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It's obvious that reading requires a lot of "seeing." But children seem to be seeing fine in all their daily activities and so little or no thought is given to the fact that reading imposes a range of visual demands that many children have not mastered. As a result, in contrast to "sounding out," which receives endless attention, visual skills are almost totally ignored in the teaching of reading.
You can see the price children pay for the teaching failure when you see them
i. using their fingers to track the words they are reading because they have not learned how to track with their eyes
ii. sounding out words they just sounded out one or two lines before because they cannot recall what they have just seen
iii. inaccurately spelling words they can read because they have not developed a complete image of the letters in the words
iv. getting high marks on their spelling tests, but then forgetting those words a couple of weeks later because they do not have the visual system in place that is required for long-term recognition
v. spelling the same word in different ways from one time to the next because there is no solid recognition of the component letters
vi. using capital and lower case letters in an indiscriminate manner because they fail to "see" the patterns that govern their use. Parents are often troubled when they see these sorts of behaviors. Typically their concerns are downplayed with well-intended statements such as "there is no need to worry because the children will pick up the skills as they mature." This rationale to calm the parent serves a dual role. It helps to sustain the idea that the visual skills will somehow take care of themselves and develop on their own. When this does not happen, the foundation is in place to claim that there is something awry in the child. The failure in the teaching has been translated as a deficiency in the learner and one more casualty is added to the learning disability population.
If children are to succeed in reading, it is essential for us to provide them with careful instruction in the many visual demands that reading makes. Phonics Plus Five has been uniquely designed to offer this instruction, with fabulous results for both the children's reading and writing abilities.
The shabby state of reading in our nation is nothing new. Government figures consistently show approximately 40 percent of bright, capable children have trouble in learning to read. Each times these sorts of figures are published there is the call to "go back to basics." Behind this advice, is the firm, but unfounded, belief that way back, our country was in fine shape with literacy and that the current failure is based on having deviated from the practices of those older days.
Admittedly, for a couple of brief periods in our history, some other forms of reading instructions were attempted. One was whole word teaching (where children were to learn whole words rather than sounds); another was whole language teaching (where children were to read whole books right from the start). These efforts were even more unsuccessful than the phonics instruction they were designed to replace and their tenure was brief. So for almost the entire history of our country, phonics has held sway. Hence, the call to "go back to basics" is essentially a plea to continue doing what we have been doing for generations. The reasons why the basics don't work are easy to identify if you spend some time looking at what children are offered. Major holes pervade the system. To take but one example, let's consider a group of words that permeate our language. These are the "little words" such as was, who, he, they, of, what, were, do. For phonics instructors, these words are 'renegades' that fail to 'obey' the rules. If the words chose to be reasonable, was might be spelled as wuz, who as hoo, he as hee, they as thay, of as uv and so on. So minimal time is spent teaching them.
The lack of attention is justified by telling children that these words have no meaning; indeed, they are often encouraged to skip over them. If we follow that advice, it means that the sentence you just read would be experienced as: lack attention justify tell children words meaning encourage skip. Were your agenda to be a lack of comprehension, you would be well on your way.
Not only are the words deemed to be meaningless, they are also deemed to be rare--that is, their total number is minute relative to the range of all other words. After all, why spend time on things that are so exceptional?
Except not these exceptions. In fact, about 100 of these little words make up 50% or more of any page of print -regardless of whether the book is for a first grader or a college student. This small, seemingly insignificant set of words actually forms the backbone of language. Without them, we simply cannot create meaningful sentences. That's why they represent practically every other word we read--or write. Failure to provide children with adequate training in this realm seriously compromises their chances for success. Comparable difficulties exist in every other one of the six essential skills required for reading.
It was understandable that educators a couple of centuries back failed to take account of the many skills underlying literacy. The knowledge base was simply not there. Nowadays, there is no such excuse. The advances in cognitive science, linguistics and related realms provide a gold mine of resources. Yet for the most part, they have been ignored as children continue to be confronted with out-of-date programs that breed unconscionable rates of failure. For the health of our children and our nation, it is time for reading instruction to enter the 21st century. That is why Phonics Plus Five has been created. It is designed to go "beyond the basics" and provide children with the full range of skills they need to become truly competent readers and writers.
The comedian George Carlin has a special gift for making us laugh at language. Here are a few of his great lines.
"I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?
Why do the signs that say "Slow Children" have a picture of a running child?
Is there another word for synonym?
What does it mean to pre-board? Do you get on before you get on?
When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands.
Why do we sing "Take me out to the ball game," when we are already there?
Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
How do you get off a non-stop flight?
Why is the third hand on the watch called a second hand?
Daylight savings time - why are they saving it and where do they keep it?
Do you think that when they asked George Washington for ID that he just whipped out a quarter?
Isn't it a bit unnerving that doctors call what they do "practice"?
Parents Warned Over TV That was a recent headline in England announcing a new report by a psychologist Dr Aric Sigman. He reviewed over 30 scientific studies that identified as many as 15 negative effects that excessive TV watching can have on youngsters. They included childhood obesity, eyesight problems and hormonal changes. Dr Sigman was particularly concerned about the fact that many young children now have televisions in their bedrooms--thereby permitting endless hours of watching.
The report did not cite reading problems as one of the potential dangers. But in my experience, too many hours of TV watching play a key role in this area as well. The ability to sit back and do nothing for hours at a time sets in place a passive mind-set which works against the active processing that effective reading requires. It's like suddenly having to do heavy exercise when all you've been doing is lounging around.
There Is no problem with carefully selected, time-limited TV programs. They can be a wonderful addition to a child's life. But if you want your child to be a successful reader and a successful student, you would be wise to take this report to heart and control TV time so that it serves to enhance, rather than detract from, your child's potential.
The Question: I am devouring your book The Reading Remedy. I am wondering if the book has the complete package or if it is missing anything that would be in the pre-packaged version of Phonics Plus Five. Amy C.
My answer: The book, The Reading Remedy, outlines the theory behind the program and it provides information on full range of techniques it uses. However, it is far from complete. It would have taken hundreds of pages to provide all the materials that are offered in the kit. Parents who have the time and ability to create appealing materials can use the information in The Reading Remedy to construct the full program. By contrast, the packaged version of Phonics Plus Five has all the materials--ready to go--in an attractive, easy to use form.
If you're like most parents, "What did you do in school today?" is probably the first question you put to your child at the end of the day. And if your experience is like that of other families, it's likely that the query serves mainly as a conversation-stopper.
Most parents cannot understand why. The question, asked with the best of intentions, seems so simple! Are the children just being ornery? Did they do something awful in school that they do not want to talk about? Are they so tuned out that they don't know what happened?
Occasionally, those conjectures are relevant. Usually they're not. The question is far more complex than appears on the surface and it truly stymies many children. It only seems simple because you already have the skills to come up with an appropriate answer. And as with any skill that's been conquered, there is amnesia for the process that got you there. For example, do you remember how you learned to talk, or how you learned to read, or how you learned to play a sport? With rare exceptions, this type of knowledge is irretrievable.
Still you might be wondering, "Where is the complexity in the question?" The answer is "all over the place." For a start, to be answered effectively, the question requires the child to take numerous events distributed over hours of time, and then organize the myriad of details in a fashion where those that are insignificant can be deleted (e.g., getting on the bus, going to lunch) while those that are significant (e.g., doing an art project, learning a new type of math problem) can be selected. Then he or she has to find the single preeminent event that captures the day and put it into one or more sentences that the listener can comprehend. Further, this is taking place in conversation where there are built-in time constraints. If the interchange is not to break down, the child has to do all this in three to five seconds.
So the question is far from simple. That's why it's appropriate to view it as "the tip of an iceberg"--a marker for something much larger and potentially destructive. Basically, the processes that the question calls upon are the same as the processes required day-in and day-out throughout a child's life. When? In dealing with reading comprehension. If a child is unable to master these demands, reading success is doomed.
The connection, though, is rarely realized. The question "what did you do in school today?" starts getting asked when the child is only a preschooler. Reading comprehension, on the other hand, is generally on the back burner until a child reaches third to fourth grade. The gap of several years makes it seem as if these are totally unrelated skills.
The connection is also hidden by the focus on decoding that dominates early reading; that is, recognizing letters and being able to look at clusters of letters and come up with the words they represent (c-a-t is cat). As in the famous title, The Cat in the Hat, the words are simple and comprehension does not seem to be an issue. It is only when the message gets much more complex--and that occurs around fourth grade, that comprehension issues become obvious and the focus finally shifts to this important arena. However, if little has been done prior to fourth grade, children can face disaster. The new demands plunge them into a morass of complexity for which they are unprepared.
Ideally, the basis for effective reading comprehension should be established early--well before the child has to read complex material. That is why Phonics Plus Five has been designed to offer unique well-designed comprehension activities that start once the child is past the earliest levels of reading. The activities titled Gleaning Meaning teach children how to extract and present the main idea--the lynchpin of effective reading comprehension. This is one more activity that enables Phonics Plus Five to provide the comprehensive system that from the get-go teaches the full range of reading, writing, and comprehension skills a child needs for academic success.
Question: Please explain how this program will help a child with visual memory problems. Is it possible to review some sample products? I have a student who cannot remember the name and/or the sound of letters.
-- Teacher in Bethlehem, New Jersey
My answer: This is one of the problems that Phonics Plus Five has been specifically designed to address. The answer to your question requires a detailed response and you can find it in The Reading Remedy, the book I wrote to explain my system.
The introductory chapters and the material on visual sequencing and Sequences in Sight will give you the answer to your question. You will also find the chapters of Writing and Letters to Write of use since carefully designed writing activities greatly facilitate the development of visual memory. In the third section of the book, you will find all the information you need to construct the Sequences in Sight program (the one that starts the training of visual memory)--so that you will have a sample product right there and then. (It is easier to construct than are some of the other programs and so it should not take you a great deal of time.) By the way, while some teachers and parents are creating the full set of programs (based on the information in the book) almost uniformly we are told that the complete kit is a delight to use and saves enormous amounts of time).
Do you have a question?
Feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer.
Question: What should I be doing in a lesson when I ask my child to do something and he does it wrong or just sits there and does nothing? --Lynn M., mother of a five year old.
My answer: I'm so pleased you asked that question because handling this type of situation correctly is one of the keys to success. One of the first things you will notice about Phonics Plus Five is that the programs are designed so that your child will be able to do most things correctly and the number of errors will be low. This is invaluable in setting the right motivation. In every activity, when errors do occur, you will see instructions telling you what to do. The instructions are likely to be different from patterns you are used to. Frequently, when children make errors (for example, not reading a word correctly), parents say, "Try again" or "Sound it out." or "You think that is ...?. Essentially, parents do what was done to them when they were children--they insist that the child independently come up with a corrected response—without providing any cues that help the child succeed. Although the intentions are only the best, the situation is stressful because it offers the child no real support to get past the error.
Believe it or not--it is far more helpful to tell your child that his or her answer is wrong. There is nothing amiss in telling someone that they have made a mistake, particularly when you move on immediately to offering assistance. So your next step is to provide the correct answer. Then your child repeats and completes the particular item—this time using your model to answer in a correct manner. All this is done in a calm, neutral, accepting tone. You will be amazed to see how this approach relaxes your child and encourages learning.
Do you have a question?
Feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer.
"Some people there are who, being grown; forget the horrible task of learning to read. It is perhaps the greatest single effort that the human undertakes, and he must do it as a child."
- John Steinbeck (1962 Nobel Prize Winner for Literature)
My comment: If you'd like to generate an interesting discussion with friends or family, simply pose the question, "Do you remember how you learned to read?" Typically, there is a pause, a bemused smile and then a statement to the effect, "I really don't know." The fact of the matter is that almost no one has a clear sense of how he or she learned this vital skill. While we're unaware of how our learning took place, typically we are keenly aware of the emotions we felt during the process. For the fortunate ones who found reading to be a breeze, the memories are sheer joy. They happily recall the pride and power they experienced at conquering what they rightly sensed was a very special skill.
For those who found the process to be difficult, the emotions are equally sharp—but of a very different nature. For them, as Steineck says, the task was "horrible." One author, writing of her partner's difficulties in reading used the following words to describe the pain that pervaded his life, "School had been unremitting torment for him. The scars left by his school experiences reached down to his very soul. No amount of love or admiration on her part ever totally erased his low self-esteem or the conviction that he was unable to learn." AN ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LOVE , M.Schell , Picador New York 1999.
Fortunately we have the power to prevent that pain and suffering. But we can use that power only if we recognize that the difficulties are not the result of problems in the children. Rather they are the result of the inadequate and incomplete methods that have for so long dominated the teaching of reading. As the phrase Phonics PLUS FIVE indicates, six essential skills must be taught if children are to have the tools they need. When, as in the Phonics Plus Five programs, those skills are taught in a systematic, controlled, appealing manner, success is there for all to attain.
"If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 40 people in his office at one time, all of whom had different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom teacher's job." -- Donald D. Quinn
My comment: All parents and a few privileged professionals have a unique opportunity that classroom teachers can only dream of -- they can offer one-to-one interaction. But to get the most out of this interaction, it is vital to provide carefully structured activities that are matched to the child's abilities. Phonics Plus Five has been designed to give you those activities so that the valuable time you spend leads to steady, smooth progress.
"My daughter was struggling to learn how to read. At the end of first grade she was far behind and losing self-confidence. She found success with Dr. Blank's reading program which has helped her to quickly catch up. The stories really captured her interest and, as she started to read more fluently, she wanted to read more."
-- Dori Walton, parent
"Our son is dyslexic and had been struggling to read ever since he started school. Recently his teacher called to tell me how thrilled she was with his progress. He is now reading at grade level. We attribute his success to Dr. Blank's reading programs. It has had a tremendous effect on his reading, on his education and on his self-esteem."
-- Sheila Fay, parent
Read more testimonials >>
Here are some quotes on reading from the hilarious comedian Stephen Wright:
I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.
A lot of people ask me if I were shipwrecked, and could only have one book, what would it be? I always say "How to Build a Boat."
If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?
I wrote a song, but I can't read music. Every time I hear a new song on the radio I think, "Hey, maybe I wrote that."
I'm writing a book. I've got the page numbers done.
I got stopped by a cop the other day. He said, "Why'd you run that stop sign?" I said, "Because I don't believe everything I read."
People often ask me how, after decades of work, I continue to feel so passionately about reading. The answer is simple: I believe that reading is the single most important skill an individual can learn.
In elementary school, a story in the history books that "hit home" for me concerned the extraordinary and often brutal efforts slave owners expended in keeping their slaves illiterate. It was not difficult for me to understand their dreadful motivation. From the time I was in kindergarten, I had witnessed the devastating consequences of not being able to read. Many in my family had immigrated from poverty-ridden villages in Eastern Europe where there was no opportunity to go to school. Their illiteracy was a recurrent source of shame and helplessness. Among my early memories is one where my aunt writes an X on an official piece of paper and then, with downcast eyes, steps aside so that my father can authenticate what she has done by putting a "real signature" underneath.
These experiences showed me the power reading grants when it is achieved and the devastation it inflicts when it is not. These experiences made reading central in my life and I have had the good fortune to be able to pursue my interest in this area through the four decades of my career.
When I started out, I assumed that literacy in our society was a given. So rather than focusing on ways to teach the skill, I chose to research fascinating issues such as the ways literacy affects the mind.
Over time, I came to realize my assumption had been wrong. Literacy was far from a fait accompli. Unbelievable as it seems, government reports consistently show that approximately 40% of normal, healthy children are failing to learn to read. Failure rates of this magnitude are not signs of problems in the children. They are signs of problems in the teaching. It is vital that the instructional system be changed--and changed dramatically. At the same time, we know that established institutions such as schools do not readily adapt to change. The change can only happen through pressure outside the system from informed citizens.
In the realm of literacy, we do have a group who can make this happen. That group is composed of the millions of parents whose children are failing. They are unbelievably committed to their children and desperate to offer them success. But they have not had the information they need. Once they do, they can become an enormously powerful force in bringing about change.
So my focus has shifted. I now believe that my efforts must be devoted to creating user-friendly, effective programs that will enable parents to offer academic and life success to their children. It may seem wildly ambitious to take on this broad a task. But as Margaret Mead so eloquently stated: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
I recently received a question from a teacher in Australia that is exciting, heartwarming and indicative of great commitment to others.
The question was:
I wonder if any work has been done using the reading program with adults? One of my plans is to use it with young offenders, many of whom cannot read or write. It is my theory that if they could it would open up the world a little more for them and reduce their frustration and anger and feelings of worthlessness.
My answer:
Few emotions are as painful to the soul as not being able to read. At the same time, few emotions are as positive as finally being able to attain that goal, particularly when it has been given up as all but lost. So you are absolutely right in thinking that opening up the world for the young people you are dealing with can make a huge difference. Fortunately, the program can be used successfully in the way you outlined. Before I use the program in this way, however, I always show the prospective students the materials and explain that the "look" is not right because they have been designed with young children in mind. I add that if they are willing to accept these limitations, the materials usually work well. Further, I tell them that they will know in about six to eight weeks if their effort is paying off. Generally, that is about the time it takes to begin to see reading and writing take hold. The effects are quite strong and the students themselves readily see the gains.
P.S. Before closing, I would like you to know that once we have sufficient funds, one of our goals is to design a program that would be totally suited to the students you have in mind.
Do you have a question?
Feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer.
Did you ever see a young child--or perhaps not so young a child--using an index finger to point at the words while reading? Oftentimes, children do this because this practice is encouraged in school. Unfortunately, it's not a wise suggestion since effective reading requires us to use eye movements if we are to effectively scan lines of print. Finger pointing can delay this development.
While it's not the best practice, many children spontaneously go beyond what they are told and make the necessary shift so that they are scanning the lines of print with their eyes and not with their fingers.
Many others, however, do not. Their visual scanning is so weak that finger pointing is the only way they have of scanning a line of print without losing their place. Is this a problem? Yes! Is this seen as a problem? Rarely. Visual scanning is one of the many visual-motor skills that play a significant role in successful reading. However, conventional wisdom focuses almost exclusively on phonics and sounding out skills as THE route to reading. As a result, visual scanning --like many other vital skills -- rarely receives the attention it deserves.
But no child need wait for teaching practice to change. There are simple practices you can use to put things right. In one technique, you have the child read a short segment while you hold a blank, white card under each line that the child reads. You steadily move the card along as the child finishes a line. It might be necessary as well to gently hold the child's hand to prevent it from creeping up and going under the words. Then, once the segment has been completed, you ask the child to read it again--–this time with the card removed. Of course, if necessary, continue to hold the child's hand if he or she starts to move it up under the words.
You can complete three or four segments in this fashion. (The length of the segments will depend on the child's reading level, but generally the entire session will cover about three to four pages. In a book for a first grader, the amount of print on three to four pages will naturally be much less than that in a book for a third grader.) There should be about four to five sessions a week.
Once the child is comfortable with reading while the card is under one line, you modify the technique so that the card is placed to expose two lines of print. Then when the child is smooth at that level, you move to showing three lines of print. Generally you do not have to go beyond three lines to get the child's scanning to a satisfactory level.
How long should you use this technique? Generally it will take about two to three months for visual scanning to become smooth and automatic. However, as with all Phonics Plus Five techniques, it all depends on the child's performance. You continue to offer the support until you see that clear progress has been achieved and the child readily accomplishes effective scanning without your help and without resorting to finger pointing.
Some teenagers were discussing the strategies they use when a teacher asks a question they cannot answer. With a smile, one boy said, "You know what I do? I raise my hand." Seeing the amazed expressions that he hoped he would get, he immediately elaborated. "It works. If the teacher doesn't call on me, she thinks I know the answer. And if she does call on me, I say, 'Excuse me. I didn't hear the question.' Of course, she repeats the question. But she never stays with the same student for two turns. So she calls on some other student and never realizes that I didn't know the answer."
This student, like most students, is attuned to one of the most harmful forces that exist in the teaching/learning setting. That force is the destructive power of error in learning. Ironically, it is a force that is almost totally unrecognized--even though it permeates classrooms everywhere. Perhaps error is so obvious that it seems unnecessary to mention it. Regardless of the reason, error is rarely given the attention it merits. It is the invisible 800-pound gorilla who doggedly blocks the path to learning.
Nowhere is this force more pernicious than in reading. Children are terrified by the sight of pages they cannot read and by comprehension questions they cannot answer. The success of any reading program depends on how well it limits the number of errors children make and on how well it overcomes the inevitable errors that will occur.
The error dynamic involves much more than just making mistakes. Mistakes, in limited quantities, are a normal part of the learning process. But when mistakes begin to dominate that process, their meaning is different and pernicious. Then a multi-dimensional force takes hold that includes a sense of helplessness, the anxiety of being exposed and the repeated shame of making mistakes in front of others-- including powerful authority figures and one's peers
A few feisty souls, like the teenager at the start of this article, are emboldened to create ploys to deal with the error dynamic. For many others, however, the following comment summarizes what often happens.
School had been unremitting torment for him... The scars left by his school experiences reached down to his very soul. No amount of love or admiration ...ever totally erased his low self-esteem or the conviction that he was unable to learn. (Scheil, M. An Encyclopedia of Love, NY Picador 1999, p. 136).
It is not hard to see how children are so dramatically affected by this error dynamic. The potential embarrassment and shame of your peers seeing you fail can be unbearable. Think back to your experiences in the classroom when you did not know the answer and prayed the teacher would not call on you. Remarkably, that fear lingers on-- for years after our school days are distant memories. It's why adults avoid sitting in the first row in a lecture hall--they want to make sure that just in case the speaker asks a question, they are not the ones who might be called on to answer.
Fear is not the only problem. Children who experience high rates of error see this as incontrovertible proof of their stupidity. Once that feeling takes hold, its grip is tenacious. The child's self-esteem plummets, often never fully recovering.
Parents and teachers sense the children's vulnerability and with the best of intentions, try to bolster their egos via compliments such as, "but you are really smart," and "look at how many things you do well." Unfortunately, the comments rarely achieve their intended effects. As one student put it, "If I were really smart, they wouldn't have to keep assuring me of it."
So what is to be done? How are we to dislodge the gorilla so that the path to learning is cleared? The answer rests with preparing tightly designed materials that minimize the errors that occur. It also rests with providing techniques that easily move the child past any errors that do appear. These are the principles behind the design, materials and techniques of Phonics Plus Five. It allows the program to not only teach children to read, but to do so in a climate where they can relish the feeling of steady success. The end result is a sense of power and mastery that motivates them to keep advancing in both reading and writing.
Here is a question from parents that we often get asked:
I have a son of 12 years of age with dyslexia and he has a reading age of a 7 year old. Would this program be helpful to him?
The answer:
Phonics Plus Five is likely to be useful since it has helped many children with dyslexia. The best way to make that determination is to use the free Skills Assessment test that is on the website under the tab Is It Right for You? Just follow the directions offered there.
If you find that it is appropriate and do start Phonics Plus Five, it would be advisable to do the Sequences in Sight component--along with whatever other components you will be directed to use. Usually Sequences in Sight is taught before a child has acquired any reading skills. However, visual sequencing skills are seriously neglected in the teaching of reading and children with dyslexia pay a particularly heavy price for this neglect. When you use Sequences in Sight, you can significantly help dyslexic youngsters strengthen these skills. That can be of enormous assistance to them.
Do you have a question?
Feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer.
Four Meny Thee Ansor Iz NO! Butt R Thay Rite?
Thomas Jefferson in a letter to his daughter offered the following advice about spelling: Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary.
Today's world presents us with a dramatically different scene. The bad news is that vast numbers of schools see accurate spelling not only as unnecessary, but actually undesirable. The good news is that you can adopt techniques that can get children over the hurdles that this change has imposed. Let's start by determining the source of the 180 degree turnaround that has taken place since Jefferson wrote his note. In large measure, the change reflects the influence of whole language--an approach that teaches literacy via motivating activities that include lots of creative writing. Following principles set forth by Glenda Bissex in her influential book GNYS AT WRK (i.e., "genius at work"), the idea--termed "invented spelling" -- is that children should be permitted, even encouraged, to write words in whichever way seems right to them. The rationale is that freed from having to deal with difficult rules, children will embrace the printed word.
Doubters of this approach are told that when children learn to speak, their language is regularly marked by what adults deem as mistakes, such as a toddler saying "foots" for "feet." Over time, without any correction, the "mistakes" naturally drop away, to be replaced by "correct" (conventional) language. We are assured that the same self-correction will take place in written language--if we simply resist intruding. So in some ways, "invented spelling" might be more aptly described as "temporary spelling."
Regardless of the terminology, this has become the dominant method for early writing. Its adoption is remarkable, given the fierce battles that have been fought between whole language and its nemesis-- namely, phonics instruction. In phonics teaching, which emphasizes the sounds of words, accuracy is everything. There is no way a teacher from this camp will accept a child's misreading of words.
Since phonics requires accuracy in reading, you might expect adherents of phonics to also expect accurate writing, but that is not the case. The same teacher who insists on accurate reading will comfortably accept inaccurate spelling. Somehow, a pact has been created that enables the two camps to co-exist in the same classroom.
Though the co-existence may appear illogical, in fact, whole language addresses a significant flaw in phonics. The vast majority of words in English can, based solely on their pronunciation, be spelled in a variety of ways. For instance, a simple four-letter word such as tall, could easily be spelled taul, tawl, or taull.
The sounding out rules required for reading English number into the hundreds. Not an easy task. The sounding out rules for writing, however, are even more complicated and more numerous. For example, in reading, a single rule can explain how one sound is applicable to all the following combinations er, or, ur, ir, and ure (as in worker, actor, fur, irk, and picture). In spelling, however, the same clusters require the application of several rules. The teaching problems melt away if we can trust to the dictum to let children invent their spellings and to rely on normal development to do the rest.
Despite assurances to the contrary, accurate spelling has not emerged as a natural, painless consequence of invented spelling. For huge numbers of children, even those who can read fairly well, spelling is a disaster zone-- showing not occasional, inevitable mistakes, but instead chronic writing problems where errors are rampant.
"Disaster" is an appropriate description of this situation if you believe, as I do, that accurate spelling is important. Accurate spelling has enormous power to enhance a child's learning; conversely, inaccurate spelling has an equally enormous power to diminish that learning.
One example of why spelling matters can be seen in the bounty of homonyms in the English language (words that sound the same but are spelled differently and have different meanings). Some familiar ones are:
pail-pale; son-sun; bough-bow; bare-bear; see-sea
fowl-foul; meat-meet; night-knight; made-maid ; ate-eight
few-phew; hole-whole; sense-cents; air-heir; ail-ale
great-grate; hire-higher; gate-gait; knew-new; road - rode
They also extend to word combinations such as
a parent -apparent; you're-your; I'll-isle; away--a way
they're-there; he'd-heed; align- a line
When children are not attuned to precise writing, they are at a huge disadvantage in picking up minute differences in spelling that have major effects on meaning such as in the sentences below.
The son was nowhere to be seen. The sun was nowhere to be seen.
In other words, when children fail to write with accuracy, they are often unprepared to see, with accuracy, the meaning in the words others write. Then it is not simply spelling that suffers, but comprehension and vocabulary as well. Accurate spelling is the handmaiden to accurate reading. When it is not there, reading suffers mightily.
Indeed, children often cannot read the invented spelling texts they themselves have written. There may be no apparent problem if the child reads the story immediately after writing it, as the ideas are still fresh and specific letters are sufficient cues to enable the child to recall the intended message. But if more time passes, with no short-term memory to assist their efforts, the children are often unable to read that same material. The result then is anything but the pride of authorship that whole language intended
Clearly, the system needs to change and that will happen only through informed citizens working towards that goal. But until that happens, the necessary change has to take place outside the system--in the home.
Parents represent an unbelievably dedicated group with the will and ability to achieve this goal. If some of the considerable time they spend with their children on school assignments is used to introduce new and better techniques, powerful change can take place.
A key source for that change can be found in an area that has been overlooked--largely because it does not play a role in either whole language or phonics. That area is visual sequencing and memory. This is the skill that good spellers steadily rely on for their prowess; it is the skill that enables them to look at a word and know immediately if it is spelled correctly or not.
While few children will reach the level of an expert speller, with the right two-step process, it is possible to go a long way towards that goal.
-- When a child has trouble with a word, the first step is to write the word down and show it to him or her. Allow all the time needed for the child to take in the information. What you are doing is providing a correct visual model of the word. This fosters visual analysis and is far more effective in developing correct spelling than is the usual practice of "spelling" a word by saying aloud the letters that make up the word.
-- For the second step, remove the visual model and ask the child to write the word from memory. If it is correct, that is great and you can move on. If it is not correct, you repeat the process. At no point is the child permitted to simply correct the particular letters that might be incorrect, absent or misplaced. The key is to have the child produce the full word correctly at one time, and not to permit piecemeal corrections.
This approach can be extended in a number of ways. In one approach, after the model has been removed, in place of asking the child to reproduce the whole word, you show an incomplete model of the word.
For example, for a word like rescue, the child might see __ e __ c u __. The child then has to fill in the appropriate letters to create the complete word. When this is repeated several times, each time with a different set of missing letters, the child's grasp of the letter relationships in the word gains considerable strength.
As a child's writing accuracy improves, this approach can then be extended to longer and longer segments so that the child becomes proficient in correctly writing whole sentences and sets of sentences.
It is worth noting that, at least for a while, it is useful to put some "tried and true" practices on hold. One such practice is the ubiquitous suggestion to "go to the dictionary and look it up." Dictionaries are wonderful resources, but for someone whose spelling is weak, a dictionary can be a torture chamber. A child may plod through the requested search when an adult is there to insist upon it; when that same child is alone, however, he or she will not initiate a comparable search. And strategies that a child fails to apply independently, even though the skill is there, are generally ones to be avoided.
The suggestions offered here do not meet Jefferson's challenge to "never spell a word wrong." But in this age of spell checks, his demand seems excessively stringent. Still and all, his words are useful in focusing us on the pandemic spelling problems that children have been saddled with by current methods of instruction and in stimulating us to develop alternative tools that will grant children success in this vital area.
Parents often write to me to tell me about ideas they have that make the teaching in the Phonics Plus Five sessions move as smoothly and effectively as possible. Here is one of those ideas.
"My husband and I share the teaching and we have set up a three-ring binder where, each session, we store the worksheets our son has completed. That way, for any new session, all we have to do is go to the binder and see what has been done. That tells us exactly what lesson to do next. The binder also keeps the papers in perfect order."
When parents see their child struggling with reading, they naturally turn to the teacher to find out what is happening. Often the response is, "You shouldn't be concerned. He is right in the middle of the class." Typically, the parents' instincts tell them that this answer is not satisfactory. And their instincts are absolutely on target.
For a start, 40% of children across the nation struggle in learning to read--so any child in trouble is automatically likely to be "right in the middle"--along with the many other children who are experiencing difficulty.
Further, reading achievement scores often fall far short in terms of the information they provide. Generally they are designed to yield a score which says whether a child is reading at grade level or not. But even when a child is reading at grade level, his or her reading may be marked by a range of difficulties that have serious implications for the child's ability to progress in reading. These include: regularly guessing at words (and coming up with ones that are not correct), reading without any attention to punctuation (so that sentences run into one another rather than conveying a clear message); reading in a slow, plodding manner (so that the words don't come together to form real ideas). And that's not all. A child's progress can be plagued by a whole other set of problems in spelling and writing.
When you see these and other difficulties, you should be concerned. Even though a child's reading score is officially at grade level, his or her reading future is precarious. So the difficulties should be addressed as soon as possible. That is what Phonics Plus Five has been designed to do. It has been carefully crafted to provide all the skills a child needs for fluent, error-free reading and writing--and to do so via short, easy lessons that offer the joy of total mastery.
The low levels of U.S. students' reading achievement in international comparisons have led to a lot of controversy. Some have used the less than stellar scores as evidence that American schools are failing disastrously. Others say that the problems are overblown. It is clear, however, that we are far from being number one. If you want to learn more about this issue, you can turn to an interesting discussion available at the Center for Public Education. http://discussions.centerforpubliceducation.org.
It is useful to keep in mind that from the perspective of an individual child, large scale comparisons are not really where it's at. Even if lots of other kids in the nation are having problems, that does not ease the burden and anxiety that each child feels at doing poorly. The goal and dream of all parents is rightly to get their children to the best level of reading possible. That is what Phonics Plus Five is designed to do.
Parents of children in special education know well that if their children are to get the best services possible, they have to become strong and effective advocates. If you are in that group, you may be interested in COPAA, the Conference of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, that will be presented from March 1-4, 2007, in Baltimore, Maryland. It is focused on developments in the law, advocacy training, and strategic approaches to planning that meet government regulations. You can learn more about this important topic at http://specialedlaw.blogs.com/home/
A parent just wrote and asked me some great questions and I wanted to share my answers to her with you. Here's what she wrote:
"Hello, and THANK YOU for writing a book that I am sure you had my child in mind for! We homeschool 3 of our 5 children and I am just starting to teach our 5 year old the basics to reading and wondered if I could use your program exclusively or is it designed to use in conjunction with traditional phonics programs? In other words do I need to supplement your program with regular phonics instruction?"
Here is what I replied
While Phonics Plus Five works beautifully with other programs, you can use it exclusively and there is no need to supplement it with any other program. The program has been designed so that the child learns all the key sound and letter clusters --without requiring any conscious memorization of complex rules. As you and your child work through the various levels, you will begin to see your child decode words he or she has never seen -- that is one of the clearest signs that he or she has begun to "crack the code" and intuit the sound patterns of the language. That is the surest, easiest and simplest way to learn to read successfully.
Do you have a question?
Feel free to email me, and I'll do my best to answer.
Hi!
Welcome to my new blog where I will be posting news about my reading program, as well as other education news and sites that I think are exciting. The vision that guides my work is that every child can be a successful reader and writer and I will do everything I can to bring parents and educators the news and information they need so that this vision can become a reality. I'll let you know what's new on the site, and also point you to advice and information that our users of the program have been providing me about ways to enhance the use of the Phonics Plus Five.
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