Anyone know anything about Pegasus II Reading Program? I searched the net to learn it’s published through Kendall Hunt and is a literature based program with a PA and skills component. I saw that Carol Santos, former president of IRA is the author. Seems she revised a program already created by teachers. Our school is adopting it for the elementary grades. I remember when Santos was president of IRA she seemed pretty anti-phonics, but that was maybe 5 or more years ago. I noticed a word building and spelling component in Pegasus II. The site mentioned it being ‘research based’ but didn’t reference or link to the research so I don’t know what’s been published or if it’s been peer reviewed. She’s coming to our school to train teachers and will be available to parents as well. Thanks for any info. Keila
Re: Pegasus II
Thanks, Sue. Looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, walks like a loon, and smells like a week-old fish of false and misleading statements— the typical commercial make-a-buck with a cute sales pitch.
In my experience, a lot of whole language offerings are being modified to get a “PA component” in there. Peachy keen. Generally the folks who are “anti-phonics” can’t bear exactly the kind of systematic structure that a few too many kids need. It’s “kill and drill” to them. (Which would be fine if *they* were the students, but they’re not.)
Because enough students out there will figure out reading no matter how you present it to them (at least up to about fourth-fifth grade level, when most research and reading instruction does a fast fade), it isn’t hard to get a “research base” that says students (that is, *some* students — a significant number unless you aren’t among them) learn with your program. If you can’t even cite it, though, I gotta wonder.
I’d expect a “re-purposing” of whole language to reflect recent marketing forces — but scratch the sales pitches and you’ll get the same thing that looks like a whole language duck, walks like a whole language duck, and leaves a few too many students like loons on land.
(Loons’ legs are designed so much for swimming that their legs are angled back instead of at 90 degrees, so the critters have real trouble getting anywhere on land.)