Phonics Exposed

Download or read book Phonics Exposed written by Richard J. Meyer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2001-11 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What are the implications of teaching phonics via a systematic direct intense program that mandates all children to experience the same scripted lesson at the same time? This book addresses the question through an in-depth play-by-play description of a phonics lesson as it occurred in a real classroom, followed by chapters that look at it from different angles by "zooming in" on one facet to analyze it closely: *Reading. What is reading? What definition of reading is presented (implicitly) in the phonics lesson? What do competing definitions from the reading research literature say about how important phonics rules are and how they are used by readers and teachers of reading? *Teacher knowledge. What is the role and the place of teacher knowledge as it relates to the lesson? What are the skills a teacher has and needs to use in a lesson that is completely scripted ? *The children. What are their roles and positions during the lesson? What are they learning? *Curriculum. Where does the phonics curriculum come from? Curriculum in general? Who does it serve and how? What is its purpose? * Culture. What is the role of culture in the lesson? How do cultural differences and culturally relevant pedagogy relate to the scripted phonics lesson? *Politics and ideology. Why and how is everything that happens in schools political? How are scripted lessons and resistance to them, forms of political action? *Teacher professionalism. How can teachers act in order to maintain academic freedom expressed as professional decision making in classrooms? The author of this book is not neutral. He presents the difficulties a teacher encounters in implementing mandated systematic, direct, intense phonics instruction and children who are confused and frustrated by it. But at the same time he constantly presents hope in the form of smart teachers, curious children, and possibilities for taking action that can lead to change. His direct, accessible writing style stimulates thought and discussion.

Download or read book The Linguistics, Neurology, and Politics of Phonics written by Steven L. Strauss and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-01-15 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book explores the driving forces behind the current government-sponsored resurrection of phonics, and the arguments used to justify it. It examines the roles played by three key actors--corporate America, politicians, and state-supported reading researchers--in the formulation of what Strauss terms the neophonics political program. Essential for researchers, students, and teachers of literacy and reading, and for anyone seeking to understand what is happening in U.S. public schools today, The Linguistics, Neurology, and Politics of Phonics: Silent "E" Speaks Out: *analyzes the political nature of the alleged literacy crisis in the United States, through an investigation of the political and corporate motives behind the renewed focus on phonics, and media complicity in promoting the neophonics political program as the solution to the so-called crisis; *examines the scientific claims of neophonics, including methodology, linguistics, and neuroscience, and exposes the flaws in its reasoning and the weakness of its arguments; *addresses the scientific, empirical investigation of letter-sound relationships in English (of phonics itself), and demonstrates the complexity of the system and its associated benefits and limitations in the theory and practice of reading; *proposes actions to help make a return to politically undistorted science and to democratic classrooms a reality; and *introduces, in a postscript, a formal analysis of the letter-sound system, using empirically based rules to convert one finite set of elements, the alphabet, into another, the phonemes of the spoken language. Offering up-to-date information and an original critique, this book makes two important contributions. One is the policy analysis linking government agencies, policymakers, and corporate interests. The second is the neurological and linguistic treatment of why traditional phonics programs are not the solution and why the rhetoric developed to support their resurgence is so far off the mark.

Download or read book Getting Ready for Phonics written by Judith Harries and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Everyone agrees that an understanding of phonics is essential to cracking the code for reading. Getting Ready for Phonics discusses early language development. It focuses on the phonics debate; and provides activities to support multi-sensory learning environments for the teaching of phonological development in the Foundation Stage and early Key Stage 1.

Download or read book Literacies written by Mary Kalantzis and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2016-08-11 with total page 569 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With the rise of new technologies and media, the way we communicate is rapidly changing. Literacies provides a comprehensive introduction to literacy pedagogy within today's new media environment. It focuses not only on reading and writing, but also on other modes of communication, including oral, visual, audio, gestural and spatial. This focus is designed to supplement, not replace, the enduringly important role of alphabetical literacy. Using real-world examples and illustrations, Literacies features the experiences of both teachers and students. It maps a range of methods that teachers can use to help their students develop their capacities to read, write and communicate. It also explores the wide range of literacies and the diversity of socio-cultural settings in today's workplace, public and community settings. With an emphasis on the 'how-to' practicalities of designing literacy learning experiences and assessing learner outcomes, this book is a contemporary and in-depth resource for literacy students.

Download or read book Reclaiming Reading written by Richard J. Meyer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-03-22 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Inviting teachers back to the role of reflective advocates for thoughtful reading instruction, this book presents theory and pedagogical possibilities to reclaim and build upon the knowledge base that was growing when government mandates, scripted commercial programs, and high stakes tests took over as the dominant agenda for reading instruction in U.S. public schools. Focusing on literacy learners’ and their teachers’ lives as literate souls, it examines how the teaching of reading can be reclaimed via an intensive reconsideration of five pillars as central to the teaching and learning of reading: learning, teaching, curriculum, language, and sociocultural contexts. Reclaiming Reading articulates the knowledge base that was marginalized or disrupted by legislated and policy intrusions into classrooms and provides practical examples for taking good reading instruction out of the cracks and moving it back to the center of the classroom. Explaining what happens in readers’ minds as they read and how teachers can design practices to support that process, this book encourages teachers to initiate pedagogy that will help them begin or return to the stance of reflective, knowledgeable, professional decision-makers.

Download or read book Affirming Students' Right to their Own Language written by Jerrie Cobb Scott and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2009-06-02 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Co-publication of the National Council of Teachers of English and Routledge. How can teachers make sound pedagogical decisions and advocate for educational policies that best serve the needs of students in today’s diverse classrooms? What is the pedagogical value of providing culturally and linguistically diverse students greater access to their own language and cultural orientations? This landmark volume responds to the call to attend to the unfinished pedagogical business of the NCTE Conference on College Composition and Communication 1974 Students’ Right to Their Own Language resolution. Chronicling the interplay between legislated/litigated education policies and language and literacy teaching in diverse classrooms, it presents exemplary research-based practices that maximize students' learning by utilizing their home-based cultural, language, and literacy practices to help them meet school expectations. Pre-service teachers, practicing teachers, and teacher educators need both resources and knowledge, including global perspectives, about language variation in PreK-12 classrooms and hands-on strategies that enable teachers to promote students’ use of their own language in the classroom while also addressing mandated content and performance standards. This book meets that need. Visit http://www.ncte.org for more information about NCTE books, membership, and other services.

Download or read book The Great Reading Disaster written by Mona McNee and published by Andrews UK Limited. This book was released on 2012-02-20 with total page 419 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By the late 1980s half the nation's children were receiving eleven years of progressivist schooling that failed to give them even the elementary basis of education that was completed by the age of seven in earlier days. This great reading disaster was caused by the ‘look–say' method of teaching, which presented whole words not individual letters. This book explains the causes and provides the solution to this problem. In 2006, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills has ordered schools to use the phonic method but there seems little evidence that its implications are properly understood or that any serious re-training programme for teachers is being put in place. The authors believe their explanations and recommendations in this book are thus needed just as much as ever.