Question for anyone w/ kids starting school....

[bfreebern]

My step-son is in the first grade this year and is learning to read. The problem I have is that they don't teach phonics anymore, they teach sight words. Sight words as in they will begin to recognize words and how to read them. To me, this isn't the way to teach someone to read.

Whatever happened to phonics? He's not learning how certain letters or groups of letters sound when put together. If reading is a fundamental principle of education, I think this is going in a bad direction.

Maybe I'm just not seeing the big picture. Does anyone else have experience with this type of teaching?

 

[JetDr]

I've got one in 3rd grade, and one in 1st. I think they both started that way as well. but the words they were learning from sight were just the beginning. I found that after they had some of the basics down, they started working on the phonics and how to put them together. I contacted my daughters teacher when she started 1st grade about some of the methods, and once we spoke about what was expected of my daughter from the teacher, and what I expected from the school, all was well. Or at least I felt better getting it off my chest.

 

[boonedoggle]

I remember the same thing with the boy, who is now in 5th. I hated site words and thought they were counterproductive. They do work thought, but I think they require more homework help from the parents, as much of the classes I've seen in the past few years.

 

[Rob_k]

My sister-in-law teaches 3rd grade, she herself taught my niece (in 7th grade) and nephew (in 1st grade this year) phonics as she thinks the current thinking stinks.
I personally would teach them on your own as a supplement to the school teaching, they will probably be ahead of the class.

 

[Jonesy]

My son is starting the fourth grade this year and is well ahead of the rest of the class as far as reading. He went to private school for kindergarden and first grade and learned phonics while public school was doing sight recognition. All the kids were tested on Tuesday to see where they were, and Steven tested at eighth grade reading comprehension.

 

[tsmckenney]

Interesting.

One of my best friends is a reading specialist in NYC. I'll ask him and add to the post later.

Alright. My buddy says they should be using both. Certain words, such as 'says', don't make sense when sounded out. So, sight words are necessary when words aren't pronouncable based on phonics. Phonics is necessary for exposure to new words. Example: blue. If a kid doesn't know what 'blue' is and doesn't understand phonics, he/she simply won't know what it is. Without phonics, kids would have to memorize every word there is by sight. Which is unfathomable.

So, teachers should be using both styles.

Email patrick.kutschke@gmail.com if you have any other questions, he'd be glad to help.

Hope this makes sense, I'm on the phone while typing, smoking a cigar and drinking a coke. I can barely chew gum when I walk, so....

 

[Gator]

I'm in S Ga, learning to read in school isn't required, in fact, if you can read you get called a nerd.

 

[PuroEsq]

My sons are in the first and third grades. They are not taught phonics but rather the site words method described above. What I ahve noticed is that they tend to guess at a word they do not know instead of sounding it out. I do not like the site owrd method too much either.

 

[bfreebern]

...What I have noticed is that they tend to guess at a word they do not know instead of sounding it out.

Exactly what happens at night when we try and read with him. I don't see the benefit.

 

[PuroEsq]

...What I have noticed is that they tend to guess at a word they do not know instead of sounding it out.

Exactly what happens at night when we try and read with him. I don't see the benefit.

It is like memorizing the answers to a set math problems. You may pass THAT test but you did not learn how to solve the problem.

 

[bfreebern]

Granted, once we learn how to read, we read using sight words that we already know. BUT if they don't know a word from their sight word lessons, how are they gonna know to sound it out?

Oh well. I'm going to have my wife and his dad talk about this w/ his teacher.

 

[Brickhouse]

I'm an educator myself but I don't teach that level. My wife is a 1st Grade Teacher and I'll ask her about it.

 

[LilBastage]

Granted, once we learn how to read, we read using sight words that we already know. BUT if they don't know a word from their sight word lessons, how are they gonna know to sound it out?

Oh well. I'm going to have my wife and his dad talk about this w/ his teacher.

That's a good idea. There's no better way to do this than to get involved.

I've done a bit of book learnin' about this kind of stuff. The sight method is actually a very old technique. It has been "modified" over the years to become the shithole method it has become. In order to actually teach a child to read, the child must learn phonics first. Otherwise, that child is NOT READING, he is simply memorizing words. The sight method of reading should only come after children have a basic understanding of phonics. It is a very valuable tool at that point. However, it isn't necessarily something that needs to be taught, per se. It is usually a skill a child develops on his or her own after reading for a little while. After all, once the basics are covered each child has different "sight words".

Good luck, Brandon.

 

[Ginseng]

This is a big debate in the UD Graduate School of Education. In fact, it is a fundamental issue in the field of reading research and literacy. I have several colleagues in the area.

Here's the scoop. The best approach is to layer sight words over a firm foundation in the fundamentals of phonemics. Phonemics is not the same thing as the phonics approach but I couldn't give a clear explanation in layman's terms. I can say that there are two fundamental processes of phonemic processing that are essential to establishing reading fluency. These are phonemic synthesis and phonemic segmentation. To my knowledge, sight words does not teach these critical processes.

Phonemic synthesis means training in combining letter sounds to form words. For example, "b-sound" + "short-a sound" + "t-sound" to form the word "bat."

Phonemic segmentation means breaking apart words into their component phonemes. For example, a child can tell me that the word "dog" is made up of the "d-sound" followed by the "short-o sound" and then the "g-sound."

Of course in each case they speak the sounds or phonemes in question.

A child who is explicitly taught these processes stands a much better chance of reading fluently at grade level. If they are truly eschewing any phonics or phonemic training, my suggestion is you go to the local learning or teacher supply store and ask for a product called "Reading Rods." This game/learning system is based on sound research and teaches exactly the skills a beginning reader needs.

I use this with my older daughter. She enjoys it and it works. She can sound out many words and even words she does not understand. In other words, she has a grasp of the fundamental building blocks of early reading that lead directly to reading fluency.

Wilkey

 

[Brickhouse]

Just talked with my wife Brandon and in short. She does what Wilkey is saying.

Yes, they do sight words, but it is in addition to phonics. Sight words are great for teaching words like (the, him, her, for, and, if, what, etc). But the main foundation is phonics.