Phonics vs. Whole Word--Take 2

Short graphic video clarifies reading wars by analysing "5 vs. FIVE." Quite ingenious. And, for Whole Word and Sight Words, devastating. (Also see "Phonics vs. Whole Word," which was Take 1. Bruce Deitrick Price, Improve-Education.org)


http://www.improve-Education.org

Category:

Education

Tags:

• sight
• words
• Dolch
• Words
• public
• schools
• whole
• word
• balanced
• literacy
• language
• illiteracy
• k-12
• children
• reading
• functional
• teach

[maryhoy84]

great video i completely agree with you. my son is in 2nd grade learning how to read using sight words. he cant even read at a kindergarten level because of this garbage. and as a parent, we are told by the district not to interfere or teach different methods because it can cause confusion. so instead of teaching my son how to actually read using phonics i have to sit back and watch him become illiterate and hate school? I dont think so. great job bruce, lovely video with great points all around

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

@maryhoy84 Thanks.

This is astonishing and scary; "we are told by the district not to interfere or teach different methods because it can cause confusion." The dumb bunnies won't teach reading and then they try to forbid parents from helping out.

For sure, casually point out to your son the phonics in the sight-words.

Also, Google "54: Preemptive Reading" for other ideas.

[darksarchasm]

Youre right about the word five, of course, but why is this being made into a political thing? Phonics and sight words are not mutually exclusive approaches. Phonics alone is fine in a consistently phonetic language, but English is not one. Children need to learn phonics (obviously), but teaching common function words as sight words is also very helpful. By the way, my students have never had much trouble with different fonts, even heavily stylized ones. Cursive is the exception.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

@darksarchasm Flesch said English is 97.4% phonetic. Denise Eide, in her new book "Uncovering the Logic of Engllsh," puts the figure at 98%. (See my review on Amazon.)

A genuinely non-phonetic word--GHTWJ pronounced "horse," for example--is almost non-existent. All the nonsense about non-phonetic words was spread by an Education Establishment determined to use a dumb method and then to cover their tracks with a hundred lies.

[Lozzy4992]

My brother's dyslexic and we were taught by phonics.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

@Lozzy4992

Flesch, Blumenfeld and Engelmann worried over this problem. Their conclusion is that in-born dyslexia is very rare. Less than 1% of the population has this. Most so-called dyslexia is induced by making kids memorize sight-words. If you are sure your brother wasn't asked to memorize sight-words, he may be one of these rare cases. But you don't want to jump to the conclusion too quickly, because it gives cover to the public schools and their bad methods. Also, treatment is different.

[mischnix]

Actually, at 1:10, the German "fünf" should be written with an umlaut. That said, I appreciate your videos very much. In some countries of Europe, we had the "whole word" method a lot and they are changing back to phonics/syllabic as they found out it's a disaster. E. g. France has an illiteracy rate of about 20% now, very sad.

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

The companion video is, of course, Phonics vs. Whole Word (by implication, Take 1). This one is shorter, but quite complete.

(If anyone wants more background on this very serious social problem--i.e., educators who create illiteracy--please Google "43: Reading Resources.")

[BruceDeitrickPrice]

Sound is optional. (But in certain moods it's good to have lively music. Also, I don't want kids thinking I'm like their boring professors. Heaven forbid. I actually love rock and roll. Also, I'm an artist and if I have to choose between dull and dancing, I'll take dancing.)

[grayscan]

Well stated, (though I turned the sound way down).