The (Pointless) Rush to Read

[JoJosMom]

Here's another interesting article, this one from the NEA on The Reading Rush.  

[OneStepAtATime]

Agree

[Arcadia]

The part quoted below from the article is reality here in public schools and the gap never close for most. Academic preschool has taught phonics, the Frys sight words and some writing. My district managed preschool teach ASL as well.

 

Curriculum (textbooks and workbooks) would need to be re-written so that no reading ability is assumed. So no word problems until end of 2nd grade for example. Language Arts and social studies workbook would have to have less words.

 

"The school year starts with a significant disadvantage among kindergartners, too, because some don’t know how to write their names to others reading a few sight words. Some students come from an academic preschool setting while others come from the arms of baby sitters who rarely exposed them to books."

 

ETA:

In a classroom of 30 or more kindergarteners, it is a chicken and egg problem.

Edited April 22, 2016 by Arcadia

[JoJosMom]

The part quoted below from the article is reality here in public schools and the gap never close for most. Academic preschool has taught phonics, the Frys sight words and some writing. My district managed preschool teach ASL as well.

 

Curriculum (textbooks and workbooks) would need to be re-written so that no reading ability is assumed. So no word problems until end of 2nd grade for example. Language Arts and social studies workbook would have to have less words.

 

"The school year starts with a significant disadvantage among kindergartners, too, because some don’t know how to write their names to others reading a few sight words. Some students come from an academic preschool setting while others come from the arms of baby sitters who rarely exposed them to books."

 

ETA:

In a classroom of 30 or more kindergarteners, it is a chicken and egg problem.

 

This is tragic.  A large number of children are doomed to be classified as "behind" or "slow" or whatever the label du jour is when what they really are is ... normal.

[Arcadia]

This is tragic. A large number of children are doomed to be classified as "behind" or "slow" or whatever the label du jour is when what they really are is ... normal.

My district and a few others does not think kids are behind until end of 2nd grade (8 years old) so no one is tested for dyslexia unless parents request testing. Whatever negativity to the "late" reader is by the other parents

 

The problem is math word problems start in K. The teacher can work through a few on the white board but the rest is seat work which a non-reader would find difficulty reading and have to guess from pictures.

The social studies worksheet my kid brought home in K is about 2 to 3 short paragraphs long comprehension passage and he did it in school. It was seatwork to be completed in school or at home.

English seatwork was not as hard as it is more of copy work and writing expectations aren't high.

The aim was reading level C at the end of K

 

That was why I said curriculum needs to be friendly to late readers since the teacher can't read to the kids for everything unlike in a homeschool environment. More pictures, more verbal for K and 1st.

 

There are districts giving remedial reading help from K of course. As each has their own policy.

[regentrude]

The push to more academics at earlier ages in this country is completely ridiculous. Not only is it developmentally inappropriate, it is also completely ineffective. I have not seen any data that support that the kids who are put into all day schools at age 5 and drilled in reading come out academically ahead at, say, age 10,  compared to their peers from countries where formal schooling does not begin until age 6 or 7.

It does not accomplish anything and does a whole lot of damage.

Edited April 23, 2016 by regentrude

[Junie]

Interesting article.

 

My dd5 is in kindergarten this year.  She is not reading yet, but knows a few sight words.  She is just starting to figure out how to sound out words.  It's tedious.   :001_huh:

 

But, she is in 2nd grade math.  I have to read the instructions and word problems to her, but she is able to do the arithmetic.

 

This kid would have so much trouble if she were in school.

[MerryAtHope]

Loved this quote from the comments section:

 

 

I keep telling friends that there is something wrong with a culture that spends billions of dollars to pay adults (professional sports) to PLAY, but we don't want five year-olds to play; we want them to hurry up and learn to read and write!

 

 

Edited April 23, 2016 by MerryAtHope

[Tsuga]

Interesting article.

 

My dd5 is in kindergarten this year.  She is not reading yet, but knows a few sight words.  She is just starting to figure out how to sound out words.  It's tedious.   :001_huh:

 

But, she is in 2nd grade math.  I have to read the instructions and word problems to her, but she is able to do the arithmetic.

 

This kid would have so much trouble if she were in school.

 

If she were in the wrong school.

 

My daughter was at exactly that level in K. "Tedious" is putting it nicely. She did have homework, she did have math, but she didn't have to read sentences. This year are the first sentences (short) in 1st.

 

That article, that sweet little boy in the picture with so much potential. I just want to hug him and say SWEETHEART YOU ARE DOING SO AWESOME. I am so proud of all the work you are putting in here! Look at all this energy you have! That is great, you keep putting that into exploring, you are going to get to Mars someday!

[Arcadia]

Below quoted are from California's common core state standards for Kindergarten. Don't know enough about phonics to judge age appropriateness.

 

"2. Demonstrate understanding of spoken words, syllables, and sounds (phonemes).

a. Recognize and produce rhyming words.

b. Count, pronounce, blend, and segment syllables in spoken words.

c. Blend and segment onsets and rimes of single-syllable spoken words.

d. Isolate and pronounce the initial, medial vowel, and nal sounds (phonemes) in three-phoneme (consonant-vowel-consonant, or CVC) words.* (This does not include CVCs ending with /l/, /r/, or /x/.)

e. Add or substitute individual sounds (phonemes) in simple, one-syllable words to make new words.

f. Blend two to three phonemes into recognizable words.

 

3. Know and apply grade-level phonics and word analysis skills in decoding words both in isolation and in text.

a. Demonstrate basic knowledge of one-to-one letter-sound correspondences by producing the primary sounds or many of the most frequent sounds for each consonant.

b. Associate the long and short sounds with common spellings (graphemes) for the ve major vowels. (Identify which letters represent the ve major vowels [Aa, Ee, Ii, Oo, and Uu] and know the long and short sound of each vowel. More complex long vowel graphemes and spellings are targeted in the grade 1 phonics standards.)

c. Read common high-frequency words by sight (e.g., the, of, to, you, she, my, is, are, do, does).

d. Distinguish between similarly spelled words by identifying the sounds of the letters that differ"

http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/finalelaccssstandards.pdf

[Kassia]

One of my sons was slow to learn to read.  He was probably around 7 1/2 before he really got it.  Now, he's 21 years old and a voracious reader and is absolutely brilliant.  If he had been pressured to read before he was ready (he went to ps), it would have been disastrous.  He would have been so frustrated and he would have labeled himself as a failure.  He never would have thrived the way he has if he had been pushed to read earlier.  

 

Erica