Hello,Anyone have any thoughts on the mini phonics and spelling program that Flesch describes in Why Johnny Can’t Read?I need something to remediate a young man who is going into HS next year.Is this too outdated or is he on target as far as what should be included in a phonics program? I can’t afford a tutor but really want to get some remediation in over the summer.Thanks
Victoria-re:invention of writing
If you are interested, here are two papers available on the internet on the invention of writing that build upon the work of Denise Schmandt-Besserat (an archaeologist focused on the rise of writing in Mesopotamia):
http://viking.som.yale.edu/will/finciv/chapter1.htm
http://chalaux.org/epdduk10.htm
I printed these out recently and gave them to an accountant friend to back up an assertion a celebrated financial figure recently made that accounting is the foundation of civilization.
Re: Rudolf Flesch
Want to get the man on proper meds, myself. I mean, Ken Goodman is even worse on the WHole Language side because he rants and raves but doesn’t botehr with logic… but Flesch did more to help whole language with his ranting and raving than any ten sight word advocates. Both sides lose in any war. (Wait, my banjo is somewhere…)
I agree with VIctoria — there’s nothing wrong with it but there’s easier stuff to work with out there. Let’s Read by Bloomfield & Barnhart is one of many good choices.
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Good book. He tends to the polemic, but after all the fights people here have had with the system, fifty years after this book, hey, he was right to be mad.
Phonics is never outdated! It works, has worked, and will continue to woirk as long as we have alphabetic writing — one of the greatest inventions ever.
I was just reading about the invention of writing; in Sumeria, ancient Egypt, and China even today, it took/takes *ten years* for the *good* student to learn to read, without a good sound-symbol system. Repeat, phonics is never out of date.
The tutoring program in Why Johnny Can’t Read is a good basic outline. Two problems that come up: (1) Reading list after list is boring. Hard on both the child and the tutor. More detailed programs include some sentence reading as soon as possible. BUT I disagree extremely strongly with the idea of having kids memkorize words so they can read sentences; this is called shooting yourself in the foot, we’ll teach phonics except for real reading we won’t — bad move. Teach the “high-frequency” words phonetically too. (2) This is a do-it-yourself program where you have to handwrite or type all the lists and word cards etc. You can save a lot of effort by buying some good basic phonics materials, not always the most expensive either.
Email me if you want an outline of what I do and materials I use.