their kids while reading at home with them. In the imperfect world we live in, schools test letter-name knowledge of 4 and 5 year olds to assess a child's preparedness, so naturally parents think letter names are the way to go.