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Embassy

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    Handwriting

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I am using Italic handwriting with my boys. Is there a program I can purchase that would allow me to type text in Italic and print off a paper for them to practice similar to a page in a handwriting book?

    Learning Sinhala

    in Bilingual Education Board

    Posted

    Kandy is where my dh grew up, a Sinhalese majority area, they are supposed to speak the best Sinhalese and can be a little snobbish about it too! He had a privileged childhood and has wonderful memories of that time... before the major strife began.

     

    I guess we had better get started learning the language then :) We have about 18 months before we move so hopefully we can step off the plane and be able to communicate some.

    Learning Sinhala

    in Bilingual Education Board

    Posted

    I am sorry I can't recommend a program. I just wanted to wish you good luck. My dh is Sri Lankan and can speak Sinhalese although he is an ethnic Tamil. I did try learning some Tamil a long time ago and gave up because all of my dh's relatives speak excellent English. Where in Sri Lanka will you be located?

     

    Thanks for the well wishes! I don't know for sure yet, but probably Kandy or somewhere nearby.

    Mathematical Reasoning from The Critical Thinking Company

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I've used PK-Grade 3 books. You can see a sample of a day here. I really like the program. That said I am switching to Singapore this upcoming school year. Why? My younger son has used the books since age 4 and he is now in the grade 2 book. Math (especially mental math) is his strong point and I am switching to a program that focuses more on mental math. My older son wants to pursue a career where math knowledge is very important so I want make sure he gets a stronger base. I do think Singapore will give him a stronger base, but I don't think he will enjoy it as much. But he realizes that he needs to be strong in math to have his dreams come true. Learning math through meaningful situations has really helped my older son "tolerate" math. As far as math facts go, you will need to supplement. Just doing the workbooks won't cement math facts. I definitely think the PK-1 books are better than the 2-3 grade books.

    Exercising inside

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    What activities do you do inside with your kids to give them exercise? I am need of some activities that won't cause a problem for our downstairs neighbors. They pretty much hear every footstep and when my kids run around it causes lots of pounding on their ceiling. Outside playtime isn't always an option. Ideas?

    How do you do read alouds...

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    You can do it that way. I have two boys that are 2 years apart and I have done read alouds together (mostly geared toward the older son). I am splitting them up for read alouds this coming year because they are more than 2 years apart in listening skills. I think it will work better and they will both enjoy one on one time. While one is listening to a read aloud the other will likely be doing something independent on the computer.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I think I'm following what you're saying. But I'm not sure you're seeing the distinctions that others here see.

     

    Using pure phonics and also reading (to the child) good books and sharing your love of books is phonics. The actual reading instruction is via a solid, systematic phonics program. The reading books to kids isn't meant to be reading instruction. I read books to my boys from babyhood like many parents. I didn't do reading (phonics) instruction until they were much older of course. We read great books all the time. But they are learning to read in a very systematic, explicit phonics way. They are loving it.

     

    Maybe we are seeing things differently. Reading to your children from babyhood is the start of reading instruction. Reading instruction doesn't start from the time you teach your child what sound a letter makes. It starts the moment you open a book.

     

    The first sentence, though, you wrote is not the same thing! Statistically, learning phonics in the context of real books is an unnecessarily risky approach to take for reading instruction.

     

    Can you see the difference between the two?

     

    But we all do this, do we not? If your child gets stuck or says the wrong word while reading don't we have the child stop and sound out the word? I think a balanced approach is best. While teaching phonics in isolation can make a huge impact on a child's skills, transferring the skills to a meaningful context is just as important.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I also think it is safe to say that all of us who teach phonics also read, read, read great books to our children:001_smile:.

     

    Then we probably aren't too different then ;)

     

    IMHO why take the chance of crippling a child's reading by not giving them the tools to decode?

     

    Whole language doesn't neglect decoding. It is just done through the context of the reading.

    As for inventive spelling, why risk them embedding the wrong spelling in their heads? I think it makes much more sense to teach combined spelling/phonics/syllabary IMHO.

     

    At least with my boys I have found creative spelling to be a tool for them to express themselves while they are learning how to spell. I value expression over spelling for little ones. I don't correct my 6 year old's spelling, but I do correct my 8 year old's spelling. Even without correcting his spelling he made huge gains in his spelling skills this past school year through exposure to phonics and books.

     

    I also do not know how credence I would place on one college course in all honesty as well.

     

     

    I'm not giving credence to the college course. I just learned about whole language from there. It wasn't a course I enjoyed either :)

     

    But I do believe there is something to the notion that some kids learn best in meaningful contexts. Many don't, but some do. If you try to fit a child into a box that is not their natural bent they may not like the subject as much as they would if it was taught in the way they learn best.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    You are making the illogical assumption that learning phonics means a child will not love reading, or that learning phonics means not using real books. The opposite is true and I hope that someday you come to realize that your university professors were wrong.

     

    If you are learning phonics in the context of real books then you are using elements of whole language. If you are using real books along with phonics or sharing your enjoyment of books by reading to your child then you are using elements of whole language.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    The reason I became a volunteer literacy tutor is because I love reading and I wanted everyone to be able to read and love to read. Through my years of tutoring and teaching and researching, I've come to believe that a love of reading is best encouraged through teaching phonics. And, I make phonics fun! I have a fun game I play and I laugh with my students at the funnier syllables in the syllabary. I also have some games we play with magnetic letters.

     

    I agree phonics can be fun.

     

    The only adults I've found who didn't enjoy reading were those that were taught with whole word methods. Also, the readers I've seen with children are generally those who are able to read well and were taught with phonics, although there are a few taught with phonics who do not like to read and a few taught with balanced literacy methods who are avid readers. I've met several adults taught with whole word methods who say that they like to read, but that it is tiring for them and that they cannot read at night, or if they read at night, it makes them fall asleep. Those taught with phonics usually say that a good book keeps them up all night!

     

    My webpage called "Why Johnny Doesn't Like to Read" explains how whole language teaching can cause a dislike of reading.

     

    Whole language and whole word are two different things. They are not the same thing. The Johnny Doesn't Like to Read article is talking about the whole word approach.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Don Potter once taught a class of disadvantaged student in K using no stories at all. (Majority ELL learners, majority school lunch.) He was helping out a first year teacher so just spent 20 minutes a day on pure phonics, no stories or reading aloud. At the end of the school year, half of the class was reading at a 4th grade level or above and they were all doing well, a huge contrast to how these type of student usually do.

     

    Interesting! According to this pure phonics correlates with increased ability to read. But isn't that only portion of what we wish for our children? Don't we wish for our children to love to read and enjoy literature? If a child can read at a 4th grade level and only reads when required, have we achieved much? Just yesterday I sat down and analyzed my children's reading progress this past school year and wrote about it here. While they both made gains it was the subjective things I witnessed that demonstrated true progress. Things like watching a child pick up a book and read instead of watching TV or discussing the ideas in a book at length are true progress in my opinion. And yes, I think reading to children and exposing them to literature will make reading a more desirable activity.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    The problem is, that this is simply not borne out in actual results.

     

    A funny thing, when you use a pure phonics approach, you end up with far fewer remedial students.

     

    All of the research shows higher and higher literacy rates the closer you get to a pure phonics approach. So you can have any opinion you would like, but that doesn't mean it is correct. You can't change the fact that more kids read better with pure phonics than anything else and the more sight words that there are in a program, the more kids will struggle. It is a plain and simple fact proven by a mountain of research.

     

    Unfortunately if teacher's colleges back up and admit to this huge mistake it is going to cost people their jobs and a good deal of money. So they continue to promote sight words and "whole language"(look-say by another name is still just as bad), and "incidental phonics" to the detriment of our children.

     

    Sight words and whole language are not synonymous. Whole language is a philosophy. Sight words is a method. Whole language believes in teaching through the overall meaning. From Wikipedia

     

    Whole language describes a literacy philosophy which emphasizes that children should focus on meaning and strategy instruction. It is often contrasted with phonics-based methods of teaching reading and writing which emphasize instruction for decoding and spelling. However, from whole language practitioners' perspective this view is erroneous and sets up a false dichotomy. Whole language practitioners teach to develop a knowledge of language including the graphophonic, syntactic, semantic and pragmatic aspects of language. Within a whole language perspective, language is treated as a complete meaning-making system, the parts of which function in relational ways.

     

    Whole word approaches teach sight words. From Wikipedia:

     

    The whole-word approach is a method to teach reading by introducing words to children as whole units without analysis of their subword parts. (Beck and Juel 2002) The whole-word method involves teaching children to “sight read" words, that is, to be able to pronounce a whole word as a single unit.(Mayer 2003) Whole-word instruction involves associating word names with printed words. By repeated exposure to words, especially in meaningful contexts, it is expected that children will learn to read the words without any conscious attention to subword units. Hence, whole-word recognition, or the development of a whole-word vocabulary, is a goal of whole-word instruction.

     

    Dare I say that most of us teach using both whole language and phonics. Many of us utilize good books as a way to develop further language arts skills. Reading books to young children utilizes the whole language approach as well. Many of us believe in the importance of reading to our children to develop literacy - that is a whole language idea. At the same time many of use utilize phonics instruction. Whole language does work well with phonics instruction. Sight words, on the other hand, is a specific approach that makes little sense for long term reading success.

    Whole Language vs Direct Instruction

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    I started tutoring remedial reading 16 years ago with Whole Language methods. It sounded great for all the reasons you stated; they made it sound exciting, I love reading, and I am a big picture person.

     

    After a month of no progress faithfully adhering to these methods, I switched to phonics. My student made more progress in one hour of phonics than her previous month of whole language.

     

     

    I agree that remedial students would best be served with a phonics approach. I think whole language works best with kids who internalize the rules. Those kids may not learn the specific rules, but when they see a word they know what sounds the letters make. But, IMO, combining the methods gives you the best of both worlds.

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