How is reading taught in schools?

[ReadingMama1214]

There's so much talk of phonics on the boards and I've used phonics to teach my dd how to read, but I was wondering how most schools do teach reading? I know my friends kids in k have lists of sight words to learn and that they teach to look at context and pictures to "guess" words, but I was wondering what phonics they actually taught. I know kids learn letter sounds, but do they learn vowel teams and digraphs as well? I can't imagine how a kid would learn to read without that knowledge?

[UCF612]

The schools I know of do teach phonics (digraphs, etc) combined with a ton of sight words and I guess you'd call it context reading (looking at the picture, etc). I'm sure there are vast differences depending on teacher, school, district, and state.

[Farrar]

Most schools around here seem to use a combined approach - phonics and sight words and some whole language type activities (invented spelling writing, games, etc.). I know that, at least in our district, about a decade ago they shifted toward using more phonics based on the research.

 

I think there's not one approach though - it varies a great deal from place to place.

[Daria]

The current thinking in the schools I've taught in is a philosophy that is called "Balanced Literacy", which basically means that students should have a variety of experiences in a given school day that give them experience with all 3 cueing systems (meaning, orthography, and phonics) as well as explicit instruction in how to balance (or as I tell my students) juggle them.

 

So, rather than focusing heavily on one set of cues, like in a phonics first program, or a sight word program like Dick and Jane, or a Whole Language program, students are encouraged to use all 3 types of cues almost from day 1, and are given explicit instruction in how to juggle those 3 sets of cues. 

 

Because students are using all 3 sets of cues, and because there is an emphasis on juggling, kids develop their phonics skills more slowly in the very beginning.  For example, in the first months of Kindergarten, kids who aren't yet reading might spend a few months in books where all they need is initial sound cues, before moving on to consonant digraphs and blends, and to reading CVC words.  By the end of Kindergartener who is on track will have likely mastered those 3 skills, as well as about 100 sight words, and the 3 most common suffixes (-ed, -s, -ing).  Vowel digraphs and dipthongs come later.

 

 

[ReadingMama1214]

The current thinking in the schools I've taught in is a philosophy that is called "Balanced Literacy", which basically means that students should have a variety of experiences in a given school day that give them experience with all 3 cueing systems (meaning, orthography, and phonics) as well as explicit instruction in how to balance (or as I tell my students) juggle them.

 

So, rather than focusing heavily on one set of cues, like in a phonics first program, or a sight word program like Dick and Jane, or a Whole Language program, students are encouraged to use all 3 types of cues almost from day 1, and are given explicit instruction in how to juggle those 3 sets of cues.

 

Because students are using all 3 sets of cues, and because there is an emphasis on juggling, kids develop their phonics skills more slowly in the very beginning. For example, in the first months of Kindergarten, kids who aren't yet reading might spend a few months in books where all they need is initial sound cues, before moving on to consonant digraphs and blends, and to reading CVC words. By the end of Kindergartener who is on track will have likely mastered those 3 skills, as well as about 100 sight words, and the 3 most common suffixes (-ed, -s, -ing). Vowel digraphs and dipthongs come later.

Balanced literacy is a term I've heard mentioned at several of ou local schools. It seems to be what they use.

[Lecka]

My daughter continues to be introduced to vowel digraphs through 2nd grade.

 

To some extent -- I think K is getting comfortable with sounding out words and short vowels. 1st grade has a lot of "silent e" and long vowel sounds.

 

Then second grade a lot of the rest of phonics is being covered and sounding out words is supposed to be smooth and long vowel sounds with silent e are supposed to be smooth.

 

And then yes with sight words at the same time.

 

So I think I would say to my K mom self, they are doing it more slowly than I would have expected, and they are not doing it with fully decidable readers.

 

But they are doing phonics pretty steadily.

 

Spelling lists are organized around spelling patterns and tie in to the reading curriculum, but that doesn't show up in Kindergarten.

[Ellie]

There's so much talk of phonics on the boards and I've used phonics to teach my dd how to read, but I was wondering how most schools do teach reading? I know my friends kids in k have lists of sight words to learn and that they teach to look at context and pictures to "guess" words, but I was wondering what phonics they actually taught. I know kids learn letter sounds, but do they learn vowel teams and digraphs as well? I can't imagine how a kid would learn to read without that knowledge?

 

Most public schools today use some variation of sight reading; for awhile it was renamed "Whole Language," but I don't know if that's the current term. That's just a fancy term for sight reading--memorizing whole words with a few phonetic things thrown in for good measure. Children who are very bright and very visual will learn to read with almost any method, but most children need phonics. It is why reading/literacy scores in the U.S. are so poor.

 

A good book that explains it all is "Why Johnny Still Can't Read."

[Tanaqui]

There are many, many kindergartens and first grades in the US. They don't all use the same methods!

 

With that said, the fashion right now does tend towards "a little bit of everything" or, as said upthread, "balanced literacy" - some phonics (not necessarily done in an organized fashion or consistently), some sight words, some encouragement of guessing via context and pictures. For spelling, that means a lot of keeping journals, not much emphasis on learning spelling - invented spelling is just fine.

 

Personally, I think it's probably better to pick one method and stick with it, and the one I'd pick for teaching many many kids is definitely phonics*... but I'm not an expert.

 

* Using phonics readers that are as interesting as possible, and also having plenty of time for reading aloud of higher-level books the kids aren't expected to read on their own yet. Many proponents of balanced literacy claim that phonics training is boring, and they do have a point, but you can send the message that reading is fun and enjoyable in other ways.

Edited February 20, 2017 by Tanaqui

[maize]

My son's kindergarten class teaches basic letter sounds and sight words.

[Arctic Bunny]

Mine both started with Jolly Phonics in ps. They were both reading before K, but we did our homework and they really enjoyed it, lol!

[OneStepAtATime]

My kids are homeschooling now and I haven't kept up with what is currently happening.  When the kids were still in school though, the schools here were teaching letter sounds, a little bit of a mishmash of some very rudimentary phonics in kinder and 1st but primarily sight words.  Lots and lots and lots of sight words.  The sight words were far more emphasized than anything else and that was from kindergarten onwards.

[xixstar]

Our schools uses Fundations phonics for instruction but there is still a lot of memorization of high frequency words - my dd's teacher will admit they're not sight words because there are phonics rules for majority but they are introduced before students learn those rules.

 

The order they introduce phonics and how they combine sounds/letters for "glued sounds" is a little odd to me. We still use AAR at home because I feel like that is a much more thorough approach and will be mor helpful in the long run.

[Bluegoat]

They use a mix, here.  Not a logical one, particularly.

 

But the reading resource teachers use phonics with kids who fall behind.

 

I think it does make sense to use something of a mix, but what I've found is that if I use a phonics program and include reading books within that, the kids learn some sight words and use contextual cues anyway. 

[SKL]

Every school I've been involved with has taught phonics.  Most also teach sight words side-by-side.  The emphasis and timing vary, but I've not seen a school that taught words before letter sounds.  It used to be a thing back my parents were little.  I also remember them coming out with the "whole language method" that attempted to teach whole sentences first.  Which frankly would have worked for one of my kids, but was generally acknowledged to be a failure as far as group teaching.  :)

[JulieA97]

My son is in a PS magnet in Kindergarten.  He started K already knowing letter sounds and sounding out CVC words.  We were just about 1/3 way through AAR Level 1 at home.  He starts school and is assessed at level A.  When I sent her a message and included a page of the AAR reader he had just finished she said that is phonics which is fine but he needs to learn the other methods.  He didn't use his finger to point to each word, missed 2 words in the book and didn't use the pictures to figure out the unknown words.  So Level A.  Ridiculous.  He is now Level F but only because he is bright and figured out how they wanted him to read (looking at the pictures) and I told her he was reading Go Dog Go months ago and that is a Level F book.  I don't think she believed me but had him read a section of a Level F book at their middle of the year assessments.  If I had not pushed her, I think she would not have tested him on a Level F book.  At the end of Kindergarten they are supposed to be at Level D and I get the feeling she would have only tested up to that point. 

 

They do sight words and a letter sound a week.  It seems to be very heavy on context clues.  I feel like they pay lip service to phonics.  But so far it seems to be just using phonics to figure out the beginning sound and then using the pictures or context clue to figure out the rest of the word.  Or sight words-his sight word list included words like It and At.  It. makes. me. nuts.  That is why I am continuing to do AAR at home and will continue to do so. The nightly books he brings home I make sure he understands why make is make for instance (silent e).   My mom was commenting that she was taught whole language.  She is a great reader but when she comes to a word she doesn't know, she can't sound it out.  She has no idea what sounds individual letters make. 

 

ETA:  One of his Level C books was about the immune system.  It had words that in no way could have been sounded out at Kindergarten age.  And yet Go Dog Go is Level F.  Because it relies less on pictures and more words that can be sounded out and sight words.  That seems to be backwards to me. 

Edited February 20, 2017 by JulieA97

[MinivanMom]

Our local schools use a combination of phonics and sight words simultaneously. How that is implemented varies greatly between teachers and schools. Some teachers are really aggressive about pushing the Dolch sight words and give very little time to phonics. Other teachers are emphasizing phonics and adding in phonemic awareness activities. But all teachers are required by the district to test their kids on the Dolch sight words so they are unavoidable, and they can be problematic for kids who haven't mastered reading yet. Lots of parents around here teach their kids to read phonetically before kindergarten to try and avoid the issues. 

 

[MistyMountain]

From what I seen with friend's kids it is more sight word heavy with some phonics thrown in. The word whole language was used from one of the schools I toured. When they start reading they send kids home with these very predictable books with the first few words the same and the last word is different with a picture. It seems to be a mix of predicting based on context clues and pictures at first, sight words with some phonics thrown in but not much. There was a few that used an OG method for classrooms for kids with learning challenges but it got the axe.

Edited February 21, 2017 by MistyMountain

[frogger]

Up until recently the neighboring school district where my MIL worked used Spalding so definitely a strong phonics program in case you aren't familiar. They added in other things like Reader's Theater and sight word games but I think they did make changes recently.

[ReadingMama1214]

Up until recently the neighboring school district where my MIL worked used Spalding so definitely a strong phonics program in case you aren't familiar. They added in other things like Reader's Theater and sight word games but I think they did make changes recently.

I'm impressed. Our classical charters use Spalding, but not public schools.

[DesertBlossom]

My kids attended a "back to basics" type public school that used Spalding. I became a believer. My mom had taught for 20 years in a different school and she started teaching Spalding on her own in her 2nd grade class because she thought it worked so well. She was the one who encouraged me to send my kids to that school solely for Spalding.

[umsami]

Our local schools use phonics + a gazillion sight words.  Usually, Kindy needs to know the first 150 Fry, then those are repeated in 1st grade but it goes up to 200 or 250.  

 

They are also heavily into computerized teaching.  I-Ready is the local favorite.  

[alisoncooks]

Balanced Literacy was what was being being taught when I was going through the elem. education program at university, 15 years ago. In my classroom, we had a district chosen reading program, that included certain phonics skills (specific sounds taught per unit) and sight words. Sight words were still heavily pushed -- we had a Word Wall in every first grade room. I also used programs like Making Words and Four Blocks. It was more of a "throw everything at them and hope something sticks."

 

https://www.amazon.com/Making-Words-Grades-Multilevel-Hands/dp/0866538062/ref=sr_1_8?ie=UTF8&qid=1487696921&sr=8-8&keywords=Working+with+words

 

https://www.amazon.com/Teachers-Guide-Four-Blocks-Grades/dp/0887244947/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1487697010&sr=8-1&keywords=Four+blocks

[Elizabeth 2]

The schools my boys were in used the Read Well program. It combines phonics, sight words and using pictograms to get gets reading. My kids and the teachers liked the program, except the amount of writing it required fairly early on. Their teachers were pretty cool though and one used HWT out of her personal funding which was effective.