In my search for information about teaching phonics I found the NAEYCs statement outlining the literacy goals from preschool to third grade. I think this is a balanced look at what children should be able to do at each stage. I think I could very easily fall into pushing my kiddo to do more than he can or should do at a certain stage. These markers help me remember it's not a race and that learning to read is a process that takes time and trial and error.
On the other hand, this informaiton is useful if you feel that the school is pushing the academic side of reading too much. NAEYC is the most widely recognized accredidation organization for early childhood centers. If the school is drilling and killing too much you might encourage them to consider this statement and how it should impact the way they teach their students.
As far as phonics goes, it appears that there is no standard way to introduce the letters and sounds. There are suggestions that basically start with the easy sounds and work from there. The research does indicate that a systematic approach to teaching phonics is key to becoming a proficient reader. So, if for some reason the school your first grader attends is still insistent on the whole language approach as the only method - you need to step in on your child's behalf. You can teach phonics at home if need be.
In the end, remember that the goal of reading is inform, entertain, communicate, etc. - not decode. So, we need to make sure that we are reading materials to our kids (yes even when they are older) so that they can learn to enjoy the whole process of reading and see a reason for wading through the difficulty of putting together all those sounds.
3 comments:
THanks for the great web sites. I know a lot of the information but to have it all in one place and consice is wonderful.
A good quality whole language program should include phonics. The way I was trained with whole language is that you teach phonics as well as the other reading strategies. Many WL programs don't do any phonics and it's become phonics vs. whole language. Instead of what whole language started out as, looking at reading and writing together and looking first at the whole part of reading or writing and then breaking it down into parts like phonics. I'll get off my soapbox now.
Teaching phonics can start really early, too, if you're using it as another game to play with a young one. For example, singing the ABC song a zillion times as a bedtime song will, eventually, help a child learn the ABCs. He or she may not recognize them as the alphabet until much later, but the fun stuff will filter in and make the more formal learning more effective.
Another point about phonics: it's a good idea to learn about language acquisition and when kids acquire which sounds. Some sounds aren't technically acquired until permanent teeth come in; kids can certainly conceptualize the sound and approximate it, but W and R and L and others may be harder to learn and thus harder to translate into reading, spelling, and writing.
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