Tuesday, May 13, 2014

What's Wrong with Phonics Instruction?

PROBLEM: "One of the most fundamental flaws found in almost all phonics programs, including traditional ones, is that they teach the code backwards. That is, they go from letter to sound instead of from sound to letter. Such programs disregard the fact that speech evolved at least 30,000 years before writing. Alphabetic writing was invented to represent speech; speech was not learned from reading. Following the logic of history, we should teach awareness of the sound system (phonology) and anchor letters to it"
Louisa Cook Moats from Teaching Decoding

SOLUTION:
Prepare students for kindergarten by giving them opportunities for speech/ letter sound awareness. Watch this video and do with your child every day to give them a boost before kindergarten. Prepare your preschool child for the common core. 



1 comment:

  1. Thank you for sharing your sign language and sounds for each letter. I currently teach Kindergarten and enjoy having the students say small chants to help them remember their letter names and sounds. We say ones like "A says aaaa, ant on an apple, aaaa." The students then slowly shorten their chant to just A says aaa, but we begin by having them learn all about words that start with this letter sound and slowly progress to what letter does this word start with? What letter do you hear first? I showed my students your video with different actions and sounds. It was fun for them to hear new chants that were different than the ones they have heard. We do not teach them in alphabetical order like you do so it was interesting for them to hear the ones they have not yet learned.

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