Our reading (from our class textbook) this past week dealt with phonics. Cue the music from Jaws as I write this (because of my fear of phonics). It's a word that I haven't been comfortable with . . . A word that is like nails on a chalkboard . . . A word that makes me shut down (and believe me, that's hard to do!). Do I think there is something wrong with phonics? No. Why do I not like the sound (pun intended) of it? Because I was never taught phonics. Yes, it's true, I am a teacher that never learned phonics. That means that as I am teaching my students, I am learning along with them. As an early childhood student in California, I learned the whole word approach to reading. I learned a word from what it looked like, not because I was able to "sound it out." Unfortunately, this is very noticeable when I encounter a new word and I have no idea how to pronounce it. Thank goodness for the internet and dictionary.com that pronounces words for you! In my class, I teach phonics with certain strategies: word sorts, initial/ending sounds, blends, etc. I find it helpful, in particular, for my students that have IEPs (individualized education plans) in speech/language and for my ESL students (English as a second language).
Although I have this negative relationship with phonics, I don't necessarily think it's unimportant. There are many positive things about phonics that help us as readers. There are rules to follow, that usually work. But what happens when those rules don't work? They confuse us! Then you're not sure about how to read the new word. Do I follow the rule? Is it the exception to the rule? Who knows??? Better check dictionary.com . . . The other day I interviewed a colleague of mine, who has been working in education for almost 40 years. She is currently in the role of a long-term substitute for our reading specialist (who is on maternity leave). From her experience, she believes learning phonics by itself is useless. If you learn phonics while working on comprehension, then it is worthwhile. She was adamant about her feelings with phonics and how to teach it. I think I'll spend some more time interviewing her about some strategies!
Is phonics necessary? Did you learn phonics, or whole word, when you were young? How do you implement it in your instruction? Please help me . . .(Jaws music is continuing to play).
As a first grader, I remember seeing other kids in my grade having a workbook to teach phonics that my teacher didn’t use, but I still learned how to “sound out” words. I honestly can’t imagine not being able to sound out a word. Sure—there are words where phonics rules do not apply…the first time I encountered the word “segue”, I remember thinking “but se-goo isn’t a word”; I ultimately used the context to figure out the correct pronunciation. But I personally think it’s easier to know the rules and learn the exceptions versus needing to learn how to say every word.
ReplyDeleteI think phonics instruction is especially important when helping struggling readers learn how to decode. Current education policy places a strong emphasis on phonics instruction because of the National Reading Panel’s findings—and they explain how direct phonics instruction is “benefits both students with learning disabilities and low-achieving students who are not disabled”. That being said, I agree with what your (substitute) Reading Specialist says…although I would also be interested in learning more about what she means. For example, I understand how we can apply this thought when learning about prefixes (like un and dis), but what about when students are learning about individual graphemes? How can we give meaning to this?
I’m also personally overwhelmed with the variety of phonics programs. I’ve learned about Words Their Way in my graduate coursework (and so have the 2 other new teachers at my school—it must be a popular textbook nowadays!), and my Reading Specialist recommended Fountas and Pinnell’s Phonics book. I use Fountas and Pinnell during small group instruction and for literacy centers, and Words Their Way for spelling instruction. But since the NRP shies away from recommending a program, I think educators are left to wonder which program is the most effective while still bearing in mind student motivational issues.