By contrast, advocates of Developmentally Appropriate Instruction say some kids should not start reading until age 9, and they criticize programs such as DISTAR, especially when they make other schools look bad. Other programs my kids went through expected kids to exit Kindergarten proficient enough in reading and writing to start 1st grade alphabetizing a list of 10 words and using each word in a written sentence.
Reading Recovery also advocates "developmental" or "invented" spelling so that students can write long before they have mastered reading or spelling in the belief that this is "essential" for the development of reading skills.
2nd Grade in Midwest The teacher
immediately corrected my suggestion and told me how important it was
for the slower students to know that they were asked to be in groups
with the very best readers. "It makes them feel good." The lower
performing children need to be grouped with the higher performing
students for their self esteem."
@@Hunter, Madeline
Malone thinks Hunter is a OBE/
Skinner type approach and doesn't like it.
@@Inappropriate
http://63.220.28.231/booksal.html
Book Titles: A-L
Baby Be-Bop - Block, Francesca Lia
That n*gger looks like he's got a mouth full of c*m"
Beloved - Morrison, Toni
Bless Me Ultima - Anaya, Rudolfo A.
Chronicle of a Death Foretold - Marquez, Gabriel Garcia
Druids - Llywelyn, Morgan
Exodus - Uris, Leon
Fade - Cormier, Robert
Fallen Angels - Myers, Walter Dean
Fools Crow - Welch, James
Gates of Fire - Pressfield, Steven
Girl Goddess #9 - Block, Francesca Lia
Growing Up Chicana/o - Lopez, Tiffany Ana
Heroes - Cormier, Robert
How the Garcia Girls Lost Their Accents - Alvarez, Julia
I am the Cheese - Cormier, Robert
I Been in Sorrow’s Kitchen and licked out all the Pots - Straight, Susan
I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Angelou, Maya
I Was a Teenage Fairy - Block, Francesca Lia
Kindred - Butler, Octavia B.
Like Water for Chocolate - Esquivel, Laura
Living by the Word - Walker, Alice
Love & Sex: Ten Stories of Truth - Cart, Michael
Love in the Time of Cholera - Garcia Marquez, Gabriel
@@IQ / Intelligence
IQ not needed for screening LD students
@@Invented Spelling
We're not kidding. Also called "phonemic" and "developmental"
spelling. It is considered "essential" for developing reading skills,
since advocates also insist on writing before students have learned
how to read or even spell.
Experts have stated that children should make up their own spelling,
no wonder kids in many schools simply can't spell. This is a big
component of Whole Language instruction.
z45\clip\2000\09\invspell.txt Sept 5, 2000 Why elementary schools
don't expect correct spelling Rebecca Wigod and Karen Gram Vancouver
Sun Parents should no longer expect their young children to be taught
correct spelling in the early years of elementary schools.
MY SON'S HOMEWORK IS GRADED ON USE OF INVENTED SPELLING
see article and report card
INVENTIVE SPELLING IS ESSENTIAL
\clip\99\03\maine.htm Reading Reform: Lessons From Maine By Brenda
Power Education Week 1/18/99 Supports "developmental" (or "invented")
spelling in the early grades, Much research demonstrates how
essential this component of early writing instruction is for
development of reading skills.
\clip\98\06\wholphon.txt L.A.Times Phonics & Whole Language Date:
3/19/98 9:08 AM From: david klein Los Angeles Times Thursday, March
19, 1998 STUDY BACKS PHONICS, 'WHOLE LANGUAGE' MIX Education:
National panel finds that balanced approach, like California's, is
best for teaching reading. By RICHARD LEE COLVIN, Times Staff Writer
[Invented spelling is OK to start, but schools must also teach
correct spelling]
\clip\98\06\invspell.txt
http://www.washtimes.com/culture/culture1.html March 19, 1998 By
Carol Innerst THE WASHINGTON TIMES. Educators endorse 'invented
spelling' " It says invented spelling can help develop understanding
of the sounds that different combinations of letters create. One
panelist described invented spelling as "phonemic spelling.""
Gloria Hoffman 11/14/97: My daughter's writing samples were also full
of invented spelling,,,experiment was spelled speriment...would
...wuld,,, etc. went uncorrected. My husband and I talked to our
daughter about the spelling errors on her work and a poster another
child presented with a book report.( journey...jurny) My daughter's
reply to us was " well those are difficult words". We told her to
ask how to spell the words. Of course if the teacher is not
correcting the words the children will not know their wrong.
@@It's Greek To Me
Via Bartletts, then the bard himself... Shakespeare, Julius Caesar,
Act I, Scene 2...spoken by Casca when relating the story to Cassius
and Brutus of how Caesar was crowned by Marc Antony. In a reference
to a fellow named Cicero speaking in Greek at the proceedings, Casca
laments "...those that understood him smiled at one another and shook
their heads; but, for mine own part, it was Greek to me."
@@Joseph, Marion: CA's PHONICS PHIGHTER
Marion Joseph, Wilson Riles' chief policy analyst when he was State
Superintendent, the leading crusader against the deletion of phonics
in the wake of Whole Language.
\clip\98\03\quest.htm
Palo Alto Weekly Apr 2, 1997 One woman's quest Former state
education official fought hard for reading reform
Marion Joseph Talks to
Washington Legislature about how reading stopped working with
whole language. 12/4/97 - Subcommittee on Reading Reading - what
works - the national perspective.
http://www.tvw.org/hcomms/hseed.htm
THE WICKED
WHOLE LANGUAGE IS DEAD The San Francisco Chronicle Wednesday,
September 13, 1995 · Page A21 ©1995 San Francisco Chronicle · All
Rights Reserved · All Unauthorized Duplication Prohibited DEBRA J.
SAUNDERS "Taking on the entrenched layer of edutocracy that has been
behind whole language requires the deep reservoirs of strength found
in the godlike Marion Joseph, a retired educrat Eastin appointed to
the task force. Without Joseph's wonderfully nagging presence, the
reading report could have read like the math report: mush."
\clip\98\03\wicked.txt
\clip\98\03\marion.htm
http://www.sacbee.com/news/beetoday/newsroom/edit/081397/edit04.html
Peter Schrag: String-pushing up the mountain of school reform
Sacramento Bee (Published Aug. 13, 1997) DURING THE past five years,
no one in California has been a stronger and more persistent voice
for school reform than Marion Joseph, once a chief aide to former
state school Superintendent Wilson Riles, but for the past 15 years
simply a private citizen with an extraordinary amount of energy and
intelligence.
http://www.teachermagazine.org/ew/vol-15/26eng.h15
\clip\98\30\warword.htm Education Week March 20, 1996 A War of Words:
Whole Language Under Siege By Karen Diegmueller Ms. Joseph said she
combed the state talking to teachers, parents, and school officials.
Most told her the new instructional methods weren't working. Others,
however, labeled her a "phonics nut." When she and others tried to
get the state education department to make changes, she said some in
the department blocked them.
\clip\98\03\whole.htm whole2.txt
http://205.164.116.200/kidsource/content/whole.2.html L.A. Weekly
Blackboard Bungle: Why California Kids Can't Read By Jill Stewart
"They convincingly pointed out that reading levels among California's
white children had dropped to the absolute bottom for their racial
group in the U.S.--even below white children in Louisiana--so
claiming that the poor performance of Latino immigrants had skewed
California's scores was not only cynical, it was dead wrong. And
pro-skills advocates revealed that New Zealand--even to this day
still much ballyhooed by Sacramento education officials--had not, in
fact, benefitted from whole language. Indeed, one-quarter of that
country's gradeschool children could not read, and needed costly
tutors. New Zealand, deeply embarrassed by its reading crisis, has
begun a discomforting internal debate. Meanwhile, an international
study found that New Zealand actually lagged behind the U.S. in
gradeschool reading ability, despite its widely repeated claim that
it was the "most literate" country in the world."
@@Kindergarten
READING EXELLENCE ACT CALLS FOR TEACHING READING IN KINDERGARTEN
\doc\web\index\readkind.txt
"The Reading Excellence Act," a report by
Robert W. Sweet, Jr. former president of NRRF? www.nrrf.org, Project
Follow Through & the NICHD studies? Both recommend reading
instruction to begin in kindergarten
@@Language Effects
The language adopted can affect how the brain processes reading and
speech.
z39\clip\99\21\lang.txt The Washington Post, Monday, December 27,
1999; Page A11 SCIENCE NOTEBOOK/Compiled from reports by Rob Stein
Language and Brain Function researchers from Italy and Britain
studied Italian and British university students as they read .. The
Italian students read faster overall, even when the words were not in
their native language. Brain scans showed that the brains of the
Italians and the British worked differently
@@Learning Disabled (L.D.)
\clip\98\08\ld.txt Learning Disabled is really just failure of whole
language techniques Hartford Courant Reading War Rekindles:
Literature Or Phonics? By ROBERT A. FRAHM and RICK GREEN This story
ran in The Courant on April 20, 1998 from the Hartford, Connecticut,
newspaper called The Courant.
@@Linchpin also Lynch pin
http://www.ag-supply.com/catmain/4900011.htm American Heritage
Dictionary : A locking pin inserted in the end of a shaft, as in an
axle, to prevent a wheel from slipping off. Or a key element that
holds everything together.
@@List
TerreHaute list, some are
controversial.
@@Listserv
http://listserv.arizona.edu/lsv/www/tawl.html Whole Language
list server (yech)
@@Look-Say "Dick and Jane"
A fore-runner of whole language, largely replaced phonetics teaching
starting in the 1930s, lead to the infamous "Dick and Jane" books.
Just memorize 2 million words instead of 100 rules. On the other
hand, these books are much easier reading than "Treasure Island" or
"Moby Dick".
doc\web\98\10\looksay.txt I do not
know what year Dr Lyon started school, but look-say was almost
universal after the war. It is likely, therefore, that ALL the
original team doing the 33 years of study learned by look-say.
The Reading Problem: Why We
Have It? How To Solve It?
Most children begin school with a speaking vocabulary of at least
5000 words. The "new" LOOK-SAY method was an attempt to teach
children to immediately recognize and read some of the thousands of
words they already knew and used in every day speech. In 1936, my
first grade teacher used this new LOOK-SAY method in our classroom.
Fortunately for me, I was a visual learner and quickly learned to
read. Others in my class were not so fortunate. It is estimated that
about 30% of all children are not visual learners, hence the
beginning of the problem
\clip\98\02\seedick\seedick.htm
http://www.policyreview.com/heritage/p_review/nov97/flunk.html This
method went unchallenged until the mid-1800s, when the influential
educational reformer Horace Mann excoriated the drilling methods of
the past. Instead of teaching individual sound-letter relationships,
Mann thought children should focus on comprehension by learning whole
words first. .. progressive educators based at Columbia University
Teachers College and the University of Chicago in the 1920s rejected
the "code-emphasis" approach as an unnatural, undemocratic way of
learning. Phonics was derided as the "drill-and-kill" method, evoking
images of stern nuns leading chorus recitals of "a," "oo" and "th."
What influential educators such as John Dewey advocated soon became
known as the look-say approach. Textbook publishers responded
quickly. Whereas colonial children (at least upper-class children)
learned to read using Noah Webster’s bestselling Blue-Backed Speller
and the Bible, mid-20th-century youngsters were subjected to the
simplistic, mind-numbing "Dick and Jane" series. Responding to
children’s limited capacity for memorizing whole words, school
readers became increasingly repetitive and wholly uninteresting. "We
stopped teaching kids rules," says Bader of the AFT, "and expected
them to learn 2 million individual words instead of teaching them 100
rules to figure them out." Look-say reigned controversy-free until
1955, when Rudolf Flesch published Why Johnny Can’t Read.
@@Level
G2 - Some has mastered Harry Potter (Wesley Lau)
G4 - Some have mastered "Lord of the Rings" (NYT)
How to determine levels
Get this book for a formula:
Dale-Chall Readability Formula (from Readability
Revisited: The New Dale-Chall Readability Formula, Jeanne S. Chall and
Edgar Dale, Brookline Books, 1995 ISBN 1-57129-008-7).
OHANIAN RAPS LEXILE SCALE
From: Susan Ohanian
Phonetic instruction is criticized because words are not presented
in the context of literature and stories, and mindless drills. What
do I think? It's ok to add real literature, but the poor and black
are the ones harmed most by not teaching the basics, instead of
trying to shield them from difficult material and skills.
Also see
Reform Math
Outcome Based Education
Education Reform
>Dr. Reid Lyon testimony before House Commitee on Education and Workforce
>
>http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/nih_report.html
>
>Summary of Thirity Years of Research on Reading
>
>http://cftl.org/30years/30years.html
%%against
z54\clip\2002\01\whole.txt Whole language teachers unabashed, hanging
tough Conventioneers back method over phonics By Howard Libit Sun
Staff November 17, 2001 Though it has been discredited nationally,
the whole language approach to teaching reading is alive and kicking
at the Baltimore Convention Center this weekend.
Baltimore Sun Jan 16 1999 Middle school tackles reading Baltimore
principal enlists specialists to solve problem; They `beg' to be
taught; `Shortchanged' earlier, pupils have 3rd-grade skills By
Stephen Henderson Sun Staff
"in later elementary grades and middle schools, the board decided an
emphasis on literature would be better. That strategy, some school
officials are saying, might have been a mistake." [Article makes no
reference to the disaster called "Whole Language" that evidently is
the main problem when they decided that phonics was "not working"]
CHICAGO TRIBUNE - WHOLE LANGUAGE BRINGS ST CHARLES INTO DECLINE
link
http://chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/voiceofthepeople/article/0,1051,SAV
-9 901100081,00.html THE NEED TO RETURN TO READING BASICSMary DamerJanuary
10, 1999 ST. CHARLES -- Last year's state testing results reveal that
MIDDLE SCHOOL LD/BD STUDENTS MAKING WORSE MISTAKES DUE TO WL
\clip\98\16\speced.txt (private)
very few of these LD/BD students have those most basic of skills
anymore. Paralleling research findings, they have a hodgepodge of
words they have managed to memorize, without rhyme or reason
(sometimes they will be able to spell "Forecast" and yet not be able
to spell "ham." )yet faced with a simple 3 or 4 letter word, they
omit the vowels, write the word with the wrong vowels, or make
consonant mistakes. There is no excuse for a middle school student,
however LD or BD, to make these mistakes. We now have to give the
test originally designed for students younger than third grade to the
middle school students. Frequently the students are totally
frustrated with the test for 4th graders and above. Many of them
would qualify as being functionally illiterate. "
\clip\98\04\newscl10.txt 2/16/98 Associated Press Is experiment a
failure? By Matt Crenson AP Science Editor "Although proponents tout
it as the best way by far to teach kids how to read, nearly a decade
of scientific research and sad experience have shown it can be a
miserable failure." "they usually fail to mention that about one in
four kids has trouble understanding [phonics]."
Teacher sneaks in phonics in
Charlton Mass against district orders.
\clip\98\03\whole1.txt
http://205.164.116.200/kidsource/content/whole.1.html
\clip\98\03\whole.htm whole2.txt
http://205.164.116.200/kidsource/content/whole.2.html L.A. Weekly
Blackboard Bungle: Why California Kids Can't Read By Jill Stewart
"They convincingly pointed out that reading levels among California's
white children had dropped to the absolute bottom for their racial
group in the U.S.--even below white children in Louisiana--so
claiming that the poor performance of Latino immigrants had skewed
California's scores was not only cynical, it was dead wrong. And
pro-skills advocates revealed that New Zealand--even to this day
still much ballyhooed by Sacramento education officials--had not, in
fact, benefitted from whole language. Indeed, one-quarter of that
country's gradeschool children could not read, and needed costly
tutors. New Zealand, deeply embarrassed by its reading crisis, has
begun a discomforting internal debate. Meanwhile, an international
study found that New Zealand actually lagged behind the U.S. in
gradeschool reading ability, despite its widely repeated claim that
it was the "most literate" country in the world."
Marion Joseph Talks to
Washington Legislature about how reading stopped working with
whole language. 12/4/97 - Subcommittee on Reading Reading - what
works - the national perspective.
WHOLE LANGUAGE FAILS IN AUSTRALIA
WHOLE
LANGUAGE IS KING, AND THAT'S BAD \clip\97\25\grdeb.txt Atlantic
Monthly December 1994 The Great Debate Revisited by Art Levine "Since
1981 only a few dozen studies in reputable education journals have
even attempted to compare the reading scores achieved by the
whole-language method. A 1989 overview paper in the Review of
Educational Research found that the scanty whole-language research
and the more extensive studies on its predecessor, the "language
experience" approach, when taken together, show that they produced
somewhat worse results in reading comprehension and worse results
with disadvantaged students than traditional methods did. "
WHOLE LANGUAGE ATTACKS NEW ZEALAND
http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/read_102297.html The
Seattle Times Company Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1997 Basics work, teachers
told
\clip\97\25\dickflun.txt
http://www.policyreview.com/heritage/p_review/nov97/flunk.html
POLICY REVIEW November-December, 1997 Number 86 Published by The
Heritage Foundation See Dick Flunk By Tyce Palmaffy The evidence is
overwhelming that kids with reading problems need phonics-based
instruction. Why aren’t educators getting the message?
PHONICS EXPERIMENT PROMISES TO TEACH ALL \clip\97\25\arthur.txt THE
OREGONIAN October 23, 1997 REYNOLDS GIVES MAVERICK TEACHER TWO YEARS
FOR READING EXPERIMENT by Scott Learn of THE OREGONIAN staff.
GRESHAM -- Chuck Arthur, a first-grade-teacher at Wilkes Elementary
School, says a way to teach all children with IQs above 65 to read is
right in front of educators' noses.
\doc\web\97\08\tomor.txt
Date: Fri, 17 Oct 1997 12:23:23 -0400
To: education-consumers@tricon.net
From: "Daniel R. Connell" Contents
@@Ability Grouping
GROUPING STUDENTS BY READING ABILITY INSTEAD OF AGE
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1997-09/28/112l-092897-idx.htm
\clip\97\26\readabl.txt A New Take on an Old Problem Triangle
Elementary Begins Experiment With No-Grade System to Improve Reading
By Ann O'Hanlon Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, September 28,
1997; Page V01 The Washington Post
@@Accelerated Reader
TEACHER SAYS AR HAS LIMITATIONS
Kelli Perry AG Bell says to not be mislead by grade ratings which are based
on vocabulary. 2001
z54\clipim\2001\12\21\acread\p1.gif
ACCELERATED READER TOO MUCH WORK FOR ADVANCED READERS
z53\clip\2001\10\accread.txt Montgomery Advertiser, Saturday, Oct.
27, 2001 "Reading program becomes grading tool" Elmore County by
Laura Whittington For the one reading below, she said, it's not
challenging and it challenges her above-grade level reader too much.
"It means they have to read so many books in addition to football Boy
Scouts and other homework."
@@Advanced
Schools traditionally didn't teach reading until first grade, but lots
of kids start earlier.
Steve Sailer 2002: Jodie Foster was reading at 18 months, at least
according to Jodie.
@@Alphabetize sort
Normal introduction of alphabetize is 2 or 3 words by late 1st or 2nd
grade. Eric was asked to write 9 words in alphabetical order his 1st
week in first grade (combined 1/2) as homework. I had to show him how
to do a computer science insertion sort to do this.
G1 - Eric's 1st homework assignment, write 9 words in alpha order
G2 - G2 write 5 words in alpha order
z39\clipim\2000\02\15\spell.gif
@@Alpha-Phonics
"We start out the day by reviewing
Sam Blumenfeld's Alpha-Phonics." 6 yr old reads Cat in the Hat
@@asian language
There seems to be some disagreement whether Asian ideographic
languages are faster or slower to learn than alphabetic systems.
\doc\95\15\index.new Ideographic languages are learned slowly. A
child in Japan is expected to learn only 76 Kanji by the first grade
and only 996 by the sixth grade. By contrast, many children enter
school already reading kana, which is alphabetic. Whole language
teaches that children read simply by recognizing the shape of a word,
but English is not ideographic. "The Role Of Decoding In Learning To
Read" American Educator, Summer 1995 p. 25 Filed asian.ed.reading.whole
asian.education.reading.faster Vernon p. 131 Asians learn ideographic
languages faster, not slower than Westerners since their reading
achievement in their native languages is ahead. There are almost no
cases of dyslexia
@@Balanced Approach
http://www.nrrf.org/nichd.htm
It says to teach for decoding skills until kids can fluently read.
You can have literature and reading for comprehension if the teacher
reads from words that are in the spoken vocabulary. Contrast this
with the "Kindergarten Reading Companion" which expects kids to read
literature fluently and scan sentences for answers to comprehension
questions in kindergarten.
@@Basal Readers
Dick and Jane - reading stories to learn reading
@@basic ability
3rd grade - some school districts, clinton goal
1st grade - 1st grade K. Bearden teacher
K - Brenda Huppert's kindergarten
readyr.txt
The vast majority of children can be taught at age
6, but not many teach themselves at a later date.
As a first grade teacher for nine years
I know our goal in Florida, Michigan, and in Georgia was to have the
children reading during their first grade year if they weren't already
doing so.
\doc\web\97\07\readfail.txt Report on Learning Disabilities Research
Dr. Reid Lyon Acting Chief of the Child Development and Behavior
Branch National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
(NICHD) National Institutes of Health (NIH) [says phonetics is
crucial to learning reading]
the 1994 NAEP data summarizing national trends showed that 32 percent
of Whites, 72 percent of African-Americans, 67 percent of Hispanics,
23 percent of Asians, 36 percent of Pacific Islanders, and 55 percent
of American Indians were reading below basic levels in the fourth
grade. Moreover, 32 percent of the fourth grade children across the
Nation who were reading below the basic levels were from homes where
the parents had graduated from college.
40 PERCENT OF 8 YR OLDS CAN'T READ? THEN WHAT IS GRADE LEVEL, IF NOT
WHAT 50% OF STUDENTS CAN DO??
Clinton state of the union speech 2/97
\doc\97\02\clinspec.txt
"forty percent -- of our 8-year-olds cannot read on their own" That's
awfully close to 50% that defines what grade level is. Whose standard
is he using?
Let's work together to meet these three goals: Every 8-year-old must
be able to read; every 12-year-old must be able to log on to the
Internet; every 18-year-old must be able to go to college; and every
adult American must be able to keep on learning for a lifetime.
@@black gap
Blacks alienated, or just need phonics?
TWICE AS MANY BLACKS AS WHITES CAN'T READ BY 4TH GRADE Schools: A
Black and White Issue Philadelphia Inquirer David Boldt April 15,
1997 http://www2.phillynews.com/inquirer/97/Apr/15/city/BOLDT15.htm
National test data indicate that more than seven out of 10 black
students in Pennsylvania can't do basic reading by the fourth grade,
compared with three of 10 whites.
MORE BLACKS ENTER KINDERGARTEN READING THAN OTHER ETHNIC GROUPS?
http://www.seattletimes.com/extra/browse/html97/summ_022397.html
\clip\97\05\schsumm.txt Copyright © 1997 The Seattle Times Company
Sunday, Feb. 23, 1997 School summit seeks to close gap by Marc
Ramirez Seattle Times staff reporter
70% of Seattle Blacks students read below average. According to the
Educational Testing Service, more blacks enter kindergarten reading
than any other group
Arthur complains about books in
school. Cuckoo, Cedars, Harry Potter
%%Harry Potter
Some claim 2nd and 3rd graders can read this, but the book is the
same size and print as Lewis: Icons of Evolution aimed at adults
%%One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest Ken Kesey 1962
Goddammit. Sh-t F--k Sex with mental defective. Ripping dress off of
head nurse. Black boys. Jap nurse. Found this one on a high school
class reading rack.
%%Snow falling on cedars David Guterson 1995
Made into movie, student complained to me about sex scene in book (p.
90) about marriage in camp shack. "She could see beneath the fabric
of his underpants how his * stood erect". Japs God--n Sh-t F--king.
Nothing you wouldn't find in Cosmopolitan, but just as graphic, not
something you'd be able to read on the radio.
Students shouldn't have to read explicit 'Cedars' BRIAN WARD;
Longbranch;
%%Tattoing and body piercing
Bonnie Graves. LofC says it is 2. body piercing- juvenile literature.
Gives table of healing times: nipple 3-6 mo, female genitalia 4-10
wks male 4wk-6mo. New book at Kirkland library
%%Velveteen rabbit
The toy fairy makes a toy bunny real after a boy loves it. about
4,400 words across 22 pages, pictures on half the pages, claims it is
6th grade reading level according to fry's readability scale, rated
as G3 on another reading list
@@Boys Lagging
\clip\99\01\boyslag.txt Boys slip further behind girls at school
December 18, 1998
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/education/newsid_237000/237369.stm
Girls are performing better in tests at all ages
" According to the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, the gap
between the achievements of boys and girls runs throughout the three
levels of tests - at 7, 11 and 14-years-old. At the youngest age,
girls are better at spelling and punctuation, at 11-years-old girls
are interpreting stories better and at 14 almost 75% of girls reach
the expected levels of literacy, compared to only 57% of boys. "
[most cognitive tests seem to indicate this is an inherent mental
ability difference]
@@BRAIN
BRAINS OF SOME POOR READERS ARE DIFFERENT \doc\web\97\08\brairead.txt
WINSTON-SALEM -- The brains of some people who read poorly --
especiallypeople with dyslexia -- differ physiologically from normal
readers, according topioneering work at the Wake Forest University
Baptist Medical CenterContact: Bob Conn, Mark Wright or Jim Steele
[1]Rconn@bgsm.edu 910-716-4587 [2]BowmanGray/Baptist Hospital Medical
Center
@@California Disaster
\clip\98\05\newscl01.txt 2/16/98 2/16/98 Baltimore Sun Learning from
Calif., Texas Reforms: Both states have ambitious plans for improving
pupils' reading performances. By Marego Athans Mentions Carnine,
Joseph.
@@Catcher in the Rye
\doc\web\99\09\catch.txt RESPONSE TO INQUIRY -- CATCHER IN THE RYE
(Adults Only) by Donna Garner July 2, 1999
Why must "adolescent issues" be addressed by studying such an
unsavory character as Holden Caulfield who is the main character in
J. D. Salinger's CATCHER IN THE RYE? Holden defnitely has a problem
with abusive language, acceptance of authority, respect for the
elderly, sexual orientation, respect for women, alcohol and tobacco
abuse, sexual activity, and respect for religion.
Just because Salinger in CATCHER IN THE RYE chose to use the
following words numerous times does not necessarily make him a great
writer: crap -- 11 times hell -- 74 times goddam -- 145 times [it
gets worse...]
@@Chomsky
WHOLE LANGUAGE INSPIRED BY CHOMSKY
Susan O 2002: brochure by David Horowitz about Chomsky entitled "The
Ayatollah of Anti-American Hate." Chomsky's mentioned a number of
times in "The Whole Language/OBE fraud by Sam Blumenfeld. Chomsky, a
linguist, figures in the whole language movement. Blumenfeld says that
Ken Goodman, who wrote that big book about whole language, was
inspired by Chomsky, though Blumenfeld says Goodman misread Chomsky.
Also Chomsky was influencial in the development of the field of
cognitive psychology.
@@compound word
G1 Peter Hu AG Bell 2000
row bath mail rain space gold foot
sho7 tub boat box print fish coat
connect words in sentence
@@Computer Software
@@Corrective Reading
Promoted by N Carolina as antidote for failing schools
2. Corrective Reading
http://www.sra4kids.com/teacher/reading/default.html#prod
\clip\98\02\readres.txt
http://www.oregonian.com/todaysnews/9801/st01182.html THE OREGONIAN
January 18, 1998 Educators put reading to the test Two UO professors
push for results-driven schooling, but critics call it inhumane By
Scott Learn of The Oregonian staff University of Oregon professor
Siegfried Engelmann, author of one of America's most controversial
reading programs, is certain he knows why children fail in school.
[has direct instruction phonics, does well with poor black children]
@@Decodable Text
Traditional phonics presents students words which are easily decoded
using phonics. Whole language often gives literature with words which
are difficult or impossible to decode using basic phonics.
1/20/98 - WA Legislators Work Session/Public Hearinglink Doug Carnine
says that many whole language programs use texts which are not
"decodable."
@@Developmentally Appropriate
One study claims that some are not ready to read until age 9.
Another expert claims that as many as 1 out of 3 is not ready to
start reading in the 1st grade. Many schools teach reading in
Kindergarten with good results.
What DAP tends to really mean is justify teaching way above or way
below conventional levels. So first graders shouldn't learn reading
but it's ok to have them work on solving algebra equations and
probability.
Catalyst: Voices of Chicago School Reform
http://www.catalyst-chicago.org/09-96/096main.htm
\clip\98\02\distar\distar.htm September, 1996 Direct Instruction
making waves by Elizabeth Duffrin "According to the National
Association for the Education of Young Children, some children may
not be ready to read until the age of 9. "
Not all are ready until 2nd grade
Even if mean were 6 years, there is a significant minority of the
population (perhaps 30-35%) who don't really "get" reading in first
grade and who would benefit from being in a rich language environment
at that time, but without enforced phonetic instruction, which
doesn't make much sense to them at that point anyway. By 2nd grade
almost all of the distribution of children is ready cognitively to
read.
David Marshak
@@Grammar
:) Good
%%Against
I've taken a look at an online
document written by George Hillocks
(http://www.ncte.org/teach/Hillocks8524.html) who says:
"The study of traditional school grammar (i.e., the definition of
parts of speech, the parsing of sentences, etc.) has no effect on
raising the quality of student writing. Every other focus of
instruction examined in this review is stronger. Taught in certain
ways, grammar and mechanics instruction has a deleterious effect on
student writing."
George Cunningham says that is is illegal in Kentucky to correct
student writing.
%%For
Waco reports that grammar has been
virtually ignored
Donna Garner of Texas has
graciously made available her complete packet which teaches grammar
to elementary school students. I have translated them to .html web
format, enjoy
Gardner's Grammar Packets
Ready To Read site
@@Guns
RUN NAT. RUN HARRIET. RUN FROM MEN WITH GUNS AND DOGS My son's 1st
grade reading homework passage. (c) 1998 by Sprick Howard and
Fidanque. There's a ban on weapons with Halloween costumes, but check
out this passage. Yesterday, Harriet was hunted by men with dogs.
"Nat ran fast because he was hunted by men with guns. He got to the
farm. Harriet's friends hid him. Soon Nat was free!"
zip38\clipim\99\10\25\nat.gif
@@Heterogenous Grouping
Bad :(
Rather than grouping students by ability, reformers prefer to mix
children of varying ability. One teacher was quoted that "it was for
self-esteem" and "makes them feel better". This is a bad idea.@@Orton Phonograms
From the Riggs Institute:
http://www.riggsinst.org/origins.htm
Dr. Samuel T. Orton, a renowned neuropathologist, spent his career
studying the functioning of the human brain in the learning of
language skills. In 1937, he published a book, Reading, Writing and
Speech Problems in Children, which is in print and available through
our catalog. Dr. Orton was the first brain researcher to warn of the
dangers of "look-say" reading instruction for a population
approximately 30% of whom were not "visually-oriented" in their
learning style.
70 "ORTON" PHONOGRAMS
FOR CORRECT SPELLING The Riggs Institute: These consonant
phonograms were FORMERLY taught in most basal reading methods though
not "explicitly" as compiled research recommends. In this method, two
sounds for the letters c, g and s are taught immediately and q is
taught with u with which it is always used. Only the sound(s) are
dictated as the letters (or symbols) for them are written; the key
word shown here is for the teacher to determine the correct
pronunciation only.
The Reading Problem: Why We
Have It? How To Solve It?
The scientific basis for phonetics was formulated by Samuel Orton,
M.D., a neuropathologist at Columbia University in the 1930s and 40s.
He made several major contributions to the science of phonetics.
First, he showed how the brain functions in learning to read,
demonstrating that there are four avenues to the mind by which we
learn: seeing, hearing, saying, and writing (kinesthetic). Further,
he discovered that for maximum learning to take place, all four of
these avenues must be used together since not all people learn
equally well by just one or two of these pathways alone. Dr. Orton
called the use of all four pathways to the brain: MULTI-SENSORY
LEARNING.
Also of major importance, Dr. Orton identified 45 distinct speech
sounds we use in speaking English and the 70 letters or combinations
of letters that we use to represent these 45 sounds in written
English. He called them PHONOGRAMS. (phono = sound and gram = write)
Phonograms and phonemes are used synonymously in the literature.
see @@Phonics
@@Political Correctness
REMEMBER SEE SPOT RUN? NOW IT'S
SEE NAT AND HARRIET RUN FROM MEN WITH GUNS AND DOGS
Text |
Image
Nat ran fast because he was hunted with men with guns. He got to the
farm. Harriet's friends him. Soon Nat was free!"
Sprick, Howard and Fidaque
@@Portfolio
KENTUCKY WRITING PORTFOLIOS INCREASE LEARNING - OR WASTE OF TIME?
\clip\99\09\edclip02.txt Published Monday, March 22, 1999, in the
Herald-Leader Fourth-graders polish portfolios as debate lingers A
lot of ink has been spilled and a lot of hot air spewed on the
subject of portfolios, a controversial piece of Kentucky's education
reform. Supporters said intensive writing improved performance;
opponents argued too much writing took away from other classes. Last
year, the General Assembly decided to decrease the number of entries
in a fourth-grade portfolio from six to four.
@@Power Writing
Teachernut writes:
Power writing is similar. There was a "power one sentence." For a primary
class room it sounded like this
I know three things about ARN. ( Power 1 sentence)
It is a listserv. ( Power 2)
There are nice people on it. ( Power 2)
It is against high stakes testing. ( Power 2)
@@Predicate
The part of the sentence that tells what the subject does
G1 Worksheet AG Bell Scott Forseman Level 2.1
G1 Minisink Valley Central School District missing predicate
G2 Minisink Valley Central School District main or simple predicate
G4 Walton County School District Compound Predicate
G9 Virginia Standards of Learning
1st grade worksheet "find the
predicate"
@@Preschool
READING PROBLEMS REDUCED BY BASIC SKILLS IN PRESCHOOL Most reading
problems can be prevented by focusing on basic skills starting in
preschool, according to a report by a special committee of the
National Research Council. The Associated Press, "Preschool skills
pay off in learning to read" as published in USA Today, March 19,
1998, D8
@@Prison
GA PRISONERS AT 6TH GRADE READING LEVEL
From: Rovarose@aol.com
Date sent: Mon, 1 Dec 1997 14:47:57 -0500 (EST)
A local paper here ran an AP article today on education in Georgia state
prisons. It mentioned the fact that the average inmate reads at a sixth
grade level on entry to the system.
Statistical coincidence?
@@Rand
http://www.rand.org/multi/achievementforall/reading/ 2/2001
Mentions 4 yr gap in reading: National Assessment of Educational
Progress scores, for example, show that 17-year-old African-American
students 116 score at the level of 13-year-old European-American
students a gap that has decreased only 117 minimally in the last 20
years. This large and persistent gap in reading achievement in the
later 118 elementary and secondary grades relates to differences in
achievement in other content areas, 119 and to differences in high
school dropout and college entrance rates. 120. Also questions
high stakes testing - higher dropout rates
@@Reading Corps
Gov Gary Locke (WA) spends tax dollars to support community
volunteers for reading tutoring. It is popular, no organized
opposition to it.
Blomstrom slams it
@@Reading Mastery
Phonics based program by SRA favored by Core Knowledge schools,
blasted by "curriculum alignment" gurus.
%%Bad
\DOC\WEB\98\06\align.htm Subj: \"Curriculum Alignment\" Date:
98-06-30 22:43:47 EDT From: sowens@execpc.com According to Evans
Newton Inc (hereafter called ENI), 97% of the objectives tested on
the Wisconsin Reading Comprehension Test (required of all 3rd grade
public school students in Wisconsin) and the Wisconsin Student
Assessment System (TerraNova) are either not covered at all by the
Reading Mastery program, or are covered only minimally.
CA STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION FROWNS ON DIRECT PHONICS
http://goldmine.cde.ca.gov/cilbranch/eltdiv/ela_esl.htm
The following programs were NOT adopted by the State Board:
GRADE
LEVELS PUBLISHER PROGRAM
K Macmillan-McGraw/Hill Beginning to Read, Write, & Listen
K-2 Rigby Literacy Tree
K-3 Wright Group Sunshine Series
K-5 SRA/McGraw-Hill Reading Mastery Rainbow Edition<-----
K-6 Total Reading Total Reading Language Arts Program
6-8 EMC Masterpiece Series
6-8 Prentice Hall Literature Series
%%Good
Saxe Gotha Elementary School
http://www.lex1.k12.state.sc.us/sge/school.htm
Programs Enhancing the Core Curriculum:
Reading Mastery
http://www.kings.k12.ca.us/central/cuesd.a/first.html Akers School
NAS Lemoore. The primary focus in first grade is reading. Therefore,
Akers' first grade students participate in intensive reading
instruction. Students are instructed via Reading Mastery, a
structured phonics program.
http://www.abts.net/~bunrojj8790/page2.html
Lincoln Charter School is a Core Knowledge school that uses Reading Mastery
with Saxon math.
http://www.cgcs.org/services/whatworks/achievement/p22.htm Teaching
All Children To Read A partnership program between Georgia State
University and the Atlanta Public Schools to enhance reading
performance Uses the Direct Instruction reading materials published
by SRA. Teachers are trained in the implementation of the method.
The method provides phonemic awareness, letter-sound relationship,
blending skills, and comprehension skills which are all taught to
mastery and fluency. Regular checks for mastery are done so that a
student does not fall behind in reading performance.
@@Reading Recovery
Remedial Reading program from New Zealand with good reputation and
wide adoption in the US. However it is largely whole language based,
and has its critics. Doug Carnine says that it its claims are not
justified by research, and that phonics based methods have been shown
to be more efffective. It is also very expensive, costing as much as
$9,000 per student per year, and requires sending teachers to special
"leadership" training. San Diego found that it was less effective than
control groups with conventional instruction.
Advocates in Maine have slammed direct instruction of phonics in favor
of literature based literature with "inventive spelling" to support
belief that early writing is neccesary.
%%Against
San Diego 2000 reports RR is expensive
and less effective than controls. Word
format report
Goff says RR is expensive and
ineffective, with only a small amount of direct vs WL instruction.
From: "James Kilpatrick"
