Although many of these students are in the 6th grade, some are far behind on their reading levels. The cueing systems tell how a reader is thinking about text while reading and can show a skilled teacher how to coach the thinking for self monitoring. Vocabulary is the essence to becoming content literate after. By continuing to use this website, you consent to our usage of cookies and similar technologies, in accordance with our cookie policy. As long as the teacher is not too global in her approach and knows her students and when and how to teach specific strategies and skills, there should be success. I enjoyed reading your article concerning the reading wars. I understand and appreciate when you say Learning requires effort and you dont learn much with an easy text, however, getting my students to grow in reading requires them to feel successful. While I agree with the statement, I think we should be careful to find the distinction between challenging students and making students struggle. One strategy I would like to defend is leveled readers. Learning requires effort and you dont learn much with an easy text. It is noticed that the war between implementing reading programs are all about a sense of balance when it comes to the success of the students involved. But word memorization programs that also teach phonics do well too. I believe that the literacy wars are important, I agree that we need well trained teachers who follow the latest research, but please dont stomp over the reading lives of our children while you march to battle.

From my personal experience as a special education teacher, I have seen the benefits of a structured phonics curriculum for struggling readers, however, the older the students are the less motivation they is when it comes to learning phonics. A dedicated teacher implementing thorough, deep, explicit teaching with a mixture of other literacy practices is going to produce successful readers. Allowing them to be successful will motivate them to work harder and want to attempt the harder texts. However, we know this to not be the case. Unfortunately, my test scores didnt always look so great. I think your description of the cueing systems is inaccurate. There needs to be a balance. There were a few points I agreed with and a few I did not. Our focus has been centered on literacy, the ability to read and write. Instead, we simply hoped that these poor children would be attracted to reading the books they had selected. How do we convince the powers that be that we need a change? I am an educator doing what I think is best for the students I teach each day and trying to keep up with the continually developing world of literacy instruction. When phonics is tested head-to-head against word memorization, phonics wins. I do agree they would benefit more from a consistent phonics curriculum that follows them through their early elementary years (something my district doesnt currently have). Although some are trying to address the issue it is clear that this is a sub-cultural war. And I would propose that independent reading shows students why they need to learn phonics. Weaker readers, especially students who are still struggling to decode and read words fluently, often get frustrated and arent able to accomplish much reading during independent reading time. I find your topic of reading wars to be of great significance due to the fact that these conflicts changed the trajectory of my own education in the early 90s. Lastly, I believe that many teachers of balanced literacy teach phonics in a systematic way. But its harder. I believe this difference can be explained by the explicit teaching of phonics. Advocates believe its better to devote instructional time to the ideas and stories that are in the books rather than forcing kids to memorize the sounds that letters make. However, you state that many people overstate the effectiveness of phonics instruction and that there is not a vast difference between test scores with students who have or have not received phonics instruction. In an Education Week survey of early reading instruction published in January 2020, only 22 percent of kindergarten, first and second grade teachers said they believed phonics should be taught explicitly and systematically. The research that my colleague, Anne McGill-Franzen, and I have completed has demonstrated convincingly that increasing the volume of reading that poor children do during the summer months serves as one evidence-based option for reducing, if not eliminating, the rich/poor reading achievement gap. While everyone deserves high quality text, what is appropriate to their grade has nothing to do with their age or grade level and everything to do with their abilities. I wish to add to the discussion by extending the description of independent reading as an unstructured activity where students can do as they wish, and for which there is a lack of support in research. A big question is the number of sight words. You provided a great summary on the current ideas of reading. Its about monitoring and can begin the process of teaching students to self-correct. I have been a teacher for 19 years, but I have a personal reason behind my belief. Whole language instruction is based on the philosophy that kids will learn to read naturally if you expose them to a lot of books. They also need a whole lot of other things.. Nationally, we can expect this trend to continue. Ill bet that is we could restore the balance such that workbooks and skills tests were eliminated and free reading became a one-hour daily block in every elementary classroom we would have kids who not only read better but they also have larger vocabularies, better writing skills, and greater knowledge of the world than kids do today. For example, theres no point in having students memorize green as a sight word since it follows the phonics rules perfectly. Phonological awareness can help students become better readers. On another note, I did find the sight word section to be interesting. My suggestion is that it seems time to give up on the phonics advancements and to, instead, create schools where all children not only learn to read but actually do read during the school day (currently elementary students spend about 15 minutes of the 300+ minute school day actually engaged in reading activity). The article states that phonics only helps readers be marginally more successful; however, I find that statement hard to believe. Classrooms dont need phonics charts and short lists of sight words festooned to the walls. I am a fairly new teacher with only 3 years of experience. The article mentions the notion of phonics and other strategies to help children read. As a teacher at a Title 1 school, I have seen the effects that a low socioeconomic status has on student achievement. Our work keeps educators and the public informed about pressing issues at schools and on campuses throughout the country. At The Hechinger Report, we publish thoughtful letters from readers that contribute to the ongoing discussion about the education topics we cover. Unfortunately, a bit of phonics on the fly isnt terribly effective. Another area that this article/blog talks about is the use of balanced literacy. In both of our studies we simply ran book fairs in schools serving children from low-income families. When kids cant read, educators ask why? Balanced literacy is a good strategy, but there is little time to cover everything without other areas suffering. As a first-grade teacher, students come to me on all levels, so there is no reason for students to spend almost ten percent of their instructional time completing a phonics program. I have taught the 3- cueing system, emphasized the importance of independent reading time, and used flexible reading groups for teaching and monitoring student progress in reading. Although there have been and will be many different approaches to teaching reading, they all seem to be well intentioned and have the same goal. My mother, a former special education teacher, felt that I was not learning to read without phonics, so she began home-schooling me halfway through the year. No research supports this teaching technique. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. They can then learn the reading skills they need to have to read and write across the content areas. Covering Innovation & Inequality in Education. Thank you for this posting this writing column; it confirms that literacy educators face many different battles in the War on Reading. While phonics can be integrated through songs and fun activities, it is eventually exposure to interesting content that captivates and motivates the continual pursuit of reading. In my experience, with so many different models and recommendations for teaching reading, there is little time for actual reading to take place in the classroom. Working with guided reading the teacher is able to determine the students needs and can differentiate the lessons for the needs of the students. Learn More{{/message}}, {{#message}}{{{message}}}{{/message}}{{^message}}It appears your submission was successful. To be successful, the children need to be immersed in a strong systematic approach and there should be progress monitoring to see if there is growth or not. I had a very hard time with reading comprehension when I was in school. Instead, I learned that these compromise curricula often retain three teaching strategies for which there isnt good research evidence: cueing, independent reading time and leveled reading. If you want students to read at a higher level, model what that looks like, plant that seed. Although they both grew up to be great readers, my daughter that did not receive phonics instruction is a horrible speller. Stronger readers get harder texts and weaker readers get easier texts. All students are different and we have to meet the needs of all studentsthat means teaching in a variety of ways. She taught algebra to ninth-graders for As a 50 year (now retired teacher, professor, coach, and tutor/mentor), it was like the article was clearing the fog filled with rhetoric and emotion and presented a valuable set of guidelines. In the third and fourth grade classroom, we were having the majority of students unable to read or write fluently due to a lack of a phonics program for much of their education. Is balanced literacy really what it claims to be? Sign up for our weekly newsletters to get stories like this delivered directly to your inbox. . Eventually, as students reading improves, they can move up to harder texts. Every student is unique and has different needs. You must fill out all fields to submit a letter. Cuing indicates that a child is analyzing for meaning and drawing from prior knowledge, both skills that are needed. Therefore, since many of my students read these words with the t and h separate and the same with the s and h instead of their combined sounds. The best results happen when teachers use a set phonics curriculum, typically 25 minutes a day, instead of making up their own phonics lessons as they deem necessary. You do note that a large subset of students is helped by explicit phonics instruction; however, the bigger point is that many of these students may never learn to read effectively without it. Phonics have been tested several times to be proven effective for students. Please contact the developer of this form processor to improve this message. I try to incorporate literacy in my science classroom each day to give students exposure to new vocabulary words. This story about the reading warswas written by Jill Barshay and produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused oninequality and innovation in education. More importantly, independent readings primary goal is motivation and passion for reading phonics and comprehension are important but independent reading recognizes motivation as the starting blocks in a long-distance running race. Its well worth archiving. Students should be allowed to choose books that they are interested in reading.

We provide readings that have the same content but at their reading levels.

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